The unkindest cut
(See also
- Independent Review of Government Advertising Arrangements
- Auditor-General’s Response to the Review
- Letter to the Auditor-General from the Secretary, Department of Finance and Deregulation)
KATHARINE MURPHY
April 3, 2010
Labor’s new dawn of accountability in government advertising has ended with the auditor being sidelined.
JUST over a week ago, Ian McPhee stumbled on some unhappy news: he was about to be kicked in the pants by the Rudd government. Being kicked in the pants is never pleasant. It’s probably less pleasant than usual when you are the Auditor-General of the Commonwealth, a position of some importance and dignity. McPhee did not take the news well.
He contacted his political boss, Special Minister of State Joe Ludwig, to get to the bottom of what he was hearing. The government had appointed McPhee with some fanfare to police millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded advertising campaigns. This was a major integrity reform introduced by a government that had promised to be cleaner than its predecessor. He had heard he was about to be dumped. This would be odd, wouldn’t it?
McPhee was handed a copy of an independent review which confirmed the bad news. Not only would he be sidelined, his office, the Australian National Audit Office, would be criticised for how it had conducted its duties. He would be replaced by a committee of former federal officials, including the author of the critical review, former departmental head Allan Hawke. It felt like an ambush.
Open government is Rudd’s aim JOE LUDWIG January 21, 2010
The Australian Government is accountable to the public every day, not just every few years at the ballot box. The way to make that accountability meaningful is to give Australians access to government information so they can assess and engage with government as well as scrutinise the activities of government themselves.
The information held by governments is a national resource to be managed in the public interest. Privacy and security reasons mean some information remains protected. But relevant information should be put online for the public to access, use and share.