Following the Gillard government’s announcement that an extra $10 million will be given to the Australian Local Government Association’s ‘yes’ campaign on the local government referendum, and $0.5 million to the ‘no’ case, the following statement was released by the National Convener of the Citizen’s ‘no’ case, Julian Leeser: “No government and no special interest group should be allowed to buy the Australian Constitution. But that is exactly what the government is doing by giving the ‘yes’ case twenty times more funding than the ‘no’ case. When a government spends this sort of money on one side of the debate, and not the other, Australians have the right to ask what the government is trying to sneak through. The Constitution is Australia’s birth certificate. The framers of our constitution gave the people the power to change the constitution, after properly considering the alternatives. But when the people are only going to hear one side of the argument we undermine our constitutional heritage. We also know the Government is going to fiddle with the ‘Yes’/’No’ booklet so fewer Australians see it and fewer people will read the ‘no’ case by putting it toward the back of the booklet. In an extraordinary move the Government has tried to do everything in its power to manufacture a result and buy a change to the constitution. So far $31.6 million of public funding has been allocated to the ‘yes’ case, including: • $10 million from Councils of ratepayer’s funds toward the Australian Local Government Association’s ‘yes’ campaign. • $10 million from the Federal government of taxpayer’s funds toward the ALGA ‘yes’ campaign. • $11.6 million from the Federal government to run a ‘national civics education campaign’ to promote the ‘yes’ case. By comparison, $0.5 million has been allocated to the ‘no’ campaign. We call on all political parties in the Australian Parliament to provide equal funding to both sides of the debate, and ensure that every elector receives the ‘yes’/’no’ booklet in its traditional form”.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 11:25:36 +0000
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