Adjudication No. 26 (November 1977) [1977] APC 21

ADJUDICATION No. 26 (November 1977)

Mr. N. C. Baxendell, of Canberra, complained of a report on page 1 of The Australian of August 26, 1977. In particular he complained about a section which stated that a fully developed yellowcake mining industry would support more than 500,000 workers.

The figure of 500,000 jobs was taken from a South Australian Government report which used it in reference to a fully-developed uranium industry and not a yellowcake mining operation.

The figure had been taken by the authors of the report from a speech delivered by the Minister for National Resources, Mr. Anthony, in the House of Representatives on the previous day when the Government's decision on the mining of uranium was announced-

The Australian, in reply, maintained that the report was a fair interpretation of facts produced in the debate in the House of Representatives.

At one point in the paper (on page 4) the figure was correctly used in relation to a full scale uranium operation and the authors of the front page report supposed wrongly that they were saying the same thing by referring (on page 1) to a fully developed yellowcake mining industry.

This made the statement on page 1 inaccurate, as Mr. Baxendell complains that it was, and as he pointed cut in a letter to the paper. This letter was subsequently published. The error was technical, but it resulted in the presentation of an exaggerated picture, which was not sufficiently qualified by publication of the letter. To this extent the Council is of opinion that the complaint should be upheld.