Adjudication No. 928 (June 1997) [1997] APC 29

ADJUDICATION No. 928 (June 1997)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint against The Cairns Post that articles on 22 March and 5 April this year were inaccurate and known by the paper to be false. Accordingly, it also dismisses the claim that the paper should have made amends for the articles.

Michael Bryan argued that both articles reported that the Queensland Auditor General gave the Cairns City Council an "unqualified auditor's report" for the 1995-96 year when in fact, Mr Bryan said, audit documents contained severe criticism of administrative procedures.

As the newspaper said in its defence, the Auditor General did give the council an unqualified report. Working to prescribed accounting standards, he gave the council a clean bill of financial health.

A lengthy accompanying document made it clear there were aspects of the city management that were open to question. Procedures had been amended to cope better with a number of these, this documentation stated, although action still was awaited on others.

While it breached none of the Press Council's principles, the newspaper could have explained the apparent contradiction between receipt of a unqualified auditor's report and of a number of recommendations urging more rigorous management practices.

However, it is apparent the Auditor General held the practices were no bar to his decision to issue an unqualified report on the city council's financial rectitude.