Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Human Services. Will the minister explain the importance of the minister's portfolio in protecting the key trademarks and brands of the Australian government from misuse by third parties? What action is taken to ensure this protection?

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for that question and for her interest in this topic. My department has responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the names and trademarks of many government agencies and services. This includes Centrelink, myGov, the Child Support Agency and, of course, Medicare. This is to ensure that, when Australians see those brands, they can have confidence in them. Australians do not want to have to second-guess whether the messages they receive from government agencies are legitimate. Having confidence in the Medicare brand is particularly important, given the trust that people place in it. Indeed, that is why we have legislation such as the Human Services (Medicare) Act to protect those brands from misuse.

We are all aware that the federal Labor Party deliberately used this brand during their federal campaign, and they tried to mislead and deceive the Australian public. But this week the ACT Labor Party was at it again, because they were distributing—

Mr Hill interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bruce is warned.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

its federal counterparts' flyers to their electorate, misusing the Medicare name.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister knows the rules about props.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On this occasion, they were caught out. As soon as my department became aware that this was occurring, they immediately took action. The Australian Governor Solicitor wrote to the ACT Labor Party and asked them to cease and desist. They were caught out. Within nine minutes of the ACT Labor Party receiving the letter from the Australian Government Solicitor, they had immediately apologised and agreed to cease and desist from using that Medicare logo again. I can quote from the email that Matthew Byrne, the secretary of the ACT Labor Party, wrote to the Australian Government Solicitor: 'I sincerely apologise on behalf of ACT Labor for this error and this use of the Medicare logo. I can confirm that I will not be doing it again.'

Mr Frydenberg interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for the Environment and Energy will cease interjecting.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If the head of the ACT Labor Party can determine that what they did was wrong and apologise for their actions within nine minutes, how long will it take the Leader of the Opposition to apologise for what he did during the federal campaign? What the Labor Party did then was much more egregious than what the ACT Labor Party did on this occasion. The Leader of the Opposition should be big enough to do exactly what the ACT Labor Party did and apologise for misleading the Australian public by sending out text messages, sending out lies and misleading— (Time expired)