AEC throws out Gazette complaint
The Australian Electoral Commission has dismissed a complaint against local news startup Gazette brought by a Liberal Party senator who claimed the publisher breached political advertising rules.
In a statement, the AEC said it had examined Gazette’s output and noted that “electoral matter is defined by the Electoral Act to exclude the reporting of news”, clearly implying Gazette local mastheads met the definition of genuine editorial content.
Senator Jane Hume, who is the shadow finance minister, lodged the complaint earlier this month, describing the Gazette as “a highly sophisticated domestic disinformation campaign”.
However, the AEC did not agree that the organisation breached political advertising rules.
“The AEC has considered the material that has been published by Gazette News and at this stage do not consider it to be electoral matter, therefore there are no authorisation requirements,” the statement read.
Anna Saulwick
The statement went on to say “there is no evidence at this stage that this organisation [Gazette] has incurred electoral expenditure that would require it to register as a financial disclosure entity with the AEC.”
“The AEC has notified both Gazette News and Senator Hume of this decision. We are taking the additional step of communicating about this matter publicly as we note that this outlet has been the subject of commentary in the media, and is entitled to be updated on our examination of this issue thus far.”
Gazette founder and publisher Anna Saulwick told Mumbrella the decision was a vindication.
“Look, this was always a nasty, false, political stunt,” she said. “I think some politicians are willing to try to intimidate independent media into silence, but we won’t back down from asking the tough questions or serving our local communities.”
Gazette runs five local mastheads in NSW and Victoria in areas that contain marginal electorates. It has a clear pro-climate editorial position. In a wide-ranging interview with Mumbrella, Saulwick denied her organisation was politically funded and said Gazette had an editorial charter that ensures independence from funders.
Senator Hume has been contacted for comment.
Even if the various Gazette publications are very pro-teal, that would make them no more partisan than most major Australian newspapers.
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