Speaker Rattenbury has adjudicated on the childish squabbling about Alistair Coe and Vicki Dunne’s publicly funded newsletters:
In examining the matter I have ascertained that the advice of the Secretariat’s Corporate Services Office was sought on the content of a proposed publication before it was printed but that the published version included additional material that was not subject to any advice from Corporate Services.
I have determined that the additional material is of a party political and campaign nature. The language used in this additional content includes a headline criticising “ACT Labor” which is precisely the sort of language that election candidates and political parties use in their campaign material.
The Liberals will now have to fund the cost of putting out their publication and, one hopes, tighten up their processes to avoid such errors in future.
[You up the back there! Stop sniggering!]
UPDATE 27/06/12 17:55: John Hargreaves has wasted no time in sticking the boot into the hapless tories:
There has now been discovered another sneaky attempt by the Canberra Liberals to
circumvent the expenditure guidelines for members of the Legislative Assembly.Today I received advice from the Speaker confirming the misuse of public money by Liberal
members, Vicki Dunne and Alistair Coe.“I am astounded, but not surprised, that the Canberra Liberals have again been caught out
producing an election campaign pamphlet by abusing an entitlement and misusing taxpayers
money”, said Mr Hargreaves“To cap it all off, they altered the approved version of the pamphlet and produced one in
deliberate contravention of the Members’ Guide and Speaker’s directions.
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