Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

During this campaign, a direction was made to the then secretary of Finance, Mr Tune. He was asked in Senate estimates:

Are you familiar with many other instances where very senior officials or secretaries have been directed by ministers around advertising campaigns during caretaker periods?

Mr Tune said:

I cannot recall any … I have certainly not come across it myself in the past.

Senator Smith asked:

So unique and exceptional in your experience?

Mr Tune:

Indeed.

Senator Smith:

Unprecedented, even?

Mr Tune:

For me, yes.

Unprecedented, political interference—there it was. They wrote some letters about this. A letter from Mr Dreyfus QC, Special Minister of State to the Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship directing the Public Service to continue running a blatantly political ad, which was so dishonest. What it sought to do was claim that the Labor Party had won a great victory in the battle against people smuggling. In fact, there were never better friends for the people smugglers than the Labor Party. They dismantled the Howard government policies which worked. The consequences, we know, were 50,000 unauthorised arrivals and thousands of deaths at sea. It was a total catastrophe.

Then, at the eleventh hour—after Kevin Rudd returned as Prime Minister—they tried in a scramble to adopt the coalition's policy and then claimed victory with ads that were blatantly political and should never have been run during the caretaker period but were run on the express directions of the Special Minister of State—now the shadow Attorney-General—overruling the caretaker conventions. The Labor Party's record in government advertising is a disgrace.

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