State’s ham-fisted attempt to muzzle media is an embarrassment
In less than 24 hours, the Palaszczuk government backflipped on its extreme plans to criminalise media reporting of corruption allegations against candidates during election campaigns. How utterly embarrassing, writes The Editor.
Opinion
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How utterly embarrassing.
In less than 24 hours, the Palaszczuk government yesterday backflipped on its extreme plans to criminalise media reporting of corruption allegations against candidates during election campaigns.
At lunchtime on Thursday, Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath told state parliament that the legislation she was introducing was vital for ensuring Queenslanders were “fully and reliably informed” when they votedand “not distracted by publication of fanciful allegations and complaints”.
But mid-morning Friday Ms D’Ath announced that the Government was scrapping the legislation, apparently because it had figured out there was not enough time left before the October 31 election for the laws to be properly scrutinised by the parliamentary committee system.
What a sad joke.
If Ms D’Ath’s process excuse was at all genuine then it would be a dim reflection on herself as she should know better than most MPs how Parliament works given she is paid extra as Leader of the House.
However, the claim about the lack of time is a veritable fig leaf being used to cover up for its ham-fisted attempt to muzzle the media on the eve of a state election.
Ms D’Ath, though, should not be the lone scapegoat for this episode of rank political lunacy and arrogance.
The entire Palaszczuk government cabinet sat around the table on Monday and collectively decided to push ahead with an idea that had been repeatedly put forward by the Crime and Corruption Commission and repeatedly rejected by a broad collective of individuals and organisations.
It went so far as to have legislation drafted and introduced while Ms D’Ath moved an urgency motion to ensure it was debated at the final sitting of Parliament next month. So much for being caught unaware about the limited capacity for proper consultation.
Yet after widespread criticism, from media outlets, journalists, the union that represents the industry and free speech advocates, the Palaszczuk government capitulated with a two paragraph statement.
In fact, one of the most vocal critics of this move to criminalise the reporting of corruption allegations last time it was put forward was the Premier herself.
In an opinion piece in The Courier-Mail, Ms Palaszczuk accurately observed at the time that corruption could flourish under such censorship. “I am very concerned that the new offences proposed by the CCC’s inquiry regarding the reporting and publishing of corruption allegations against council election candidates during a campaign period might deter those who can expose corrupt behaviour from doing so,” she wrote.
So what happened in the intervening years between when a relatively new premier was stridently opposed to laws that put limitations on the media to this vainglorious all-guns-blazing attempt to ram such laws through just before an election?
It is not a stretch to link this blatant attempt to manipulate what is published with the string of integrity scandals that the government has endured over the years, each of which would have cost Ms Palaszczuk some good will from among Queenslanders.
Former deputy premier Jackie Trad now sits as a humbled backbencher after two very significant CCC probes.
Transport Minister Mark Bailey is lucky not to be sitting beside her after his private email use scandal.
It is entirely possible that ministers in this second-term Labor government were so concerned about what might come next that they came to the conclusion that the strife-prone administration could not sustain yet another significant scandal.
Yet their inability to read how this blatant intrusion on free speech would play out for them, their gross misunderstanding of the consequences of what they were attempting, is demonstrative of the cacophony and ineptitude that must be occurring in all their decision-making.
How can Queenslanders now trust any of the decisions made to protect the community from the coronavirus pandemic are actually driven by health concerns and not concocted for political expediency?
In their hubris, the government assumed that this would be yet another “inside the beltway” issue and no one would care about the media talking about itself.
How wrong they were.
The reaction to Ms Palaszczuk’s over-reach on this issue showed Queenslanders were reviled by the idea that they couldn’t decide for themselves whether an allegation had merit.
It has shown with great clarity that Queensland’s accidental government remains just as dysfunctional and derelict of its duty as the day it was elected.
They should all hang their heads in shame.