Dear Editor,
It was a pleasure to attend the Rural Press Club of Victoria’s 2024 Rural and Regional Journalism and Photography awards at the Bendigo Town Hall recently and I would like to congratulate the winners.
It was great to see journalists from across Northern Victoria acknowledged, including Allan Murphy from the Sunraysia Daily; Darren Chaitman from the Euroa Gazette; Darren Howe from the Bendigo Advertiser; Chris Earl from the Loddon Herald; Emma D’Agostino, Danielle Bonica and Josie Taylor from ABC Central Victoria; and Madeleine Stuchbery from the Weekly Times.
Media has a very important role in our society and in politics.
In politics it is to provide transparency in government, and currently we have a State Government that loves media headlines.
Credit where credit is due, over the last decade they have been really good at it. It is keywords like ‘blitz’, ‘big’ and ‘free’ that still attract plenty of media coverage.
They recently spruiked a major road funding ‘blitz’ using the same media release from the past three years, and plenty of media outlets ran the story without question.
Their ‘Big’ Housing Build is more like a big fail. Despite having 60,000 people on the social housing waitlist, they seem more focused on demolishing homes than building them.
The Allan Labor Government spruik ‘free’ kindergarten and forget to talk about the many millions of dollars being spent by local councils and ratepayers trying to deliver it.
At the awards one journalist described the state government as very secretive, and I certainly agree.
In the lead up to state elections they’ve made big promises, but now they’re refusing to provide the details behind the failed Commonwealth Games and continue to progress the $200 billion Suburban Rail Loop without any details on where the money is coming from to pay for it.
Journalists have a very important role. Thank you to every journalist who looks for the details beyond the catchy headlines.
Yours sincerely
Gaelle Broad
The Nationals’ Member for Northern Victoria
Media Contact: Linda Barrow 0484 303 764, 4436 4777
