The Victorian Greens have slammed Labor for politicising Victoria's public service and using taxpayer-funded resources for its own political promotion, following a damning Auditor-General's report revealing serious breaches of political neutrality requirements.
The Greens are calling for tougher enforcement of existing laws, stronger independent oversight and urgent reforms to protect the independence of Victoria's public service and prevent governments from using public resources for party-political promotion.
The Auditor-General's report, Government Advertising and Communications, released today, found government departments and agencies had failed to comply with legislative requirements to be apolitical.
The report found that taxpayer funded government departments and agencies that are meant to work in the public interest, had been used to promote the Labor party.
Some of these findings included the Department of Premier and Cabinet commissioning polling to rate the government's performance and issuing hundreds of party-political press releases, the Suburban Rail Loop Authority and Department of Transport and Planning.
Despite these findings, the Department of Premier and Cabinet refused to accept a key recommendation from the Auditor-General to strengthen oversight of political content published on taxpayer-funded government websites.
The Greens are calling for stronger safeguards to prevent the politicisation of the public service and misuse of public resources including independent oversight of government advertising and communications and updated laws to cover the changing media landscape.
As stated by the Leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell:
"Government departments and public servants are there to serve the Victorian people, not act as a taxpayer-funded PR machine for the Labor party.
"Labor blurring the line between governing and campaigning is just such a clear example of how Labor is more interested in clinging onto power than actually delivering for Victorians.
"Labor's politicisation of the public service is so shameless they're even doubling down and refusing to accept key recommendations to fix this problem.
"Victorians deserve a strong, independent public service they can trust to work in their interests and that means real consequences and oversight for Labor and the Liberals when they misuse public resources for political gain."
