Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition) Share this | Hansard source

Just to clarify: part of this proposed appropriation, and therefore one of the reasons we are debating the suspension of this provision of the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984, is to facilitate the Commonwealth advocating its preferred view in this campaign. I am assuming that, because it is not the government's view, it does not plan to fund an alternative view, whereas in 1999 there was public funding for a yes campaign and a no campaign. In 1988 there was no public funding for any campaign, I understand. It did end up in the High Court, if my memory serves me correctly—I was a bit younger then. The publicity that the Commonwealth was able to fund was limited to, effectively, the yes/no booklet. I just want to achieve real clarity around this. I think this is a critical point in debating this particular provision.