SA Premier Peter Malinauskas is scratching the back of the only state-wide newspaper in his state, News Corp’s The Advertiser, using secret taxpayer funds. In return the Advertiser is scratching his back with ‘kind pieces’. Rex Patrick reports on an FOI reveal.
Diary Request
In late 2023, I requested access to Premier Peter Malinauskas’ diary. I wanted to see who was influencing him. For 17 months he fought like hell to keep the information from the public, but he was eventually ordered by the South Australian Ombudsman to hand it over.
As I looked through the diary entries provided to me, one thing stood out as unusual; the regularity of his meetings with Paul Starick, The Advertiser newspaper’s editor at large.
Figure 1 – Hold for Paul (Source: FOI)
Across the three months covered by the request, Malinauskas had four meetings with Starick. Unsurprisingly there were interviews with journalists in the diary, but not a regular gig with Malinauskas like Starrick had.
As someone with a strong interest in the integrity of our democracy, I felt uneasy. Starick has a role in SA to help hold the Government to account. He shouldn’t be cuddling up to those at the top of the political tree.
Getting the ‘drops’
In response to my uneasiness, I did a second request on all diarised meetings between Malinauskas and Starick; 33 diary entries came back.
Insiders tell MWM that Starick is the guy at the Advertiser that “gets the drops” from the Premier – special insights for publication. Malinauskas talks to Starick and the next day a story is published, in a tone favourable to his source.
Politically intimate dinner
One of the ‘meetings’ Malinauskas had with Starick was a very politically intimate dinner at Starick’s home.
Figure 2 – Dinner Date (Source: FOI)
It’s not normal arrangement for a journalist to have the Premier premier drop around home for dinner. Arrangements such as these, particularly undeclared arrangements, undermine trust in journalism.
Gemma Jones, the Editor of The Advertiser, attended the private dinner as well.
As Editor, Jones is clearly the most influential person at the paper, with Starick very close behind her. When the daily morning conference takes place at the Advertiser, Jones and/or Starick are the ones exercising editorial control.
How do journalists have a private dinner with Malinauskas one week and then write a concerning or scathing piece on him or his government the next?
The answer is pretty obvious. They don’t.
Money changing hands
And the whole critical content issue gets even more complicated when you add in the fact
the SA Government is a funding line for the paper as well.
News Corp, which owns The Advertiser, has increasingly been seeking out every cent it can get. As insiders have told MWM, income is trumping editorial independence.
For the last four years there’s been a ‘partnership’ between the Malinauskas Government. The exact details of the arrangement are highly secret. The ‘partnership’s’ total value to News Corp is declared by Government to be commercial-in-confidence”.
Is it $100K, $1M or $10M? No one outside the SA Labor government and News Corp know, and that’s the way they want it.
MWM is trying to force the numbers out of the Malinauskas Government through FOI and will report in due course.
Advertorial expectations?
The only public information about the citizen funded ‘partnership’ is that its objective are supposedly “supporting and amplifying key policy areas, public information campaigns and leveraging advocacy through subject matter experts.”
People familiar with the program tell MWM that it’s hard to distinguish this advertorial content from other material the paper publishes.
Exactly what the formal expectations of the Government are in exchange for taxpayers’ money is unknown. And the informal political expectations of the Government are certainly not known.
The very limited public evaluation report for the 2024/25 ‘partnership’ stated that all the articles that were put in print versions of the paper were “lifted online on The Advertiser ‘s website in front of the pay wall to maximise accessibility and readership”.
The ‘partnership’ funding also includes opinion editorial pieces from industry experts. How The Advertiser indicates to readers that editorial pieces are funded by the Government is not clear.
Building a Bigger, Better State
But mutual back scratching between the Government and The Advertiser is not the only mutual benefit play going on. There’s also a threesome taking place in plain sight.
An industry funded ‘Building a Bigger, Better State’ program is cast by the Advertiser as a program for “growing jobs, vibrancy, prosperity and population” for SA. “It champions growth and innovation – to build a bigger, better future for all South Australians.”
Figure 3 – Sponsorship for Building a Bigger, Better State
It’s almost as though The Advertiser sees its role, rather than to report news, to promote the policies and performance of the Malinauskas Government, funded by big corporations.
It’s win, win, win. The companies get to support the Malinauskas Government, the paper generates revenue and the Malinauskas Government gets repeated good news stories from SA’s monopoly metropolitan newspaper.
And the backscratching element is genius.
The companies get to support the Government in return for … well, something. There’s no such things as a free lunch in politics. If one stood back and looked one might think of the funding as a political donation, except of course it’s not.
Corporate favours
News Corp insiders tell MWM that in appreciation for the revenue The Advertiser is not inclined to run controversial stories about the sponsors.
And for the Malinauskas Government, it’s happy days.
Malinauskas even has the Prime Minister Albanese legitimising the electoral laws evasion racket.
On 15 March 2024 Albanese visited Adelaide for a future of SA forum. At line two of his speech he stated “It is a great pleasure to be with you. I’d like to thank The Advertiser for its Building a Bigger, Better South Australia campaign – and for facilitating today’s conversation”.
The sponsors were at the forums to listen, mingle and express their views – Adelaide Airport (talking up air travel) BHP (advocating policy stability for major projects), Santos (talking up gas as an important transitional fuel and spruiking its Moomba carbon capture program) and Study Australia (promoting international students) and Walker Corporation (talking up medium density property development. We know that because The Advertiser reported this advertising as news.
Why is CSIRO hiding its advice on Carbon Capture and Storage?
And FOI shows that Malinauskas was on the phone to Starick the day before the PM’s visit to help promote the scheme.
Figure 4 – Dinner Date (Source: FOI)
Getting to the Truth of It
Parliament, the executive government, the judiciary and the ‘fourth estate’; media. In a healthy democracy the fourth estate holds the other three to account, shining a light on their conduct and informing the public about what’s going on. That’s a vital role for journalism in a healthy democracy.
But in SA the executive government is totally integrated with News Corp.
South Australians are the losers in that arrangement.
The way it all works has a corruption feel to it, but luckily for Malinauskas, SA’s Independent Commission Against Corruption has been effectively stripped of all its power. It’s a toothless tiger as far as scrutiny of the centres of political power are concerned.
The only real way to find out how it all really works is to get an invite at Starick’s house when Malinauskas pops around for dinner. And a cosy chat. By the time pavlova and coffee is served, democracy is dead.
A historic win against secretive government in more ways than one!
Note: In South Australia MWM could find no-one willing go on the record to discuss the Malinauskas Government’s love in with News Corp. Not journalists, not politicians. Everyone was in furious agreement, but such is the closeness within the state and the power of the two, they’d only talk ‘on background’.
Streisand Effect. Long waitlist for not-Adelaide Writers Week
Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and, earlier, a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader, Rex is also known as the "Transparency Warrior."