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1998-1999-2000
The Parliament
of the
Commonwealth of
Australia
HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
Presented and read a first
time
Government
Advertising (Objectivity, Fairness and Accountability) Bill
2000
No. ,
2000
Explanatory
Memorandum
Circulated
by Mr Beazley
ISBN: 0642
439397
GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING (OBJECTIVITY, FAIRNESS AND
ACCOUNTABILITY) BILL 2000
Explanatory Memorandum
The Bill will amend the Financial Management and Accountability Act
1997 to require government advertising to meet minimum standards with
respect to objectivity, fairness and accountability, and to prohibit the
expenditure of taxpayers’ money on advertising which promotes party
political interests.
Notes on clauses
Clause 1 of
the Bill will provide for the Act to be cited as the Government Advertising
(Objectivity, Fairness and Accountability) Act 2000.
Clause 2
of the Bill will provide that the Act commences on
the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.
Clause 3 of the
Bill will provide that the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997
is amended as set out in Schedule 1.
Notes on Schedule 1 –
Amendment of the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (the
Act)
Item 1 repeals section 14 of the Act and replaces it with
a new section which expressly makes it an “improper use of public
money” to use or permit to be used any public money for a government
information program unless that program is in accordance with the Principles and
Guidelines for the Use of Government Advertising contained in Schedule 1 (a new
schedule to the Act). This is in addition to the other ways in which public
money may be improperly used or disposed of.
Item 2 inserts a new
schedule to the Act setting out the Principles and Guidelines for the Use of
Government Advertising which are substantially identical to the draft guidelines
recommended in October 1998 by the Auditor-General in a report on the
government’s $20m tax reform advertising campaign in the lead up to the
1998 federal election
(http://www.anao.gov.au/rptsfull_99/audrpt12/rpt12-99.pdf).
The
principles and guidelines provide, among other things,
that:
• government advertising material should be relevant to
government responsibilities;
• material should be presented in an
objective and fair manner;
• information should be based on accurate,
verifiable facts, carefully and precisely expressed in conformity with those
facts;
• no claim or statement should be made which cannot be
substantiated;
• the recipient of the information should always be able
to distinguish clearly and easily between facts on the one hand, and comment,
opinion and analysis on the other;
• material should not be liable to
misrepresentation as party-political;
• information campaigns should not intentionally promote, or be
perceived as promoting, party-political interests;
• material should be
presented in unbiased and objective language, and in a manner free from partisan
promotion of government policy and political argument;
• material
should not directly attack or scorn the views, policies or actions of others
such as the policies and opinions of opposition parties or groups;
• information should avoid party-political slogans or
images;
• no information campaign should be undertaken without a
justifiable cost/benefit analysis;
• the cost of the chosen scale and
methods of communicating information must be justifiable in terms of achieving
the identified objectives for the least practicable expense;
and
• objectives which have little prospect of being achieved, or which
are likely to be achieved only at disproportionate cost, should not be pursued
without good reasons.