Adjudication No. 131 (June 1982) [1982] APC 11

ADJUDICATION No. 131 (June 1982)

Mr G. B. Peacocke, MP, has complained to the Australian Press Council of an editorial published in the Daily Liberal, a Dubbo newspaper, on 18 September 1981, the day before a general election.

Mr Peacocke was one of three candidates at the election upon each of whom the paper made its comments.

The paper condemned Mr Peacocke's intrusion as the National Country Party candidate, describing it as being as reprehensible as the resignation of the former member who, in the paper's view, "ought (by any standard) to be contesting the election".

The editorial was mainly favourable to a Mr Woods and less so to a Mr Morgan. The grounds given for opposition to Mr Peacocke were that he had taken "a predictably extreme and elitist stand on almost every subject" and particularly that he had described his (National Country) party leader as a "real failure" in a previous by-election for Castlereagh. The paper added that Mr Peacocke had "also lashed out at the leader of the Liberal Party", labelling him amongst other things as a "back stabber". The editorial went on to extol the virtues of Mr Woods, describing Mr Peacocke by comparison as a man "for sectionalism, extremist policies and divisive representation".

The Press Council's clear conclusion is that the editorial as a whole was a fair piece of propaganda which no doubt stung Mr Peacocke, and even angered him as strongly tending against his electoral prospects, but was the kind of critical comment which a candidate for parliamentary office must expect to meet in the course of a hard-fought campaign.

The allegations in the editorial that Mr Peacocke had made the quoted remarks about his party leader and the leader of the Liberal Party are not denied. The council could not find against the editorial without insisting upon an untenable standard of Press comment on parliamentary elections. Much latitude must be allowed for editorial comment if the democratic system is to continue.

The complaint is dismissed.