The Rise of Political Advisors in the Westminster System by Yee-Fui Ng

Author:Yee-Fui Ng [Ng, Yee-Fui]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781351020527
Google: zx9WDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 39949771
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

Australia

Australian ministerial advisors have been embroiled in a number of controversies that can be classified into three main categories:

•Media issues: Ministerial advisors behaving improperly or unethically in leaking information;

•Interference with the bureaucracy: Ministerial advisors interfering with bureaucratic processes or decision-making; or

•Parliamentary issues: Ministerial advisors being banned from appearing before parliamentary committees.

Media issues

Tony Hodges, ministerial advisor to then Prime Minister Julia Gillard, leaked information to protesters from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy about the location of the then Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott. This led to the Australia Day riot in 2012, where 200 protesters surrounded a restaurant in Canberra, angered by reports that the Opposition Leader had said it was time to pull the Aboriginal Tent Embassy down. Gillard had what the international media described as a ‘Cinderella’ moment: she had to be unceremoniously evacuated from the restaurant by a security guard, losing her shoe along the way. Gillard later stated: ‘Mr Hodges in taking these actions acted alone and his actions were not authorised. Clearly they are viewed by me as unacceptable’. Following public revelation of his behaviour, the advisor resigned.

Similarly, in 2017, David De Garis, senior media advisor to Employment Minister Michaelia Cash, leaked to the media information about controversial police raids on the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU). The raid was ordered by the Registered Organisations Commission, which was investigating a $100,000 donation from the AWU to activist organisation GetUp. This investigation was said to be politically motivated to discredit Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who was the head of AWU at the time of the donation. Cash had previously repeatedly told a Senate Committee that her ministerial office had no involvement in tipping off the media about the police raid. Her advisor later confessed that he had leaked this information to the press. Cash retracted her statements and the advisor resigned from his position. Cash refused to resign, claiming that she was unaware of the actions of her staffer.

Interference with the bureaucracy

Ministerial advisors have interfered with Freedom of Information processes at the Australian State level. In 2012, almost half of Victorian Ministers were reported to use senior ministerial staff to decide what should be released through FOI requests, rather than departmental FOI officers (Tomazin 2012). The New South Wales Ombudsman also found that Ministers’ offices were reviewing new and contentious FOI applications and draft determinations, which caused a delay in processing applications (New South Wales Ombudsman 2009, p. 38). These actions may politicise the FOI decision-making processes, such that public servants are unable to properly fulfil their statutory duties. Interference with FOI processes is also part of a broader information control strategy by governments, to actively block the dissemination of information that will be detrimental to its interests.

Parliamentary issues

The Australian political system retains some elements of its British roots. It is a constitutional monarchy with two Houses of Parliament. Significantly, the introduction of proportional representation in 1949 has made it probable that the Upper House will not be controlled by the government. To illustrate, in the period of more than

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