Teal candidate’s newspaper accused of pulling Liberals’ articles

Liberals want The Post newspaper, published by teal candidate Tina Brown, to repay advertising money.

A blue on teal political war has erupted in Sydney’s leafy north, with a newspaper published by a Berowra ‘teal’ candidate accused of pulling down taxpayer-funded community messages.

Columns placed by Liberal MPs in The Post newspaper – paid for with taxpayer-funded communication allowances – have been erased from the masthead’s website, with those MPs also stripped from the list of contributors to the paper.

The Post is published by Tina Brown, who was last year endorsed by the “Voices of Berowra” group as a teal (or “community independent”) candidate.

Following her endorsement, Ms Brown has tried to distance herself from the paper she publishes.

Announcing her candidacy in the December issue, Ms Brown said she would hand over her editing role to “a bright young woman” to ensure “a fair and balanced reporting of the forthcoming federal campaign in The Post”.

Tina Brown, former editor of the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Post, is the Teal candidate for Berowra

However, in the months since Ms Brown announced her campaign, a number of taxpayer-funded articles from Liberal MPs have been deleted from the paper’s website.

That includes articles contributed by Liberal MPs.

It comes after The Post said Liberal MPs had refused to take out advertising space following Ms Brown’s endorsement.

Past editions of the paper from 2023 were also dumped from the website’s archive.

Federal and state Liberal MPs have now written to government officials in a bid to get The Post either repay the money, or reinstate the articles.

Berowra MP Julian Leeser was listed as a columnist, but no longer. Photo Jeremy Piper

State Liberal MP Matt Cross was also listed as a contributor. Picture: MATRIXNEWS

In a letter to Department of Parliamentary Services boss Mark Webb, Liberal Upper House MP Chris Rath said The Post had secretly started removing articles and advertisements from Liberal MPs.

“I am concerned that the removal of this content, that was paid for using taxpayer funds, could constitute breaches of MPs’ communications allowance rules,” he said.

In response, Mr Webb said that there was nothing he could do, but wanted to “note” that The Post has published content from other Teal candidates, “but elected to preclude similar content paid for by State MPs”.

Senator Maria Kovacic complained to the Finance Department about the missing columns. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

Senator Maria Kovacic also complained to the federal Finance Department, asking for bureaucrats to “take any necessary action” to get “advertisements and articles paid for using electoral allowance … re-uploaded,” or the costs repaid.

In the most recent edition, The Post spruiks an advertorial from Ms Brown’s campaign on its contents page. Ms Brown also placed an advertisement in the paper.

Bradfield teal candidate Nicolette Boele wrote a column, and took out ad space.

The Telegraph asked Ms Brown why content from Liberal MPs, and past editions of the paper, had been removed.

Her campaign originally directed inquiries to The Post, which Ms Brown publishes.

Ms Brown’s campaign did not provide a response, but late on Thursday night past editions of The Post started to reappear on the website.

Originally published as Teal candidate’s newspaper accused of pulling Liberals’ articles