The Northern Territory Government has passed legislation which, it says, will modernise and improve the Northern Territory’s political integrity framework.
The move follows the release of a report from the NT Auditor-General, who investigated social media posts made by members of parliament.
The key change is that oversight of the Public Information Act regarding public information referrals will henceforth rest with the Ombudsman rather than the Auditor-General.
“Transferring the obligation of the Auditor-General to review public information referrals will remove the risk of the role of the Auditor-General being politicised, which was a recommendation in the last strategic review of my Office,” said the Auditor-General, Jara Dean.
“These changes to the Public Information Act should not be seen as an indication that the Auditor-General will never look at government advertising again,” added Dean.
“Quite the opposite, the proposed changes will allow me to focus on, for example, whether departments have systems in place to ensure that government advertising campaigns are apolitical, effective and represent value for taxpayers’ money.”
The Auditor-General reviewed 19 social media posts made by some opposition members and a crossbencher, which had been referred to his Office under the Public Information Act 2010 by a member of the Legislative Assembly.
“It has been a long-standing view of successive Auditors-General that highlighting perceived achievements of the government, contrasting views of the government with those of the opposition (or vice versa) or including images that might be construed as introducing a party political element is a contravention of the Public Information Act,” the Auditor-General wrote in the report’s preface.
Noting that, in general, “Members have gone to extraordinary efforts not to name their own party or the party opposite the aisle in their messaging so that they do not breach the Public Information Act”, he said that “I do not believe that it was the intent of the Public Information Act to block free debate around the policies of the government and the opposition.”
“For this reason, I found most of the social media posts that were political in nature under section 6(2)(a) to be in the public interest because they were shared with the purpose of reporting on the actions or inactions of the government.”
In a statement, NT Government Minister Steve Edgington put a political spin on the outcome of the Auditor-General’s review.
“Today’s report confirms what Territorians already know, Labor cannot be trusted. Three Labor MPs, including the Opposition Leader, misused taxpayers’ money to run political attacks and promote their own interests,” Mr Edgington said.
“Eight separate social media posts were found to have breached the Public Information Act because they promoted the interests of the Labor Party. The Auditor-General has recommended they be deleted. Territorians expect better.”
Commenting on the new legislation, Minister Edgington said “Today, the CLP has cleaned up the mess. We’ve acted decisively to strengthen integrity, protect the independence of the Auditor-General, and give Territorians confidence that complaints will be managed fairly and transparently.”
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