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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Thursday, 11 March 2004) . . Page.. 1063 ..

The authorisation rules also mean that people cannot hide behind anonymity to make irresponsible or defamatory statements about election matters. It is standard practice in the Electoral Act to exempt government publications from the need to include an “authorised by” statement provided that the publications are clearly identified as ACT government publications using standard elements such as the Canberra coat of arms. These amending regulations simply extend this exemption to government publications using the “Building our city, building our community” logo.

The regulations apply only to publications of ACT government agencies. If these regulations are disallowed, all ACT government publications that use the “Building our city, building our community logo” that fall within the broad definition of electoral matters will need to carry an “authorised by” statement. This would clearly be unnecessary and out of step with the intent of the authorisation provisions.

My government decided to adopt the “Building our city, building our community” theme in April last year. The branding “Building our city, building our community” comprises a graphic logo and a tag line with the words “Building our city, building our community” and “ACT government”. It was first introduced in May 2003 in association with the budget. Since that time it has been progressively introduced on a cost conscious basis across government agencies, with the exception of most statutory authorities and government business enterprises.

The aim of the theme is to simply and coherently communicate what the ACT government is seeking to achieve for Canberra and its residents. This attempt by the Liberal Party to disallow the exemption shows that they must be worried about the success of the government. They must be worried that the residents of Canberra can see that the government is in fact building a city and building a community.

The “Building our city” component of the theme emphasises the physical and tangible programs the government is undertaking to help the ACT and its citizens develop in a sustainable and equitable way. It applies to the variety of government decisions, policies and initiatives that plan for, build or deliver physical infrastructure. The “Building our community” component of the theme applies to government decisions, initiatives and policies that plan for, and deliver, support, community services and capacity building, focusing on social policy reform and service delivery. The purpose of the “Building our city, building our community” logo is to promote the ACT government to the Canberra community. It is applied to most government communication material and ought to present a coordinated message promoting ACT government administration and service delivery.

The ACT has copyright in the “Building our city, building our community” logo and will take action to protect its legal interests in the logo. It would be an infringement of the ACT’s copyright interest here for an unauthorised person to reproduce the work in a material form, publish the work or otherwise communicate the work to the public. It will not, of course, be used by Australian Labor Party candidates for the forthcoming election. I give that commitment. I am surprised that I need to do so, but I give that commitment. In that light there is simply no justification for proceeding with this disallowance motion. This is simply another example of the sort of needless, shallow, mindless, petty politics that we see so often from the other side.

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