AD talks to Peter Veness, reporter on the Gillard Campaign.

 This week we were very lucky to be contacted by Peter Veness, who has been following the Gillard campaign around the country for AAP. We shot him some questions that the class thought up, and he responded. What follows is an interesting glimpse of the life of a journalist during the chaos of a federal election!

AD: You’ve been following Julia Gillard around the country. Describe an average day on the campaign.

PV: An Average day starts with a 2330 – 0000 text message from Labor’s media handlers telling us what to do in the morning. It is usually something like this: “0755 meet at bus, checkout”.

That gives us an indication that we are moving to another city.

Our bus will leave with all the media aboard and we would be taken to the first job of the morning. This is often something like “a coffee with a constituent”. Where, after organising a solid Labor family and cafe owner, Ms Gillard will spend some time with this family sharing a light breakfast. All of this has been pre-organised by a group of Labor staffers known as “advancers”. A terrible word but it is indicative of what these people do. They reconnoiteur a day or more ahead for the leader and ensure they aren’t going to run into trouble.

From our first job, unless there is unexpected colour via a protester etc, we would move to the second job which by this stage it’s about mid-morning. This is often the policy announcement for the day and will be followed by a press conference where Ms Gillard would take “all comers” on a whole range of issues from the announcement through to Kevin Rudd and on to whether she had done drugs. These press conferences are shown live on TV and can go for up to an hour.

 If we are travelling to another city that day it is likely we are “done” for the day. We must file a myriad of media including photos, video, words etc in the little time we have before take off.

When we are at cruising altitude we are told where we are going – usually we have a pretty solid guess at this given the issues of the day, direction we’re flying etc…

AD: What is it like, working with a large group of other press? Is there competition to get the best shot/question?

PV: There is most certainly competition but largely amongst us “grunts” it is friendly competition. The competition is between networks not individuals in my experience. The major problem with packs is that it can be hard to “get in”, in other words to get close to the “talent”. The other problem, which we don’t always comment on, is that after a few days together we start to think alike. This is covered extensively in The Boys on the Bus, a fantastic account of journalism on the campaign written in the 70s.

AD: How do you file your stories? Do you use technology to get them to AAP quickly?

 I file my stories as quickly as possibly but accuracy is more important than speed. Technology has certainly speed up the process through live feeds of press conferences to any one who wants to watch them. Despite all the technology available, nothing beats picking up the phone and filing copy to my chief of staff directly.

A host of reporters are backing up the reporter on the road by watching the press conference from the bureau in Canberra and obviously in a pack the journalists discuss the main points coming from the conference.

 AD: What training and education did you complete to get your position with AAP?

PV: I completed a BA majoring in print journalism and minoring in politics through Charles Sturt University in Bathurst. From there I did a range of part-time work in regional media, culminating in a 12 month cadetship at the Rural Press owned Western Advocate.

I left there after 18 months and was employed by AAP here in Canberra.

AD: What’s the best part of your job? What is the worst?

PV: The best part is getting paid to write and hang out with people I would never have dreamed of meeting, let alone spending time with and becoming good friends with. The doyens of the press gallery, people like Michelle Grattan, Tony Wright, Mark Riley and Chris Uhlmann are real live people, not just journalists on your page or screen. They give a real damn about the many young people running around in the press gallery these days and they do mentor when they can.

 Then you also get to meet people who are part of history. I will always remember my first private conversation with John Howard – it was rudimentary and short but I had just spoken to a prime minister for the first time.

 The worst part is the shift work which I have been protected from of late. News does not break from 0900 to 1700hrs. Some of the biggest stories of our time have broken at difficult time. September 11 happened late in the Australian night and the rolling of Kevin Rudd started about 1900 one night and was all over by the time most of us woke.

AD: Do you have control of your stories once you’ve filed them?

 PV: Control is a difficult word. I like to think I never have too much control, I just report what has happened. I, like any journalist, have slipped up and gone too hard/easy in certain circumstances. Once I have filed a story I try to watch it be subbed via our computer system known as CyberNews. It allows me to talk with sub-editors etc as the story is moved toward publication. This isn’t possible when I’m on the road as in a campaign but generally editors will ring if they have concerns.

 Ultimate editors are editors and they have control/decision making power at the end of any debate about a story.

 AD: Who are some of your favourite politicians? Why?

 PV: I’m going to be dull and reach back in time because I’m not sure our current crop of politicians are overly interesting in historical terms. But obviously people like Hawke, Keating, Menzies and Howard are amongst the most interesting domestically. They are interesting because they actually changed things in significant ways – whether it be via tax system changes, major financial change, war time leadership etc.

AD: What are some words of advice would you give to anyone considering a journalism career?

Read books – books about anything and everything. Avoid the glut of journalism schools and do a cadetship in the bush.

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