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The Moorabool News – 25 January, 2022 Page 3
What’s the scoop on news? The Guardian report went on to say that ‘by April 2020, ACM had announced the suspension of many of its regional mastheads. Its 14 daily papers continued, but many country towns were left without a local newspaper.’
A new online survey from Federal Parliament is asking Australians, including Moorabool residents, for their thoughts on news access in regional, rural, and remote areas. The ‘Australia’s Regional Newspapers’ survey is part of a federal parliamentary inquiry into regional newspapers, with concerns that local news production has decreased in recent years. Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts, Dr Anne Webster MP, asked regional Australians to take part in the survey and have their say. “Over the past ten years, news outlets in rural, regional and remote communities have closed their doors, which has resulted in a substantial reduction of articles covering local issues,” Dr Webster said. The Moorabool News editor Helen Tatchell said there was a reason why some news outlets had closed. “It must be made clear that many of those that closed are heavily linked to the big players, Murdoch’s News Limited
ACM, which bought Rural Press group in 2018, owned 138 regional newspapers before the Covid-19 induced downturn. Dr Webster said it is important “we listen to our communities about what's important to them”. publications and Australian Community Media (ACM). It’s all about the dollar, not community for them,” she said. “To rub salt into the wound, the federal government then funded some of these publications to open again for two years. A report in The Guardian said, ‘ACM was awarded more than $10m to continue publishing more than 100 regional newspapers through the covid pandemic, but even before the Public Interest News Gathering (PING) grant deed was signed it was closing or scaling back titles.’,” Ms Tatchell said.
“I encourage anyone who lives in Australia’s regional, rural or remote areas to participate in the online survey.” The survey asks 13 questions, including how you access news, whether you prioritise local or national news, and what medium you find local news in. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and is open until 11 February. To have your say on regional news access, visit www. surveymonkey.com/r/WPVW256 or, to make a submission to the parliamentary committee go to www.aph.gov.au and search regional newspapers.
Honour for living legend Moorabool’s Citizen of the Year (from page 1) Mr Closter’s nomination for Citizen of the Year came from one of his close friends, Barry Tanner. “Bob’s done a terrible amount of work with the Pony Club, it was very big at one stage when Bob was President. He does so much for the kids, coaching…if they had any problems they’d go around to Bob’s house and see him, and he’d fix a broken gate or fence, or solve a problem with a horse,” Mr Tanner said. “Even to this day he goes out and has a look at horses for people, he goes up to Pony Club all the time…he used to drive a tractor up there until recently. If you wanted to find Bob he’d be on the tractor up there cutting the grass. He spent hours and hours helping out, he’s just one of those people. “He’s a real down to earth person, there’s no crap or anything like that. He’s just a good guy.”
In 2019, Mr Closter was just one of three people nationally to be awarded Pony Club Australia’s ‘Living Legend’ Award. Celebrations will be held on Wednesday 26 January and this year to ensure a safe event, the Shire’s official Australia Day Celebrations will be closed to the public. “We invite everyone to join the live stream commencing at 9.30am on our Facebook page,” a Council spokesperson said. The festivities include: • Australia Day Award Presentations • Australian Citizenship Ceremony Fellow recipients of the 2022 Australia Day Awards in Moorabool include Karen Pinder (Mayoral Award), Trevor Crawford and Susanna McPherson (both Certificates of Appreciation).
Bob Closter with close friend and nominator Barry Tanner. Photo – Lachlan Ellis
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