Adjudication No. 208 (November 1984) [1984] APC 31

ADJUDICATION No. 208 (November 1984)

Alderman Douglas Sutherland, The Lord Mayor of Sydney, complains that a feature article about him published in the Sydney Morning Herald of 2 June breached the standards of the Press Council in that it did not present its material with scrupulous honesty and fairness, or with due respect for private rights and sensibilities, and that all steps reasonably available to the paper were not taken to ensure the truth and exactness of its statements.

The article was headed "Citizen Doug: The strange career of our Lord Mayor", and was written by Richard Coleman on the basis of investigations by himself and another reporter Mark Coultan. Some of the Lord Mayor's criticisms are lacking in substance. It is enough to mention the principal matters where we find the Lord Mayor's complaint justified.

The description of his career as "strange" finds its most telling support in the article in the allegation that at the time he was invited to be ALP candidate for Lord Mayor "his achievements had hardly been outstanding. In fact, on paper they look quite meagre". The article proceeded to put them "on paper" in the following terms:

He was elected to the Burwood Council in 1959 and remained a Councillor until defeated in 1974. He was Mayor of Burwood for three years until being defeated. After losing his seat on the Burwood Council he stood unsuccessfully for the Marrickville Council, losing by two votes. A year later he began campaigning for a seat on the Ashfield Council, amazed some of his colleagues by making around 2000 telephone calls, and was elected from a field of 11.

The article then referred to three unsuccessful attempts to enter Parliament.

In fact Alderman Sutherland had had a much more substantial career in local government than the article suggested. It included the following:

(a) member of the Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board for 20 years as local government representative, and the youngest member ever elected to the Board;

(b) member of the Local Government Appeals Tribunal and its antecedent body for 10 years;

(c) member of the Local Government Grants Commission of New South Wales for three years;

(d) an Executive Member of the Local Government Association of New South Wales for 17 years, including Treasurer for a number of years, and Metropolitan Vice-President for two years. After becoming Lord Mayor, he was elected President of the Association -- the first Lord Mayor of Sydney so elected -- and elected Chairman of the Council of the Lord Mayors of Capital Cities of Australia.

By omitting reference to these matters and describing his achievements as "quite meagre" the article gave an unfair account of Alderman Sutherland's career, and a quite misleading connotation to the words "strange career" in the headline. Overall the article created the unfair impression that Alderman Sutherland had become Lord Mayor despite a lack of achievement in local government.

There was also a mis-statement in the passage quoted above. Alderman Sutherland did not, as alleged, make around 2000 phone calls when campaigning for a seat on Ashfield Council. This was an exaggeration but it was presented as a fact.

People in political life have to accept that they are open to the scrutiny of the press. However, such scrutiny must be fair.