{"id":34476,"date":"2025-08-24T16:52:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=34476"},"modified":"2025-08-24T16:52:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:52:47","slug":"yes-minister-even-in-caretaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/08\/24\/yes-minister-even-in-caretaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Minister – Even in Caretaker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ACT Greens are calling for fresh hearings in the parliamentary inquiry into Caretaker Conventions, after documents released under Freedom of Information revealed multiple potential breaches of the rules before and after the 2024 ACT Election.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese FOI documents show Labor used government resources and the ACT Public Service to help coordinate and support election campaign events, so it\u2019s pretty clear the caretaker conventions are not having the effect they\u2019re meant to,\u201d said Andrew Braddock MLA, Greens spokesperson on Democracy and Integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe public service is a crucial asset to our democracy, and I will always defend it. This evidence shows a direct threat to the apolitical and unbiased nature of the public service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think Labor has been in government for such a long time that there\u2019s complacency on both sides, among the politicians and the public service, that\u2019s not so much nefarious as it is foreseeable and disappointing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn one case, we\u2019ve got Labor candidates posing for social media pictures in the refurbished Fitzroy Pavilion at EPIC, seven weeks before the ACT Government officially reopened it,\u201d Mr Braddock said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was even an instance of the public service preparing an entire briefing pack for Andrew Barr – with speaking notes, instructions on where to park, a list of attending VIPs and which media outlets would be there \u2013 for the opening of Carlotta Restaurant less than 48 hours before election day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow could anyone think it\u2019s appropriate to use Territory resources to support Andrew Barr to cut a ribbon, two days before polls closed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is clearly a case where Mr Barr could have attended without the assistance of the ACT Public Service, or, as the caretaker conventions say, the public service could have also briefed the opposition and the crossbench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd that is why I have brought these issues to light \u2013 because I believe it is vital that there are appropriate protections and mechanisms to ensure our public servants can remain apolitical at all times, especially during caretaker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a public service town, Canberrans understand the importance of remaining impartial and able to provide frank, fearless advice to the government of the day. When those boundaries blur, we must examine the causes, address entrenched issues and strengthen the ACTPS so public servants have the independence to do their jobs as intended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPolitical parties and candidates can ask for access to government facilities for electioneering, and the public service can provide it. But in these cases, it was the Chief Minister\u2019s office asking, and the public service is in the habit of saying yes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ministerial offices and the ACT Public Sector switch into \u2018caretaker\u2019 mode in the lead up to an election, to make sure the ordinary services of government continue while politicians are kept at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rules around the caretaker period are not legally enforceable<\/a>, but they are a convention followed in democracies around the world to avoid binding an incoming government. They effectively level out the advantage of being an incumbent government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ACT\u2019s caretaker conventions<\/a> reinforce the apolitical nature of the ACT Public Service \u201cby avoiding the use of Territory resources in a manner that advantages a particular party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The documents provided under FOI show Labor staffers and ACT public servants used Territory resources to set up Labor campaign events and unnecessarily support candidate community engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CMTEDDFOI 2025-088 is available on the ACT Government\u2019s FOI Disclosure Log<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ACT Greens are calling for fresh hearings in the parliamentary inquiry into Caretaker Conventions, after documents released under Freedom of Information revealed multiple potential breaches of the rules before and after the 2024 ACT Election. \u201cThese FOI documents show Labor used government resources and the ACT Public Service to help coordinate and support election … Continue reading “Yes, Minister – Even in Caretaker”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34477,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34476\/revisions\/34477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}