Australia's secret still leaks

Australia's secret still leaks

Johannes Simbolon, The Jakarta Post, Canberra

In Australia, the government's budget is a top secret until it is delivered to parliament, as it is in Indonesia.

In Australia, some content of the budget is usually leaked to the press prior to its official delivery to parliament. The same also goes for Indonesia.

However, The Jakarta Post, recently given the chance to witness the delivery of the Australian budget in Canberra, found many differences between Australian and Indonesian budgets in many aspects. The Canberra visit was part of an AusAID-funded business journalism course organized by the Indonesia-Australia Specialized Training Project.

One of the differences is the so-termed "budget lockup": In Australia, journalists are locked in a room at the parliament building for hours until after the session at which the Treasurer delivers the budget to parliament.

Journalist start entering the lockup room in the afternoon, hours before the budget session starts at the parliament. Each journalist is given a copy of the budget but none is allowed to carry a cellular phone or anything else that might enable them to communicate with the outside world. In the event they need to go to the toilet, treasury officials will accompany them.

In the room, which can accommodate up to 500 people, journalists prepare reports on the budget, to be published the morning after, or to be broadcast soon after the parliamentary session on budget delivery finishes. The session, which is broadcast nationwide by state-owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), usually finishes at 8 p.m.

"The budget lockup aims to prevent journalists from leaking the contents of the budget to people outside, who could use the information to reap a profit on the stock market," John Lombard, former ABC senior journalist, said.

About 45 percent of Australia's population of 19 million own shares, one of the world's highest proportions.

Since most of the process of making budget stories takes place in the lockup room, each media sends a large number of staff, including reporters and graphic designers, into the room.

Sydney's Daily Telegraph, one of the largest newspapers in Australia, for instance, sent about 25 journalists into the lockup room when Treasurer Peter Costello recently delivered his budget to parliament, according to Canberra bureau chief Malcolm Farr.

Farr acknowledged that some budget content had been leaked to the press several days before delivery day, but the main element of Costello's budget proposals -- a tax cut -- remained a secret to journalists until they received their copies of the budget.

The Daily Telegraph, like other Australian newspapers, came out the following day, with many pages dedicated solely to budget stories, analyzing almost all details of the budget.

In Indonesia, the minister of finance usually delivers the budget to the legislature in the morning, while journalists get copies of the budget the evening before, to be embargoed until after the delivery process of the budget.

The most interesting part of the Australian budget story is what happens after it has been delivered to parliament.

Soon after delivering the budget, Costello granted an interview to an ABC reporter, who grilled him on the content of the budget. That was then followed by an interview with Shadow Treasurer from the opposition party Bob McMullan, who, as predicted, was opposed to the budget.

In his budget, Costello, who is touted by many as the next Prime Minister of Australia should the ruling coalition win in the next general election, estimated the federal government's revenue at A$178.3 billion (about Rp 983 trillion) for the 2003/2004 fiscal year, including tax revenue of A$166.5 billion, compared with Indonesia's budget revenue for the 2003 fiscal year of Rp 336 trillion, including tax revenue of Rp 257.1 trillion.

Costello's proposals included personal tax cuts of A$2.4 billion, an increased spending on budget of A$2.1 billion over the five years from 2002 to 2003, and allowing universities to increase school fees by up to 30 percent. Still, the budget had a surplus of A$2.2 billion.

Opposition leader Simon Crean of the Labor Party, strongly criticizing Costello's budget, proposed an alternative budget to parliament two days later. Derisively labeling Costello's tax cut "the smallest tax cut from the highest-taxing government in our history," Crean proposed higher spending on education and health care.

For several days after budget delivery, Costello and McMullan toured all big towns in Australia to explain to the public their respective budget proposals and convince them that theirs was the best. They talked at business luncheons, which cost visitors as much as hundreds of Australian dollars per seat.

Polling agencies also stoked up budget fever by asking the public which budget proposal was the best. The poll by Herald-AC Nielsen found that the public mostly favored the opposition party's budget proposals.

For first-time visitors like the Post, watching how Australians discuss their budget was quite an experience. It was like a big festivity, which lasted for days and involved people from all walks of life. It also reflected how the people were strongly committed to democracy, transparency and accountability.

Looking impressed, news producer of state TV station TVRI's Bali branch I Ketut Wasa commented: "I will do the same in Bali. After the governor has submitted his budget to the provincial legislature -- soon after its delivery -- I will ask him for an interview on our station to explain the budget."