A move by the Queensland Government to allow government agencies and developers to stop placing public notice advertisements in newspapers has been labelled a step backwards in political accountability.
Laws requiring the state government to publish Public Notices such as new mining leases or amendments to a land use plan in newspapers will be changed under the proposal to instead be uploaded to the department’s own website or online news sites.
Queensland Country Press Association president Phill Le Petit of Noosa Today said that by taking these notices out of the public eye there would be much less scrutiny of government and private development projects.
“Development applications regularly generate considerable community debate and it will certainly not be in the public’s best interest or help to achieve practical consultation and beneficial outcomes for communities if the requirement for publicly notifying the general community is removed from public gaze,” he said.
Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said the shake-up of advertising rules was part of the government’s plan to rein in spending and ballooning debt as well as align with the way the public now access information.
“For some years now, the overwhelming majority of Queenslanders have sourced most of their information from online publications,” he said.
But Mr Le Petit said the Treasurer’s comments were misinformed.
“The Queensland Country Press Association represents 46 newspapers across the state and that number is growing, with 22 new publications joining as members in past 12 months. The combined monthly audience across these member newspapers totals 1,336,953 and that does not include figures for state and national newspapers bought and read in Queensland,” he said.
“When it comes to local news the overwhelming majority of Queenslander get their information from newspapers or news sourced from newspapers.”
Under the draft laws, government agencies would have to apply for special permission for compulsory advertisements to be published in newspapers, with exemptions for public health and safety matters, firearms amnesties and matters relating to specific locations or people.
The proposed changes and loss of advertising income are another blow to newspapers after News Corp last year closed print editions of daily newspapers in most coastal and regional areas and made more than 20 publication digital-only and in contrast to other governments.
“State government advertising in regional newspapers has been virtually non-existent across QCPA member newspapers, compared to what the Victorian and federal governments has done,“ Mr Le Petit said.
“The Victorian Government, instead of shrinking their advertising through tough times in the media industry, pledged to spend an extra $4.5 million on advertising in regional newspapers.
“The Federal government ran many advertisements throughout the last year, which, no doubt would have helped keep many newspapers afloat.
“For the health of our democracy and the viability of local businesses, we urge the Treasurer to reconsider this decision.“
Noosa MP Sandy Bolton said the draft law was yet to come before Parliament so she was not yet across the documentation but it was scheduled for the next sitting.
She said she wouldn’t be supporting a proposed law that limited access to online viewing only particularly with such a large proportion of the local population not online.
