Rob Oakeshott yesterday complained of being the target of a National Party publication masquerading as a local newspaper. After The Port Paper — “100% local owned and totally independent” — produced a story by Sharon Davidson on Oakeshott’s plummeting popularity, the independent MP issuing the following statement yesterday:
“The editor of The Port Paper is still on the Australian Parliamentary staff list as an employee of the National Party’s Luke Hartsuyker, Member for Cowper. Accordingly, along with referrals to the New South Wales Electoral Commission and the Press Council, anything written by this ‘paper’, which only began in March 2011, will not attract a response from my office.”
The Port Paper story was gleefully picked up by News Ltd as part of its ongoing campaign against Oakeshott, although inconveniently The Daily Telegraph got the outlet’s name wrong. The Australian reported today that Davidson had left the employment of Hartsuyker in April.
So what is The Port Paper? It’s a bi-weekly publication that has only existed since March, and was established by Rob Nardella, who was the initial editor and also obtained the domain name for the site on February 9 this year. Nardella is a former staffer for ex-Nats leader Mark Vaile, who used to hold Lyne. Nardella later became a local councillor in the area.
And where is Nardella now? He’s on the staff of NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner — as none other than The Tele informs us today. The Sydney Morning Herald first drew attention to The Port Paper‘s dubious provenance as an independent media outlet back during the NSW election campaign, when it ran an aggressive campaign against Oakeshott’s independent state successor Peter Besseling, earning the praise of far-right shock jock Ray Hadley in doing so.
And who conducted the opinion poll, which included the poor technique of asking voting intention after other issues-based questions had been asked instead of before? A direct marketing company called ReachTel.
Reachtel does do the occasional poll, and has worked with the Ten Network. But there was an interesting addition to its CV last year. One of the questions asked in the Oakeshott poll — before voting intention — was what he should do about pokies reform. Last year, ReachTel proudly announced it was an associate member of Clubs Qld, which has this year been campaigning aggressively against the Andrew Wilkie-led poker machine reform push. The Port Paper story fails to disclose that.
Still, “100% local owned and totally independent”. That’s The Port Paper.
Ahh, The Port Paper. It began as anti-independent Peter Besseling propaganda for the Nats before the NSW election in March and has kept going. It’s now blatantly anti-Oakeshott. I used to get one copy a week chucked onto my front lawn and after a quick flick-though it would always go straight into the bin – I’m not into wasting time reading National Party hate mail. I haven’t seen a copy for at least a month. Obviously my neighbourhood – housing department estate with a lot of low income private renters – isn’t the target audience and isn’t worth wasting the cost of delivery.
I’d like to know who is paying for this piece of garbage. The limited amount of advertising the ‘paper’ contains would not cover the cost of printing and distribution.
Robert Nardella was a National Party councillor on the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council. This Nationals-dominated council was dismissed by the NSW government on 27 February 2008 after mishandling of project initiated in 2001 to build a cultural and entertainment centre, known to locals as the Glasshouse. A great deal of financial mismanagement and corruption was involved, although the Nats insist they did nothing wrong. The history of that building, the involvement of a local property developer and former deputy mayor in the planning and choice of site plus the eagerness of the National councillors to do what they were told by said developer is very interesting.
How does this sort of garbage including its use by other media outlets not get held up to the closest scrutiny, nay, ridicule? The media in this country is pretty sad not to mention the people who use it to set agendas.
Slime. What else can one say?
Are you sure it’s not part of the “Murdoch Livery” – it seems to act like it, enough for more of the stable, in their usual m.o. to quote it, in their white-ant agenda?
As Leone points out, the ‘advertising’ wouldn’t come within coo-ee of covering the costs so the simplest way to ferret out the truth is the good, old fashioned money trail – someone is picking up the tab. It’s unlikely to be a charity (though one never knows) so NSW Business Registry would at least show who the assigned Director & Secretary (for $10 businesses they can be the same person). It ain’t that hard to find out the persons ostensibly behind it and then find where yer akshal dosh originates.