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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 2 Hansard (28 February) . . Page.. 423 ..
MR BERRY (continuing):
That is fair enough, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. The document from which I am quoting continues:
2. All advertising of material must be approved by the Manager, Publishing & Shopfront Services prior to its acceptance. Copy may be rejected without reasons being given.
That is one area one would not necessarily agree with. The list continues:
The ACT government will not be liable for any penalty if copy is not accepted-
and one accepts that-
3. No political advertising of any sort will be accepted-
we can cop that; that seems reasonable enough-
4. The following disclaimer must be included in all non ACT Government advertising: "The ACT Government does not necessarily endorse the products or services advertised"-
there is no problem with that-
5. In securing advertising the ACT Government will endeavour to treat all potential advertisers equally, providing all areas of the market the opportunity to access the facility.
That is fair enough. The last point is:
6. Non Government advertising must be related to staff's employment and/or remuneration, including benefits for staff utilising specific services/products.
The Australian Nursing Federation wrote to the government requesting the inclusion of an advertisement in the pay slips which are sent to nurses. The advertisement went something like this: "The Australian Nursing Federation ACT Branch vigorously represents ACT nurses on industrial relations issues. All non-union nurses are encouraged to contact ANF office"-it gives the phone number-"for details on joining your union or, alternatively, making a contribution to our campaign".
That is a pretty reasonable sort of request-the sort of request that you might hear from any range of people on a range of issues if they are encouraging membership or encouraging some sort of business enterprise. It is quite a reasonable approach.
Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, following that letter being sent there was a response from the chief executive, which reads-and I am prepared to table all of this material:
I understand you have made enquiries about inserting a message in ACT Public Service pay advice slips and that you have briefly discussed this issue with ... Director of Public Sector Management Group.
As you are now aware, there are guidelines setting out the approach-
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