North West Star editor Derek Barry’s battle for fairer airfares for north west residents has landed him one of Queensland’s most prestigious journalism prizes.
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Mr Barry’s series on the punishingly high cost of airfares for regional Queenslanders, scored him the $15,000 Bean Lockyer Ticehurst Award for Excellence in Regional Journalism award on Monday night.
Backed up by solid reporting on the parliamentary inquiry into regional airfares and some hard-hitting editorials, the judges said his work was the stand-out in a large and quality field of entries to this year’s award.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Barry said a readers' poll showed high airline prices was the biggest single issue for people in the north west, but he initially had reservations about campaigning on it.
"My early concern was maybe this was just a tax on living remotely and perhaps something we just needed to put up with," Mr Barry said.
"But as we looked into this further it became clear this was not about people like me who travel because they want to, but about the many in our region who travel because they have to."
Mr Barry said evidence to the air inquiry showed locals needed to access health facilities in bigger cities.
Gifted children who took part in state competitions, or people who had family weddings or funerals to attend, also needed to fly.
These flights could quickly rack up travel bills of many thousands of dollars.
"For these people this is not a matter of inconvenience, it is a matter of equity," he said.
Mr Barry said he was pleased the inquiry was in place and some airlines had brought in community fares.
"But much more needs to be done. Community fares need to be easier to access and open to everyone not just residents," he said.
"And the inquiry urgently needs to set a date for its final hearing so we hear directly from the airlines."
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Local Government Association of Queensland CEO Greg Hallam said Mr Barry’s work on the issue highlighted a problem that regional Queenslanders had been suffering for years.
“It’s simply unfair that some regional passengers have to pay more than some international fares to fly domestically,' Mr Hallam said.
“Derek Barry took up this issue with gusto and has put pressure on the airlines not to price regional Queenslanders out of a fair deal on fares.”
The award, established by the LGAQ, was presented to Mr Barry at the association’s annual conference in Brisbane on Monday night.
The award, which comes with a $15,000 cash prize, commemorates the work of John Bean, Paul Lockyer and Gary Ticehurst, a deeply respected media crew who died in tragic circumstances in 2011.
A Qantas spokeswoman said they knew how important air travel was for those living in regional communities.
“Which is why we introduced a discounted fares program last year offering residents in Mount Isa and Cloncurry up to 30 per cent off return Qantas fares year-round,” she said.
Virgin was contacted for comment.
Other finalists were:
Nicole Bond, from the ABC, for a body of work on the plight of landowners trying to cope with the state’s ongoing drought,
Vanessa Marsh, from The Courier-Mail, and Emma Field, from the Weekly Times, for their work bringing public attention to the high number of deaths of Pacific Islanders working in Australia under the Seasonal Worker Program.
