Change Of Government Puts Focus On Sydney

Padraic P. McGuinness
28 March 1996

THE full extent of the impact of the change of government on the way politics is covered by the media in this country has yet to be grasped.

There is likely to be a dramatic change in the status of the Canberra press gallery, and a swing back to head office coverage of politics by the Sydney-based media. This will inevitably mean a change in the hot-house style of political reporting and comment.

This will, in part, be the product of the decision of the new Prime Minister, Mr Howard, to live mainly in Sydney and to spend a substantial proportion of his working time outside parliamentary sittings in Sydney rather than Canberra. This means that much policy formulation and decision making at the political level will take place in Sydney. Bureaucrats who are never reluctant to go to Sydney will be spending more of their time there while relying on "back office" support from their Canberra departments.

There will also be, for quite different reasons, a change in the style of parliamentary reporting. One of the many useful initiatives of the former minister for foreign affairs, Gareth Evans, was to set up the International Media Centre (IMC) in Sydney which is intended to service the growing number of foreign media representatives in Australia who are based in Sydney rather than in Canberra. The foreign press knows perfectly well that Canberra is not a good vantage point from which to observe Australia. The centre expects by the end of April to be able to provide live televised coverage of both Houses of Parliament, the same feed as is already available within Parliament House itself, as well as of important committees. It will be possible to report Parliament from Sydney, and anywhere else where the feed is received.

The IMC is at Westpac Plaza in Margaret Street. On the floor above is Australian Associated Press, which is absolutely delighted at the prospect of being able to access the optic fibre connection which the centre will be using. AAP these days is the main source of parliamentary reporting, as distinct from colour pieces about Question Time, which will, in any case, as a result of the departure of Paul Keating, be a lot less colourful. Thus eventually AAP will find itself doing much of its reporting in Sydney, and will be able to reduce its representation in Canberra. Over time, there will be a strong inclination on the part of the Sydney-based media to do likewise.

The centre of gravity of Australian Government for at least the duration of John Howard's prime ministership will thus move decisively towards Sydney, which is, after all, the logical place for it to be. Of course the IMC is going to find itself under strain as Sydney journalists and commentators request access to the parliamentary feed, and is likely to find itself having to defend its facilities from overuse by local media at the expense of the foreign media which it is intended to serve. Just as the Foreign Correspondents' Club which is using the centre as its venue will have to establish rules about the behaviour of local media guests who come to listen to its speakers.

This became apparent at the recent lunch at which the eminent historian Professor Geoffrey Blainey spoke. He produced a mildly expressed summary of his views, unpopular among the metropolitan media, on immigration, alleged racism, the hypocrisy of a policy of involvement in Asia which neglects northern Australia, the "quarantining" of our mineral resources in the name of Aboriginal land rights and the deep greens, and so on. These were listened to in respectful, if not acquiescent, silence by most except for a table of Australian journalists from which emanated murmuring, hissing, and oohing and aahing at his shocking unorthodoxy. To impose Australian domestic political correctness on foreign media is not the purpose of the Foreign Correspondents' Club or the IMC.

The combination of the increased presence of the Federal Government in Sydney with the improved availability of parliamentary broadcasts, the issue of prime ministerial press releases by fax as well as in parliamentary press boxes, and the necessarily greater availability of all kinds of reports to the media in Sydney on the day of issue both in their physical form and instantaneously on the Internet, will mean that over the next year or so the gallery in Parliament House will have to fight to retain its domination of political reporting and analysis. Clashes at Question Time, leadership challenges and the timing of the next election will be off the agenda. The role of the Senate will be crucial, but with the Opposition Leader in the Senate, John Faulkner, living in Sydney and the Democrat Leader in Brisbane, except during sittings and committee hearings, much of the argument will be outside Canberra also.

The media will not be the only interests affected. The diplomatic corps is eyeing with growing pleasure the prospect that more of its members' time might have to be spent in Sydney; they will hardly have recourse to Adelaide, and the Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, will have to spend a proportion of his non-session time in the Sydney office of his department. As in Brazil, where the diplomats still prefer to be based in Rio de Janeiro rather than the isolated Federal capital of Brasilia, the bulk of the staffs of many foreign delegations might ultimately be shifted also to Sydney.

Improved road and ultimately rail journey times between Sydney and Canberra will greatly facilitate these trends. Canberra is well on the way to becoming just a dormitory suburb for the Australian government service.