Adjudication No. 442 (June 1990) [1990] APC 14

ADJUDICATION No. 442 (June 1990)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint by Mr Wilson Tuckey against The West Australian over the paper's failure to publish a story on a question he asked in Federal Parliament on 21 December 1989.

The question concerned the refund by Murdoch University of a higher education fee paid by the wife of the Minister for Education, Mr John Dawkins. Mr Tuckey said that the alleged refund was obtained by backdating an application by Mrs Maggie Dawkins, and questioned whether the Minister had exerted pressure on the university to obtain preferential treatment for his wife.

In his complaint to the Press Council, Mr Tuckey suggested that the failure of The West Australian to cover the story (though at least one other newspaper had done so) was one of a number of incidents demonstrating political bias in favour of the Labor Party.

He said he had been told by the paper's editor, that the reason for the omission had been lack of space.

The Press Council agrees that the matter of alleged preferential treatment for the wife of a West Australian Minister by a West Australian university could be seen as newsworthy and might well have merited a follow-up story. However, the next day Mr Dawkins issued a denial which has not been questioned.

The Council accepts the newspaper's defence that decisions on new stories must be made on the day, and stories may be crowded out by lack of space and an over-embarrassment of major news.

The Council considers that The West Australian has not demonstrated political bias, as alleged by Mr Tuckey.