Fed: Stimulus school signs to get disclaimer sticker
By Stephen JohnsonFri Sep 4 01:56:08 EST 2009
Thu Sep 3 15:56:08 UTC 2009
EDS: Adds line to say signs would be moved if they were within six metres of a polling booth, in paragraph six.
CANBERRA, Sept 3 AAP - The federal government will place disclaimer stickers on signs outside schools advertising its stimulus measures after criticisms they could influence voters on election day.
Schools that receive infrastructure funding as part of the stimulus are required to display signs until the end of March 2011, by which time an election would have been held.
But now these "nation-building" signs will carry a disclaimer after the Australian Electoral Commissioner told the government political authorisation was needed.
The opposition has accused the government of engaging in a political ploy to influence voters at polling places.
Minister for Government Service Delivery Mark Arbib said the government had agreed to put disclaimer stickers on the 5,000 existing signs.
Signs still to be put up will be modified. Those within six metres of a polling place will be moved.
"More than likely it will mean placing a sticker ... an authorisation sticker on the signage during an election campaign, it might mean covering up the signs," Senator Arbib said.
But the minister insisted this development was not a win for the Liberal Party.
"The complaint has been made, that has been looked at by the Australian Electoral Commission and they believe that authorisation is required to bring these signs in accordance with the Australian Electoral Act," he said.
It was unclear exactly what the stickers would say but they could resemble the authorisations required for political advertisements.
Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne wrote to the Electoral Commission last week to complain that the school signs would be in breach of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.
"They contain political slogans straight out of the Labor Party's talking points which makes them political advertisements," he said. "The signs are blatantly and transparently pro-government."
Mr Pyne has called on the government to release its advice with the Electoral Commission, which did not put out a statement on its website on Thursday.
Labor has insisted the signs will stay but Mr Pyne said Education Minister Julia Gillard needed to reverse guidelines requiring the signs to stay in place until 2011, even if the project is completed.
A third of the government's $42 billion stimulus package - or $14 billion - will be spent on building primary school classrooms and halls.
Another $821 million has been devoted to high school science and language centres.
