Rudd Government pulls embarrassing Austrade submission – so much for “frank and fearless advice”
10th September, 2009
Highly embarrassed by a public Austrade submission to a Senate Inquiry that strongly criticises Rudd Government policy, the Trade Minister has taken the extraordinary step of ordering it to be withdrawn.The actions of Simon Crean to gag Austrade was appalling on many levels, said Shadow Trade Minister, Warren Truss.
Yesterday, Mr Crean ordered Austrade – a respected public service agency that reports to him – to withdraw this critical submission. According to Mr Crean, it “doesn’t represent Government policy” and “was not cleared by my office”.
Yet the Austrade submission accurately reflects the strong majority view of exporters in this country, who are about to slammed with export certifications fees rising by up to 1350 percent. Austrade stated clearly in the submission to a Senate Inquiry that the proposals were likely to lead to “a reduction in Australia’s competitive position in key international markets”.
Austrade also states that the policy would have a “significant impact” on exporters, particularly those in regional areas and developing their businesses, and “any reduction in regional exports due to barriers at the Australian border may have wider undesirable economic impacts”.
Mr Truss said the stunning decision to muzzle Austrade from telling the truth raises many questions:
• How many ministers were involved in the decision to pull the report? Was it just Mr Crean, or also the Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, and the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd?
• What constitutes “frank and fearless advice” to the Government from the public service? Mr Crean said he wanted such advice, yet stated that Austrade’s submission had not been “cleared by my office” and did not “reflect Government policy”.
• What exactly constitutes “full advice” on a matter to this Government? Mr Crean said the Austrade submission did not reflect the “full advice” to the Government, yet of the remaining 28 submissions to the Senate Inquiry 19 were opposed to the Government’s decision.
• Mr Crean says the Austrade submission was “clumsily worded and misguided”. The submission is in fact a tightly written one-and-a half page document which is easy to follow and makes absolutely clear Austrade’s concern about these changes pushed by the Minister for Agriculture.
• Will Mr Crean order the sacking or “counselling” of public servants who made the submission in good faith?
• Mr Crean stated on the AM program that the horticulture industry supported the Government’s decision. Yet AM also interviewed the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Horticulture Exporters’ Association, Max Summers, who said that some exporters would be slugged $1000 per shipment – equal to their entire profit margin.
• Where does the Prime Minister’s stated claim that he wants to increase the independence of the Australian Public Service now stand?
• Has the Government modelled what Austrade refers to as the “wider undesirable economic impacts” of the policy to increase export quarantine certification costs?
• And perhaps most importantly, will the Government now abandon its incredibly destructive and widely opposed changes for export certification which will costs jobs and investment, particularly in regional Australia?
“The Rudd Government’s claimed commitment to ‘frank and fearless’ advice from the Australian Public Service is now in absolute tatters. The Prime Minister recently called a review in the public service and its independence – but it’s obvious now that the Government will continue to ignore anything that does not accord with its narrow view of the world,” Mr Truss said.
