Indebted rural council asked to help pay for News Corp 'bush summit', documents show

The Daily Telegraph and Sky News asked the Snowy Monaro regional council for $15,000 in cash and services to help pay for the newspaper’s “bush summit” conference in Cooma last week, according to council documents.

The request was approved a week before the summit despite objections from two councillors, John Castellari and Bob Stewart, who argued the money should go to needy community groups in a region that was devastated by the bushfires and Covid-19.

The bush summit is the Sydney newspaper’s major branding event and Daily Telegraph editor Ben English hosted prime minister Scott Morrison, state and regional politicians and business leaders last Friday “to brainstorm a future driven from the bush”.

A week before the summit, council was asked to approve a $15,000 value sponsorship payment towards the conference and councillors were shown a document prepared by lobbyists Newgate Australia for the Daily Telegraph. The “consideration of sponsorship” document outlined how the council would benefit from brand exposure, networking and editorial opportunities.

“The Daily Telegraph, in partnership with Sky News has scheduled their annual Bush Summit for 2020 to be held in Cooma on 28 August,” council papers said.

“They have proposed that Council sponsor the Summit in line with their generic sponsorship package.”

The general manager for the council told the meeting the company had “in fact asked for $20k” but it was agreed to settle on $10,000.

Greens councillor Castellari told Guardian Australia he thought it was “very odd” that a “such a wealthy organisation would be expecting us to help them host this summit” and he had argued against it before the vote and lost.

“The Tele came along, they ran their summit and handed out all sorts of money to people, they came along and distributed largesse, and acted like they cared for the community and yet they don’t mention that they’re taking money from us,” Castellari said.

“If they’ve got money to give out why are they asking a council that’s in debt to provide them with money?”

The proposal, by mayor Peter Beer, was: “That Council sponsor the 2020 Bush Summit by: A. The use of the Cooma Multi-Function Centre and associated costs such as cleaning and staffing support (Communications, Projects, Facilities) as in-kind support valued at $5000; and B. A cash contribution of $10,000 to be funded from the economic development budget.”

Council general manager Peter Bascomb argued the “primary advantage” came from publicity for the town and the specific offer to let council help shape the coverage.

In the sponsorship document to council, Cooma is offered the “opportunity to pitch and help shape stories to run in the Daily Telegraph and Sky and all national broadcast channels in the lead up to, during and after the event”.

Daily Telegraph editor Ben English said the bush summit was a not-for-profit event of lasting benefit to the community and distanced the newspaper from the request for $15,000 and any suggestion of sponsors influencing editorial.

“The Daily Telegraph had no involvement and played no role and received no financial benefit from these negotiations,” English said.

The conference was organised for the Daily Telegraph by Newgate, whose managing partner, Brian Tyson, told Guardian Australia the money from the council went towards the cost of staging the one-day event. The council was one of several sponsors including Westpac, Woolworths, NSW Farmers, NRMA and Santos.

Castellari told the council meeting, which was recorded for the website, the offer was tantamount to advertorial.

“I can’t believe that we would even consider paying these wealthy people … who come into our town and expect us to do everything for them and who are essentially a lobby group for the government,” he said.

“That we would actually turn our backs on really good requests from the community, and say ‘we don’t have money for you but we have money for these guys’. That looks very bad indeed.”

Councillor Anne Maslin was in favour of the sponsorship but raised the matter of the council’s considerable debt.

“Admittedly I know we’ve got no money,” Maslin told the meeting. “I know we’ve got a mass deficit, but this is an opportunity we’ll only get once in a lifetime.”

Councillor Bob Stewart told Guardian Australia he voted against it because he didn’t think it was worth the $10,000 because the event “was going ahead in Cooma anyway”.

“I thought it was a bit of an overkill,” Stewart said on Friday. “Parts of the community are struggling. Council should be more responsible with the community’s money than throwing it around like that.”

English said the bush summit had produced “many positive achievements of lasting benefit”.

“This included granting more than $80,000 in much-needed bushfire relief through to awarding a local Cooma business with the inaugural Bush Telegraph award valued at $10,000,” he told Guardian Australia.

“Our commercial partner Newgate, which organised the event, invited many organisations and businesses, including the local council, to provide sponsorship to help with costs.

“The council took its own decision to support what they and other organisations believe was an important, not-for-profit event to discuss and act on the many challenges and issues confronting people in regional and rural areas.

“To suggest anything else other than the summit’s purpose was to draw attention to the issues facing regional and rural Australia is a lie. It’s 100% wrong and malicious. Sponsors were encouraged to be actively involved but at no stage attempted to influence the editorial content.”

News Corp handed out three bushfire recovery grants in Cooma, including $42,900 for a men’s mental health program and $21,000 to provide solar electricity at the Two Thumbs Wildlife Sanctuary. A spokesman for News Corp said the grants came out News Corp’s bushfire recovery fund.

After the bushfires News Corp set up a dedicated $1 million fund to aid the recovery of communities affected by the fires.

“The News Corp Bushfire Fund is one initiative forming part of News Corp Australia’s ongoing bushfire recovery relief, which has so far donated $1.9 million to bushfire-affected regions across the nation,” the company reported in June.