Laurie Ferguson (Reid, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I raise the recently published discussion paper by UNSW visiting fellow Joan Staples entitled NGOs out in the cold: the Howard government policy towards NGOs. It is part of the Democratic Audit of Australia project at the ANU. Joan Staples details that, since coming to power, the Howard government has significantly undermined the traditional model underlying the relationship between government and non-government organisations, that government policies and practices have essentially pressured many NGOs into silence and that the traditional role played by the sector revolved around helping shape public advocacy. It was an integral part of a healthy and functioning democracy. Likewise, the activism of the NGO, or civil society groups as they are also known in some countries, has been a reflection of society itself. These groups include local resident groups, community legal centres, health awareness groups, environmental and consumer groups, sporting associations and ethnic communities. Clearly, the diversity of these groups reflects the richness of the society. They have consistently been a source of ideas on the society we hope we might become and of the aspirations and ideas that should be contested and debated.

In 1991, five years before the Howard government assumed power, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Community Affairs brought down a report in which it commented on the role of NGOs. It said:

An integral part of the consultative and lobbying role of these organisations is to disagree with government policy where this is necessary in order to represent the interests of their constituents.

Upon coming to power, John Howard referred to these groups as ‘single issue groups’, ‘special interests’ and ‘elites’. He promised that his government would be owned by no special interests, defend no special privileges and be accountable only to the Australian people.

Recent appointments to the ABC board in the last week, where three people are associated with one particular journal, and the back scratching we just heard from the member for Aston who had the absolute hide to describe one of those appointees, Janet Albrechtsen, as a respected commentator, show the mutual self-interest of the Howard government and its conservative elements. Of course, there is a massive gap between what Howard said and the reality of the interest groups that his government is beholden to.

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