Question to the Premier on government advertising in regional newspapers

Mr FATCHEN (Mount Gambier) (15:54): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier advise when the commitment to advertise in regional newspapers will commence? With your leave, ma'am, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr FATCHEN: At the Country Press SA awards earlier this year, the Premier committed to placing a full page of government advertising every week in every regional newspaper.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (15:54): I thank the member for Mount Gambier for his question. It is an important commitment to regional press in South Australia, which remains an absolutely critical lifeline for sharing of important information independently within regional communities, and that is obviously why the government is supporting it. I will give a bit of context and then I will answer specifically the details of the member for Mount Gambier's question.

At the 2022 election we committed to spend 10 per cent of our government advertising expenditure in regional communities. We honoured that commitment. Some of the feedback we got from some regional newspapers and Country Press SA was they would like to go to a different model—notwithstanding the uplift they have enjoyed through the previous one—that would see government buying full-page ads on a regular basis in regional newspapers. I made that as an election commitment at the Country Press SA awards earlier this year and we are in the process of enacting that commitment.

I can say to the member for Mount Gambier in response to his question that we are formally starting that arrangement, having had a period of negotiation to implement it, at the beginning of the financial year, i.e. next month. That applies to all Country Press SA newspapers. But I can also advise the member for Mount Gambier there are a number of other regional publications that are also getting the benefit of this which aren't part of Country Press SA—I understand, namely, Stock Journal and also the Naracoorte Community News, which the member for Adelaide will be pleased about.

But I can also advise the member for Mount Gambier, as he would be keen to know, that The SE Voice, which is a digital publication, has also engaged with the South Australian government through the hub to look at what a digital version of that support can look like, given they don't have a physical newspaper. That is something we are very keen to engage on and we are actively facilitating those negotiations.

I make this point: regional newspapers throughout our state, which are often independently owned or part of bigger groups, are really important. They support local journalism in a way that has a lot of currency and trust with local communities, which means they have a power and a value. That is worthy of recognition.

When we think about bird flu, for instance, clearly there will be public advertising and public messaging that the government will want to get out there in regional communities, and that could potentially be a good reason for those types of advertisements. Tragically, we know other campaigns require disproportionate investment in regional communities—take, for instance, road safety messaging, where we know, tragically, that more people from regional South Australia lose their life to a car accident than people from metropolitan Adelaide.

Investments like this make sense. Country newspapers are a source of trust in their communities and we are very keen to support them at every opportunity. I take this chance to thank various leaders of Country Press SA who we work with in the government, but particularly local journalists who often start out their craft in journalism at a regional newspaper and make a valuable contribution to their community and, more importantly, to the discourse throughout South Australia. People love nothing more than reading their son's or daughter's sporting results on the weekend or reading a success story from a local small business. It is often regional press that provides the vehicle to do that and we thank them for it.