ALP all talk on press freedom

NOVICE Victorian Premier John Brumby knows a sure way to win the support of the media is to plug for greater transparency and pander to the Right To Know movement, supported by leading executives from News Limited, Fairfax, the ABC, Free TV Australia, SBS, Commercial Radio Australia, AAP and Sky News.

His presentation on the topic to an Australia-Pacific newspaper forum has been featured in newspapers and lauded editorially. John Curtin, he said, was a journalist who became one of our greatest wartime prime ministers. Asked why he conducted so many press conferences, Curtin replied: "The press is the voice of democracy''. And Curtin was correct. The pity is that since Curtin's day, his party, the ALP, has been at the forefront of the political and bureaucratic war against the media that rages to this day. While neither of the major political parties can claim to have clean hands in the fight against media freedom, Labor is the worst offender. Brumby told the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association conference that his government will introduce legislation to modernise the Freedom of Information process but, on past performance, that pledge will come to nothing. A number of major newspapers now have staff who are principally engaged in wrestling with state and federal governments over information that should be in the public domain but which, for blatant political purposes, is strenuously protected by armies of lawyers paid from the public purse. Even as Brumby finished his self-promotional address last week, The Daily Telegraph's Kelvin Bissett was measuring the cost of accessing information he wished to publish. One of the stories he believed the public had the right to read was on bungled medical procedures conducted in NSW hospitals. The NSW public health service is notoriously reluctant to provide the public with a glimpse into its operations. Bissett said NSW health bureaucrats refused requests to provide details of the number of "unplanned'' returns to surgery - the accepted measure of operating bungles, or information relating to a range of other "critical health care performance indicators.'' He said NSW area health services had been served under the FoI Act and in every case the applications have been rejected. This is not Brumby's problem, it is NSW Premier Morris Iemma's, but every premier is at fault for depriving the public with information they should reasonably expect in order to make informed decisions about health, education, transport and safety. But Brumby could easily show he is genuine in his regard for democracy by shedding light on something I'm still curious about - the decision taken by one of his predecessors, Premier Joan Kirner, who opted not to prosecute her Victorian ALP colleague, Martin Ferguson, over what senior Victorian police described as a prima facie case of blackmail by the ACTU against Tennis Australia, during Mr Ferguson's stewardship of the peak union body. Kirner claimed to have sought advice from then Police Commissioner Kel Glare, advising her against prosecution but that advice was never made public, a decision which, when robustly challenged, resulted in a successful defamation suit against The Herald-Sun newspaper. Ferguson is now one of the plethora of former ACTU bosses who would be on Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's front bench should Rudd win office at the next federal election. Rudd is no cleanskin when it comes to suppression of public information either, as his rather inglorious record as head of former Queensland Premier Wayne Goss's Cabinet office shows. "Dr Death'', as Rudd was known, was a great believer in the shredder as the ultimate tool in the battle to cover political wheeling and dealing. But Rudd could demonstrate that he has had a change of heart if he were to move to release the documents relating to the commission of inquiry into Gough Whitlam's appointee to the High Court, Mr Justice Lionel Murphy. Rudd could easily demonstrate his credentials by revoking the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (Repeal) Act 1986 so the Australian people can make up their own minds about the integrity of the former ALP icon. So, here's the challenge to Rudd. Move to have the Murphy files released this week and show that the ALP isn't just hot air on press freedom - Curtin's "voice of democracy''.