Enhancing ministerial accountability: the role of the print media

Peter Reith, the Workplace Relations Minister, admitted in 2000 having breached Remuneration Tribunal guidelines by giving his parliamentary Telecard code numbers to his son for private use, running up a $50,000 bill (which he repaid). Reith retired at the 2001 election.

In 2002 the Assistant Treasurer, Helen Coonan, was alleged to have witnessed a false electoral enrolment form, potentially enabling her husband to evade more than $10,000 in land tax by misrepresenting his main residence. She was also accused of promoting policy changes that could have directly benefited her family company; and she admitted having used a ministerial letterhead in correspondence over a personal insurance claim. Despite extensive media attention, Coonan survived and was promoted to Cabinet in July 2004.

Wilson Tuckey, the Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government, was accused in 2003 of attempting to influence South Australia's Police Minister to quash a traffic fine incurred by his son, again by using a ministerial letterhead. Tuckey was demoted in a reshuffle following several calls for him to be sacked.

Greater contemporary interest in social issues also generates resignation calls. In 2000 the Minister for Aged Care, Bronwyn Bishop, faced months of negative publicity about abuse and poor care in nursing homes and her department's failure to respond to complaints. She was dropped from the ministry after the 2001 election, and both the Coalition and Labor were forced to pay much greater attention to standards in nursing homes.

Similarly, with two Immigration ministers (Philip Ruddock and later Amanda Vanstone) called upon to resign over a number of wrongful detentions or deportations, Howard subsequently removed Vanstone from cabinet and pledged $230 million over five years to improve the Immigration Department's performance.

Ministers are now expected to act responsibly in relation to the debates of the day and not to exacerbate tensions. For instance, in 2000 when Philip Ruddock, Minister for Reconciliation assisting the Prime Minister, commented to the Washington Post and Le Monde that Aboriginal disadvantage could be put down to technological backwardness and late contact with developed civilisations, his resignation was called for by Aboriginal leaders and the Opposition (Labor Party and minor parties).

When Bill Heffernan alleged that Justice Kirby (High Court) had used a Commonwealth car to solicit sex from an under-age male prostitute, he was forced to resign following a barrage of Resignation calls from the Opposition, minor parties, government ministers, prominent individuals, and the press.

While ministers who do not resign attract much negative attention, we argue that this downplays the important role that the media now plays in exposing many more issues.

We do not argue that ministers are any more or less corrupt, or that all serious calls for ministers to resign result in appropriate action. Under Howard more should have happened over the Australian Wheat Board scandal, the children overboard saga, and the deportation of Australian citizens as part of the crack-down on illegal immigration. And was the demotion of Garrett under Rudd sufficient reparation for the home insulation debacle?

As calls to resign increase, so does the proportion of ministers not resigning in response to them. However, it would be wrong to conclude from that that ministerial accountability has declined in recent decades. Rather, extensive media attention enhances ministerial accountability by exposing issues that would have been ignored or concealed in earlier decades.