Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

I understand the government are opposing this amendment. The opposition also do not support the amendment. I do understand the concerns raised by Senator Stott Despoja. There are a number of reasons why we do not support it. One reason is that we have advice that there may well be some legal problems in terms of the potential prohibition of elected representatives from contacting constituents. This may well be found to be unconstitutional, given the High Court’s decisions which look to the implied right to political communication.

Also, there is obviously in any legislation the need to consider the various public interest objectives. In our view, there is a significant offsetting public benefit associated with politicians being permitted to contact their constituents for non-telemarketing related reasons.