Page 48 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep 2021

48 SENATE ESTIMATES
SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
SENATE ESTIMATES MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
The unprecedented clampdown on Defence’s engagement with media imposed –
or agreed to without explanation – by Defence Minister Peter Dutton, has reinforced the importance of Senate Estimates in prising information from sometimes-reluctant Ministers, senior ADF officers, and bureaucrats. Especially bureaucrats.
JULIAN KERR | SYDNEY
THE spectrum ranges from hard-won insights into the prog- ress or otherwise of multi-billion-dollar programs to elicit- ing responsibilities – the latter an activity that occasionally resembles an episode of Yes Minister.
This aspect was on show at the standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade legislation on 1 and 2 June. Although only two months after Dutton assumed the Defence portfolio, it was long enough for the new and re- strictive media contact guidelines to have been circulated within Defence, with an immediate and adverse impact.
But circulated by whom?
Although the Minister’s office has failed to respond to questions on the genesis of the restrictions, Associate Sec- retary of Defence Katherine Jones told the committee on 1 June she understood that an email had been sent “by someone within the department purporting to paraphrase.”
As set out in the leaked guidelines, responses to media queries were to be as brief and succinct as possible with answers limited to three paragraphs regardless of question complexity, while capability-related interviews were un- likely to be approved and should instead revert to written responses.
Questioned by Senate opposition leader Penny Wong, Jones was reported by Hansard as saying she did not know who had distributed the email but it was a low-level officer.
“What I would say is that, in the course of engaging the Minister’s office around media issues, we received feedback in our ministerial and executive communication area. That gen- eral feedback and advice about expectations was then com- municated more broadly to the senior leadership,” Jones said.
Senator Wong: “Somebody in your area – is that right? – received those instructions from the Minister’s office,
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