Marquise Dale

Assessment 2 partner story

HARD NEWS
Mixed opinions within council have meant the Mornington Peninsula Shire is unable to
support either side of the November referendum.

The Shire currently has no official policy regarding the voice and has no plan to create one
soon.

The Council is made up of 11 members “with differing views on the matter” Councillor Despi
O’Connor said.

“At this point Council doesn’t have a stance on it, you have a lot of people down here who
are very conservative” Cr O’Connor said.

The Mornington Peninsula shire is connected to the indigenous community through

“communication with the local land council as well as first nation businesses” Cr O’Connor
said.

“I have personally reached out to them, and the local gathering place is in full support”. Cr
O’Connor said about the voice.

The Federal member for Flinders Zoe McKenzie has been critical of the voice to parliament
and believes it’s neither politicians nor councils’ role to be advocating for the issue.

“I have been reaching out to every indigenous group and it has deepened my understanding
of the voice”. McKenzie said, “But I believe this is a matter for every Australian to decide for
themselves”.

The only input she said she’d provide is “sharing educative and impartial information
regarding the Voice”.
Soft News
‘Yes’ campaign kicks off for Indigenous group on the
Mornington Peninsula
Local Indigenous gathering place, Willum Warrain, is finally seeing their aspirations come to
life through the voice to parliament referendum that will occur later this year.

The group were strong supporters of the 2017 Uluru statement from the heart and have
been advocating for some kind of indigenous voice since.

The association, which name translates to “home by the sea”, teaches its members the
culture of the local Aboriginal people and tries to reconnect them with the land of the
Bunurong people.

Willum Warrain CEO, Peter Aldenhoven, is a key figure within the gathering place and aims
to bring a sense of pride to all “Mob” who visit.

Peter is responsible for obtaining funding for the acitivitys and services that Willum Warrain
provides while also planning and organising the regular events that are held for the public.

“Mob have been asking for voice for a long long time” Peter Alvenhoven said, “our
community on the Mornington peninsula is strongly behind it”.

Talks of the voice to parliament are beginning to unfold on the Peninsula and there’s “Been a
void on the coverage of the yes side,” Peter Aldenhoven said.

To combat this Willum Warrain is hosting a public cultural forum on the 31 st of May where a
crowd of 2000 is expected to attend, and audience members can ask questions to the
indigenous speakers regarding the voice.

The event will not only “provide background information about the referendum”, but also
allow the group to “heavily push for voice to people on the Peninsula” Peter Aldenhoven
said.

Peter Believes this attempt at a voice needs to be given a fair go and he wants to make sure
that the people of Australia are educated before they make their vote.

“there’s a fair degree of lack of awareness and understanding” he said, “there’s a big
educative body of work that needs to be done”.

The yes campaign is heavily supported by the indigenous communities with a survey by
Reconciliation Australia revealing that 86 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders
believe an enshrined voice Is important moving forward.

A survey by Roy Morgan however states that only 46 percent of the general Australian
population currently would vote yes, a big decrease compared to the indigenous community.
There is still time for this to change though as an official date for the referendum has not yet
been picked but it’s suspected it will be held later in the year.

Reflection
Both my hard and soft news pieces took a local angle on a big issue which was the voice to
parliament referendum. My sources were all locally based and had insight into how the
voice is interpreted by different communities along the Mornington peninsula. Through
research I was able to gain the contact information of my sources and arrange interviews,
two of which occurred over the phone. My hard news sources were politicians who had a
very literal and methodical interpretations of the issue whereas my soft news source spoke
from the heart and shared the impacts that the voice was going to have on his community.

My hard news story only contained the facts of the issue and was conveyed in a simple and
easy to understand manner. By using short and fluent sentences my audience is more able to
recognise the news and therefore continue to read my story. Furthermore, keeping my two
sources in separate sections of my piece eliminated confusion regarding who was talking and
allowed the reader to better follow the story. By following the ‘upside down triangle’ idea I
kept my most newsworthy items at the start of my piece and left the less important
information for later. I established the disagreement and infighting within council first as I
felt that was the most newsworthy item of the piece. I made sure to explain the essential
five Ws and one H to make sure all aspects of the story were covered, and the reader felt
educated about the issue. By including two sources with different views, I upheld balance as
both sides of the story are given a voice and are being represented in my piece

My soft news story was more emotive and contained more general information about the
story than hard news. I made sure to establish background information around the issue,
stating who my piece was about and what they do and stand for. This took the form of an
anecdote and created a more personal feeling for the reader compared to hard news. I then
used the quotes that I’d got from my interview to better explain the issue and how the
subject felt about the matter. The quotes were informative but also added a personal touch
to the issue making it feel more local to the reader. I finished my soft news story with the
facts of the issue by including a survey that had been done and which related directly to the
issue. The stats leave the reader informed but also concerned with the issue discussed. I
followed the Anecdote, Quote, Fact soft news structure in my piece which helped convey the
emotions and atmosphere of my selected issue while also sharing the facts and information
associated with the story.

Both of my pieces didn’t include my opinion or bias as a writer, I made sure to only tell what
was told to me without adding any extra input. This upheld the journalistic value of
remaining objective as my story was not influenced by personal feelings and reflects how
society feels not me.
Sources:
Despi O’Connor: 0435 569 710
Zoe McKenzie: Zoe.McKenzie.MP@aph.gov.au
Peter Alvenhoven: 0436 016 099