www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today suggested the Labor party had politicised the Port Arthur Historical Site Management Authority (the Authority) after the 2008-09 annual report featured multiple glossy photos of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Premier David Bartlett.
Greens Environment and Heritage spokesperson Cassy O’Connor MP said it is enough that the Labor Party has loaded the board of the Authority with a number of people closely associated with Labor, but they had now chosen to ensure that glossy photos of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Premier David Bartlett appear regularly throughout the 2008-09 annual report.
Ms O’Connor also said it is telling that while Environment Minister Michelle O’Byrne, who is actually the oversight Minister for the Authority, is regularly obscured in the photos of the Premier and Prime Minister.
“The Labor Party seems to know no bounds when it comes to exploiting public institutions for their own political advantages, and it is patently obvious in this case that they have used the Authority’s annual report as a vehicle to promote their Premier and Prime Minister, while relegating the responsible Minister into the background,” said Ms O’Connor.
The seven-member Board of the Authority currently contains a former Labor Premier, a former federal Labor Minister, a preferred Labor bureaucrat, and a former potential Labor candidate for the seat of Lyons.
Attached: Photos of Kevin Rudd and David Bartlett taken from the 2008-09 report of the Port Arthur Historical Site Management Authority, available at
http://www.portarthur.org.au/pdfs/PAReport08-2009Final.pdf
Cassy O’Connor MP Greens Environment and Heritage spokesperson
