Shadow Attorney General, Steve Edgington, says the Gunner Government have been caught out breaching its own laws using taxpayer dollars to promote the Labor Party within an official Government document.
During the February sittings, the Attorney General tabled a Ministerial Report that was riddled with references to the Labor Party. This is a clear breach of the Public Information Act.
“After being referred to the Auditor-General, findings have now been released showing that the report clearly breached the Public Information Act by “promoting particular Labor party interests”. What is more surprising that the very rules that the Gunner Labor Government has breached were drafted by them in the last term of government.
“The ‘Achieving Equality in the Northern Territory’ report tabled in Parliament by the Territory’s top lawmaker Attorney-General, Selena Uibo, made multiple references to the ‘Territory Labor Government’ and perceived achievements over the past five years.
“This is disgraceful. The document was produced using Territory taxpayer funds and should have been limited to the facts, not promoting Labor party interests. The timing is particularly suspicious given the impending Federal Election.
“Ultimately this is nothing more than propaganda designed to try and make Labor look good, and is another example of the Gunner Government’s incompetent, self-absorbed, hypocritical and politicised approach to governing the Territory.
“This report is clearly a political stunt and nothing but propaganda for the upcoming election.
“The Gunner Government should publicly apologise for using taxpayer dollars to produce the report and pay back any public funds used to produce it. In addition, there must be checks and balances in place to ensure that such a breach does not happen in the future. “This revelation further erodes Territorian’s trust in this appalling Gunner Labor Government. If the Territory’s highest law officer is prepared to blatantly break the rules, and so publicly, what hope have Territorians got that even more reckless breaches of public trust aren’t going on behind closed doors?” said Mr Edgington.
ENDS