Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) Share this | Hansard source

Apparently, Senator Watt—I'll take that interjection—she is the Minister for Defence, but I'm going to take her through what's happened with the Defence image gallery. I'm happy to give Senator Reynolds all of the web addresses so that she can check these for herself. On the issue of Defence imagery, Senator Reynolds referred to the Defence image gallery yesterday. There it is also a Defence video library, which is currently being revamped, and that's being hosted on YouTube in the interim while the revamp is occurring. I don't want to spend hours going through all of the video, but it's clear that the footage from Defence's YouTube channel was used in the Prime Minister's Twitter video.

Here are a few examples. At about 00:02 through to 00:04 in the Prime Minister's video, there is footage of Defence personnel clearing trees. That footage is from a Defence video, and again I have the web address for that. At about 00:05 through 00:09 in the Prime Minister's video, there is footage of the MV Sycamore. That footage is also from a Defence video. At about 00:10 to 00:14 in the Prime Minister's video, there is footage of personnel in helicopters. That footage is, in part, from a Defence video—it's the one of the ADF member giving the thumbs-up.

I want to go to the copyright section of Defence's website, and again I have the address for the minister if she would like to check. I don't plan to read all of it; it's quite lengthy. It starts with the copyright symbol, followed by 'Commonwealth of Australia 2020'. I'm only going to read parts of it:

This material can not be used for political purposes or in a way contrary to Defence's apolitical standing.

…   …   …

To obtain a Commercial, Reproduce and Share video and imagery licence, please contact Defence Digital Media. Provide links to the specific video and imagery and a detailed explanation of the intended use of the product.

If the minister is incapable of answering these questions, I've got another solution for her. If you go to the financial report 2018-19 and also go to the ANAO's recent report into Defence's media and communications activity—again, I'm sure that the minister will be able to find these, but if she can't I will be able to give her those references, and I'm going to give her the table numbers so that they are very clear and very easy to find—there are 129.6 employees in the Defence communications and media team. Let's round that up to 130 people in there. Did Minister Reynolds not go to visit any of those people, or did someone in her office not phone up and say, 'Hey, I got asked these questions about a video'? There are 130 people in that team. Surely one of them could have answered a question. That's referring to table 1.3 in the ANAO report, for the minister's benefit.

But wait. There's more. If you go to the financial year report for 2018-19, you'll see that that department cost the Australian taxpayer $21 million. Surely the minister, or the department, is able to answer the questions I asked yesterday? This is the Ministerial and Executive Coordination and Communication Division. I just want to be very clear so that people are able to follow this, including the minister and the department. But of course we've seen that, as the defence minister, she is not a lone ranger in this government in impinging upon the impartiality of the ADF. Remember that last March, before the federal election, we had then Minister Pyne, the predecessor of Minister Reynolds, doing a press conference with senior military personnel. He was asked some questions about preference deals that the government was going to enter into in the election. The Chief of Defence Force went up to him and said that it wasn't appropriate for them to be in that media conference, appearing, like some coalition members do, and sort of nodding in the background. That is not the role of the Defence Force. (Time expired)