The Rudd Government has used new rules to begin censoring the proceedings of Parliament so no criticisms of the Government can reach voters.
Under the rules, Opposition MPs have been prevented from using their taxpayer-funded postal allowances to send out speeches they have made in Parliament that are critical of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Government.
Because Labor MPs only heap praise on government programs, the censorship only affects the Coalition, the Greens and independent MPs.
The new rules were ostensibly introduced to stop MPs using their Printing and Communications Allowance (PCA) to electioneer, to ‘disparage’ or ‘denigrate’ another political party. But the Finance Department committee vetting the material — under the control of the Government — have taken this to mean that any strong criticism of Labor policy is forbidden.
Liberal Senators such as Marise Payne have had words such as ‘inept’, ‘reckless’, ‘mismanagement’, ‘irresponsible’ , ‘neglect’ and ‘disregard’ banned from their electoral newsletters.
But now the censorship has reached new heights with Coalition MPs not allowed to mail out any copy of the speeches they have made in the Parliament and recorded in Hansard, the official journal of proceedings, if they are in any way negative about the Government.
Most Opposition speeches do just that — but the Rudd Government has decided voters are no longer allowed to read them.
The ban is seen as a direct challenge to the privilege governing parliament where MPs are protected from the laws of defamation so they can speak fearlessly on behalf of their constituents.
The first victim of the Hansard ban has been Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash.
Senator Cash made a speech in Parliament on October 26 criticising the Government’s border security policies.
When Senator Cash tried to send the Hansard record to constituents she was informed by the Parliamentary Entitlements Advisory Committee (PEAC) within the Department of Finance that the Hansard extract was in breach of the new rules.
When Senator Cash asked for a reason from the committee why her Hansard speech had been censored they quoted The Macquarie Concise Dictionary, noting “that the definition of ‘disparage’ is: …to bring reproach or discredit upon, lower the estimation of, to speak of or to treat slightingly, deprecate, belittle…”
Senator Cash’s Liberal colleague, Scott Ryan, has now written to the Senate Privileges Committee asking for a ruling on the issue and Shadow Special Minister of State, Michael Ronaldson has raised the prospect of gathering support from the independents and Greens to disallow the regulations when they come before the Senate.
“The Coalition was fully supportive of action being taken following the Australian National Audit Office report on entitlements,” Senator Ronaldson said. “We did not, however, sign up for censorship; nor did the ANAO recommend it.
“The PM has tried to hand-pass responsibility to the bureaucrats. He cannot get away with that.
“They are his regulations and it is his responsibility to do something about it.”