Government bureaucrats ban local Labor MP from using Holden name in newsletter headline

FEDERAL bureaucrats have ordered an MP to remove the word “Holden” from a tribute to Adelaide car workers who will lose their jobs when the iconic carmaker closes its factory later this week.

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FEDERAL bureaucrats have ordered an MP to remove the word “Holden” from a tribute to Adelaide car workers who will lose their jobs when the iconic carmaker closes its factory later this week.

Labor MP Nick Champion accused the Federal Government of trying to airbrush the Holden factory closure from history after Finance Department officials told his office to remove the company’s name from a newsletter headline.

Mr Champion, whose northern suburbs electorate includes the Elizabeth car plant, wanted to include an article entitled, “A Tribute to Holden Workers” in his taxpayer-funded community newsletter.

Wakefield MP Nick Champion at the wheel of a 1964 Holden EH Premier in February with Peter Field of Craigmore and Robert Leggio of Parafield Gardens. Picture: Stephen Laffer

But public servants who had to approve the newsletter, told Mr Champion’s staff the word “Holden” would have to be removed from the headline because it was “commercial”.

A public servant suggested the headline instead say: “A tribute to Elizabeth Plant Workers”.

Mr Champion expressed outrage. “This is an Orwellian interference in my right to communicate with the people of the northern suburbs,” he said.

“The Turnbull Government has abandoned South Australia and refused to provide adequate assistance to redundant auto workers. Now they’ve adding insult to injury by trying to ban the word ‘Holden’ from our public debate.”

Although they objected to “Holden” being included in the headline, Finance officials allowed the word to be used in the tribute itself.

The department objected to the names of local businesses the MP had visited being included in the newsletter.

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In a brief statement to The Advertiser, a Finance Department spokesman said: “Members and Senators can use their office expenses for electoral and parliamentary purposes, but not for commercial purposes.’’

In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, protagonist Winston Smith is employed by the Ministry of Truth, where he spends his days rewriting old newspaper articles to ensure historical records are consistent with Government propaganda.

Mr Champion thanked Holden workers’ efforts. “Many of the cars the local workforce produced will be forever cherished and regarded as Australian icons, right up to the end,” he wrote.