REGULATIONS AND
DETERMINATIONS Parliamentary Business Resources Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1)
Regulations 2019 Disallowance Senator FARRELL (South Australia—Deputy Leader of
the Opposition in the Senate) (21:29): I move: That item 4 of the Parliamentary
Business Resources Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2019, made under
the Parliamentary Business Resources Act 2017, be disallowed [F2019L00177]. The
PRESIDENT: The question is that business of the Senate notice of motion No. 2,
standing in the name of Senator Farrell, relating to the disallowance of item 4
of the Parliamentary Business Resources Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1)
Regulations 2019, be agreed to. The Senate divided. [21:34] (The
President—Senator Ryan)
Ayes
......................34 Noes ......................26 Majority.................8
The New Daily, 4 April 2019:
The Morrison government
has lost a bid to allow MPs to use taxpayer-funded electoral allowances to pay
for TV and radio advertisements during the looming federal election campaign.
Late on Wednesday night
– in one of this parliament’s last votes before the election is called – the
Senate dumped a government regulation allowing $22 million of public
money to
be used for political ads in the lead up to May’s federal poll.
MPs have a budget of
about $137,000 for electorate communications, while senators have up to
$109,000.
Under existing rules,
they cannot use office expenses money to pay for content on television or
radio. The government’s changes would have allowed them to use printing
entitlements to buy TV and radio ads for the first time.
The Coalition had argued
lifting the ban on TV and radio promotions would have put Australian media on a
level playing field by ensuring all communities had the same access to
information from their federal MP.
But Labor frontbencher
Don Farrell, who moved the disallowance motion in the Senate, accused Prime
Minister Scott Morrison of wasting taxpayers’ money in a bid to save his job.
“Publicly funded office
budgets are for members and senators to communicate with their constituents –
not for spamming voters with hollow election slogans from the ad man, Scott
Morrison,” he said.
With the support of the
Greens and a handful of crossbench senators, Labor won the disallowance vote....
The heroes of
the hour who saved us all from what was clearly an attempt to create a lasting
rort at taxpayer’s expense were:
Bilyk,
CL. Carr, KJ. Chisholm, A. Ciccone, R. Di Natale, R. Dodson, P. Farrell, D.
Faruqi, M. Gallacher, AM. Griff, S. Hanson-Young, SC. Hinch, D. Ketter, CR. (teller) Kitching, K. Lines, S. Marshall, GM.
McAllister, J. McCarthy, M. McKim, NJ. O'Neill, DM. Patrick, RL. Polley, H.
Pratt, LC. Rice, J. Siewert, R. Smith, DPB. Steele-John, J. Sterle, G. Storer,
TR. Urquhart, AE. Waters, LJ. Watt, M. Whish-Wilson, PS. Wong, P.
Well
done one and all!
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