Source: Australia Government Statements 2
I acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people as traditional custodians of the lands of the ACT and region.
Thank you for having me here tonight as part of the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association.
1985, when the Association began, capped off an intensely notable period for traditional media.
Only a decade or so earlier, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward broke the biggest story of twentieth century American politics in the Watergate affair.
Following on from other earlier, transformative, moments in print journalism like Oriana Fallaci, whose work from Mexico, Greece and Vietnam earned her reputation as the most feared interviewer in the world.
Or the work of Sunday Times journalists in 1972, campaigning for compensation for those affected by Thalidomide in the United Kingdom.
Here of course, we remember Catherine Martin, in the West Australian, winning the first ever Gold Walkley in 1978 for her front-page report on the high rates of illnesses and death among workers at the Australian Blue Asbestos mine in Wittenoom Gorge.
Phil Dickie’s articles for the Courier Mail in 1987, which exposed rampant police and government corruption, leading to the Fitzgerald Inquiry, and the eventual resignation of Sir Joh.
Alan Tate, and Paul Bailey writing in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1989 and exposing the high levels of the toxic chemical benzene hexachloride in Sydney’s fish, linked to the then long-practice of using the ocean to “purify” the city’s sewerage.
Television, and radio, also reigned.
In the United States, we had a movie star president in Reagan – who understood the power of the televisual medium for influence, and reach.
Our leaders also took to the small screen, with the first ever televised debate between Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Opposition Leader Andrew Peacock in 1984 globally, more than 1.9 billion people tuned in to watch the live broadcast of Live Aid – close to 40 per cent of the world’s population at the time.
And sitting down for the evening news was an event for the whole family, watching anchors who were more than newsreaders, but voices of authority, and people you could trust.
When I think of the media in 1985 in Australia, I think of Jana Wendt, George Negus, Ray Martin.
What change has happened in the sector since 1985, change which you have seen, which you have experienced, lived through, managed and survived.
The rise of the internet, and the ability to carry all the knowledge of the world in one’s pocket, or bag, has disrupted, and challenged, the primacy of traditional media.
People no longer needed to purchase an entire paper to read what interests them. And they don’t need to watch television at all, if they even own a TV nowadays, let alone a radio.
Local newspapers – once found in every town or city – are struggling to survive.
Those that do are leaner, thinner, staffed by fewer and fewer local reporters, publishing fewer local stories.
People increasingly consume their news on social media, a frontier without editorial supervision or oversight where misinformation and disinformation can spread, at scale and at speed.
And for all that we live in an age where we can access nearly all the information the world possesses through our phone, social media algorithms feed us the content we want to see, and keep us scrolling, pushing us towards more extreme content, content that is more likely to parrot false claims or divisive narratives.
The spectre of Artificial Intelligence also looms.
It may increase productivity, but at the cost of accuracy, quality, and trust.
AI extracts news content to train their models without compensation for the original publisher.
And we know it is being weaponised by authoritarian actors to push propaganda or to undermine social cohesion and blur the line between fact and fiction.
In our region too, are similar, and different challenges.
A limited pool of media professionals, and difficulty attracting, training, and retaining talent, especially on a limited operating budget.
More difficult operating conditions as the rate of connectivity and internet access varies across countries and regions.
A collapse of traditional business models and lack of revenue, making it difficult to sustain and grow operations, or build and maintain online presence.
And while the sector is passionate about maintaining its independence and credibility, speaking truth to power in a small population requires extraordinary resilience.
At a time when our media sectors contend with this great disruption, and uncertainty is also the time when we need accurate and reliable reporting, more than ever.
To fight disinformation, and protect our democracies.
Public interest journalism is a vital service in a healthy democracy. It is a public good.
We are doing what we can to support a vibrant and independent media sector, here, and in our region.
Our Indo-Pacific Broadcasting Strategy invests more than $68 million over five years to create and distribute compelling Australian content that engages with audiences in the region, enhance access to trusted content, and strengthen regional media capacity and capability – including by boosting connections between Australian-based and Indo-Pacific media.
This includes the Government’s investment of $40.5 million in the ABC to support new content creation, expand its FM radio transmission, improve digital engagement, and increase ongoing support for our regional media partners and $28.4 million for the PacificAus TV initiative to bolster the viability of Pacific media and expand access to Australian television programs.
These investments build on Australia’s longstanding support for regional media, such as the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme and PNG-focused Media Development Initiative programs that have supported media resilience, independence, and professionalism for more than a decade.
And we continue to bolster our support through our newly established Regional Media Support Fund, a flexible and responsible mechanism to support media in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and South Asia, and ensure they have the skills and tools they need to serve the public interest.
We continue to organise a wide range of International Media Visits every year, welcoming journalists from around the world to Australia.
Visits which deepen understanding of our people, and values, and affirm our unwavering commitment to press freedom and the strength of our independent media sector.
We are also investing domestically in a package of mechanisms to preserve local news and support resilience and innovation for our news organisations.
Including putting in place the mechanisms to ensure journalists are supported in their work – and to do our best to have people informed on social media platforms with real, not fake, news.
Australia is leading the world to put in place measures to ensure the sustainability of news media.
Because now, more than ever we need it here and in our region – viable, resilient, professional, independent media, providing our communities the news that matters, and helping our democracies thrive.
Congratulations to the Foreign Correspondents’ Association on the tremendous milestone of forty years and I thank you, for your support for this project we have ahead of us.
Thank you.
