Page 2809 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 1991
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every individual or organisation in Australia that can pay for getting their message across on the electronic media. Many people do not read newspapers. Reading some of them, one can well understand why. However, a lot of people get their information from the radio and the television. If there is a ban on what can be said politically - basically, that is what it is - on the radio and television, that would prevent the possibility of many people finding out things that could well be important to the community.
It is all very well saying that people have an opportunity on normal talkback radio and in the newspapers and other areas. However, every one of us knows - certainly the public do - that there are many subjects, or particular viewpoints on subjects, that the media are extremely reluctant to talk about and in some cases totally refuse to present. It may be the case that the only possibility for an organisation to get an unbiased message out is to pay for advertising. I think that is unfortunate. It is certainly a condemnation on certain sections of the major media.
However, such is the case, and to prevent these organisations from doing that is appalling. If we heard about such a situation in the Soviet Union, I am sure that if it was a matter before this house we would condemn it out of hand; even the Labor Party would. We would condemn the effort by government to prevent people having a say, yet we have the remarkable situation that this is happening in Australia now.
There is little doubt that, since the proposal was presented by the Federal Labor Party, a tremendous opposition has been built. Practically no-one is in support of it. Most organisations that have spoken out are against it. Certainly, the media are against it, although one could understand why; the radio or television stations may have a vested interest; but certainly the newspapers may not have, and they are against it as well. Certainly, the public in Australia are against it. I think it is important for us to carry a message from the ACT to the Federal Government that we do not believe that they have the right, nor should they try, to remove the right of all citizens to advertise electronically.
MR HUMPHRIES (3.51): Mr Speaker, Mr Stevenson mentioned that this matter had been debated some time ago in this Assembly; it was on 21 March this year. I am not greatly inclined to say much more than what I said on that occasion; therefore, I will not take much time in this debate.
I generally agree with the thrust of what Mr Stevenson said; that there are many concerning points in the proposals put forward by the Federal Labor Government to curtail political advertising. The arguments put forward on behalf of the plan to do so are very thin. They resemble, to my mind, the sorts of arguments that the
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