No ad breaks on SBS part 2: Minister denies policy

For a quick overview click to read:
No ad breaks on SBS part 1: When is a policy not a policy?

In the May 2009 Senate Estimates the Greens spokesperson for Communications, Senator Ludlam questioned Minister Conroy about Labor’s pre-election policies in regard to SBS interrupting programs for commercial breaks. Part of the proceedings are cited below:-

Senator LUDLAM– You might require a slightly better citation than this. SaveOurSBS.org, the website, which I am sure you are familiar with, is running a quote by you when you were opposition spokesperson for communications: “Labor has opposed and continues to oppose the decision by SBS to introduce in-program advertising.” I will find the date of that for you.
Senator Conroy– No, I am not disagreeing that I said that-
Senator LUDLAM– Okay. That was-
Senator Conroy– I am disagreeing with your interpretation of what that meant.
Senator LUDLAM– Can you bring us up to date on what that actually meant?
Senator Conroy– It meant exactly what it said. It just did not mean what you are saying it said.
Senator LUDLAM– I am pretty happy with the context of the quote, that you opposed when you were in opposition-
Senator Conroy– I am pretty happy with it too; I made it.
Senator LUDLAM– But it was not government policy at the time; it was just an opinion?
Senator Conroy– It was an opinion. It was never stated-you will not find any election document or any public statement that says we would reverse it.
Senator LUDLAM– But it does not say-
Senator Conroy– There is a reason that you do not have a quote there saying we would reverse it, and the reason is that we never said it.
Senator LUDLAM– Sorry to belabour the point, but you also have not said, ‘I, Mr Conroy, oppose’; you have said, ‘Labor has opposed and continues to oppose’. But at the time you did not say, ‘But we will do nothing about it once we are in government’; you just opposed it on principle at the time?
Senator Conroy– Yes.

The Minister Conroy went onto tell Estimates that he was not happy with the situation.

The SaveOurSBS.org quote referred to above in Senate Estimates “Labor has opposed and continues to oppose the decision by SBS to introduce in-program advertising” was first published on the SaveOurSBS.org website on 11 October 2007 under the heading “What Each Party Will Do With SBS: Election 2007” – The SBS policies of each party explained.

But there are other documents that contain the quote. And it was far more than just an opinion expressed by Senator Conroy.

The quote was repeated multiple times by Senator Conroy then in the month of the election it was re-issued in  emails from Kevin Rudd and the ALP Campaign Information headquarters. By November 2007 the quote (above) had become official Labor party policy appearing on authorised ALP material under Labor’s chosen heading: Labor’s SBS Policy. Save Our SBS has obtained documents that prove that.

The policy “Labor has opposed and continues to oppose the decision by SBS to introduce in-program advertising” was consistent with Senator Conroy’s earlier comments.

On 11 October 2007 Senator Conroy had sent an email to the then newly founded Save Our SBS. Senator Conroy, then opposition spokesperson for Communications, was responding to a SaveOurSBS.org email of 22 August 2007. We sent a similar email to other politicians and parties. We told each politician that we would publish their answer on the SaveOurSBS.org website. In our email of 22 August 2007 to Senator Conroy we began: “We seek information as to ALP policy regarding SBS. In particular we would like to know what is the ALP policy regarding the interruptions to programs for advertisements on SBS-TV?” In the public interest of fairness we disclose the full email from Save Our SBS of 22 August 2007 to Senator Conroy and his email reply of 11 October 2007. Both can be read here. (For privacy reasons a personal phone number has been blacked out).

We published Senator Conroy’s reply containing his quote (above) on 11 October 2007 (here). Then in November 2007 SaveOurSBS.org published the famous quote again “Labor has opposed and continues to oppose the decision by SBS to introduce in-program advertising” in a different story (here). We were reporting on the outcome of a joint Save Our SBS and Friends of the ABC campaign. Again the quote appeared under Labor’s named heading: Labor’s SBS Policy. The same heading and quote was issued in multiple emails with identical content about the SBS and the ABC. Some emails placed Labor’s SBS Policy at the top of the email while other emails placed it towards the middle of the email. Nevertheless the quote always appeared under the same heading: Labor’s SBS Policy.

The emails were sent from Kevin Rudd, Senator Conroy and the ALP Campaign Information Services. All three had sent their email to the participants of the joint Save Our SBS and Friends of the ABC campaign that ran in the lead up to the 2007 Federal election. Save Our SBS tracked 1119 email campaign participants. We have copies of all those emails. There may have been more.

No one was left wondering what Labor’s policy was regarding SBS and “in-program advertising”. Certainly not the 1119 people who received who the email a week or so before the election from Kevin Rudd, Senator Conroy and the ALP Campaign Information Services. Each email clearly stated:-

Labor’s SBS Policy
Labor has opposed and continues to oppose the decision by SBS to introduce in-program advertising

If it looks like a policy, reads like a policy, is emailed under the heading Labor’s SBS Policy and sent in multiple emails from Labor party headquarters, Senator Conroy and Kevin Rudd, to 1119 people right up to one day before the election, we reckon it is a policy.

The question remains: when will the government now live up to its pre-election promise? Will Senator Conroy amend section 45 of the SBS Act to prohibit SBS from interrupting programs for advertisements or will another Senator or MP have do that? Who will make the first move?

In the public interest we provide but three examples (in reverse date order) of the full email content sent from Kevin Rudd, Senator Conroy and the ALP Campaign Information Services to the 1119 campaign participants of the joint Save Our SBS and Friends of the ABC campaign. The emails were sent just before the November 2007 election. The email generated by two of the campaign participants that triggered a response from the politicians and ALP headquarters is also shown below. For privacy reasons we have blacked out the recipients personal email addresses. A link to a PDF copy of each email is provided above the 1st page image of the three emails below.

Labor’s SBS policy email below From Kevin Rudd, Sent 23 Nov 2007 (PDF here)
BELOW email page 1 of 4

BELOW email page 2 of 4

BELOW email page 3 of 4

BELOW email page 4 of 4

Labor’s SBS policy email below From Senator Conroy, Sent 21 Nov 2007 (PDF here)
BELOW email page 1 of 2

BELOW email page 2 of 2

Labor’s SBS policy email below From ALP Campaign Information Services, Sent 14 Nov 2007 (PDF here)
BELOW email page 1 of 3

BELOW email page 2 of 3

BELOW email page 3 of 3

For a quick overview click to read:
No ad breaks on SBS part 1: When is a policy not a policy?