Attorney-General Misleads Public and Parliament on 'YES' Case Funding

Monday, 17 June 2013

Alex Hawke
MP, Federal Member for Mitchell says the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has misled
the parliament on funding arrangements for the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ case on the
Constitutional Recognition of Local Government referendum.

“In his
second reading summation, the Attorney-General made direct reference to my
speech, claiming that I had stated an untruth in the House. Actually, it is
that remark from the Attorney-General which is an untruth.”

In his
speech, the Attorney-General stated;

“The member for Mitchell also made the claim during
debate that the government has committed $21.6 million to a campaign to support
the yes vote at the referendum. This is simply not true. What the government
has committed to—and this is set out in the budget papers—is $10 million to fund a neutral,
non-partisan civics education campaign.”

That campaign will provide the community with
information about the Constitution and the process for considering any change
in the roles of the Commonwealth, the states and local government, and about
the terms of the proposed alteration. This
education campaign will not advocate either a yes vote or a no vote but will
help ensure electors are aware of the issue and in a position to make an
informed vote. (House of Representatives Hansard, 5^th
June, 2013 – Page 93)

Today, Minister for Local Government Albanese
announced that the $10 million allocated for that neutral, non-partisan
civics education campaign but would be allocated to the ‘Yes’ case based on the
vote in parliament last week;

The amount of funding to be provided for each case will reflect
the proportion of Members that voted for and against the Constitution
Alteration (Local Government) Amendment Bill 2013.  Over 98 per cent voted for and less than 2
per cent voted against this bill. Accordingly,
$10 million will be provided to the Australian Local Government Association
(ALGA) to assist it in its promotion of the ‘Yes’ case. (Minister Albanese release – 17^th
June, 2013 - http://anthonyalbanese.com.au/funding-provided-to-promote-public-debate-about-constitutional-change)

While the ‘No’ case would attract less on a strictly proportional
basis, the Government will provide up to $500,000 to proponents of the ‘No’
case. The two Members who voted against the bill will be asked to determine the
distribution of this funding.

At the last
referendum in 1997, both the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ cases received $7 million each so
each side could make their case on a fair footing.

“Clearly,
the government is trying to buy the outcome of this referendum. Once again, the
government is guilty of announcing one thing and then doing another. Other
members of the House may have voted differently had they had known their vote
would determine the funding for the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ cases.

“What needs
to happen is the Attorney-General needs to come into the House and apologise to
the Parliament and the Australian people for misleading them in this way. It is
unacceptable that on an issue as important as Constitutional Recognition that
the Attorney-General should be able to mislead the Australian people.” Alex
Hawke concluded.