Content & Programming - Political Matter

Political Matter & Election Coverage
Political Sponsorship of Community Radio Broadcasting Stations – FAQs

Political Matter & Election Coverage

The Broadcasting Services Act (1992) stipulates broadcast law regarding media coverage of local, state and federal elections. The following information is taken from the ACMA - Political and election matter guidelines - to assist licensees in identifying political and election matter and increase awareness and understanding of the obligations relating to the broadcast of political matter, election matter and election advertisements. The guidelines include further information as well as case studies.

What is Political Matter?

‘Political matter' is defined very broadly in the Broadcasting Services Act (clause 1 of Schedule 2) to mean ‘any political matter, including the policy launch of a political party’. Guidance as to the sort of material that may constitute political matter is provided primarily through the ACMA’s decision-making, reflected in reports of political matter investigations.

What is political matter is an objective test and must be determined on a case-by-case basis. The balance can be a fine one.

The ACMA determines whether broadcast material is political matter by having regard to:

The content of the broadcast - Does the content convey a message about matters that are or could be the subject of public political discussion? It is not necessary for material to explicitly promote a political party, candidate or policy for it to be political matter. The content need only engage with a matter of public contention or discussion, in a meaningful way that objectively seeks to influence the audience’s position with respect to that matter.
The overall presentation of the material, including the tone, style and emphasis - Material may be political matter if it seeks to persuade the audience to a political point of view, even if at the time there is no public proposal to change the law about the issue or if the broadcast is likely to influence the audience about a political issue, regardless of the intention of the person requesting the broadcast of the matter. It is also not essential that the approach be express, rather than indirect, for the broadcast to be political matter.
The nature and style of accompanying audio or visual material - Political matter may include individual components that contribute to the communication of a political message.
The context surrounding the broadcast - It is not necessary that there be a high level of current public discourse at a government level about a matter for it to meet the threshold of political matter. The content need only engage with a matter of public contention or discussion in a meaningful way that objectively seeks to influence the audience’s position with respect to that matter.

What is ‘Election Matter’?

‘Election matter’, in relation to an election, means matter of any of the following kinds:

matter commenting on, or soliciting votes for, a candidate at the election
matter commenting on, or advocating support of, a political party to which a candidate at the election belongs
matter commenting on, stating or indicating any of the matters being submitted to the electors at the election or any part of the policy of a candidate at the election or of the political party to which a candidate at the election belongs
matter referring to a meeting held or to be held in connection with the election.

What is an ‘Election Period’?

‘Election period’ means:

in relation to an election to the Legislative Council of Tasmania, or an ordinary election to the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory—the period that starts 33 days before the polling day for the election and ends at the close of the poll on that day
in relation to any other election to a parliament—the period that starts on:
1. the day on which the proposed polling day for the election is publicly announced
2. the day on which the writs for the election are issued (whichever happens first and ends at the close of the poll on the polling day for the election).
in relation to an election to a local government authority—the period that starts 33 days before the polling day for the election and ends at the close of the poll on that day
in relation to a referendum whose voting day is the same as the polling day for an election to the Parliament of the Commonwealth—the election period in relation to that election
in relation to any other referendum—the period that starts 33 days before the voting day for the referendum and ends at the close of voting on that day.

Reasonable Opportunities to Participants in Elections

Licensees are not obliged to broadcast election matter at all. However, if they do, certain obligations arise.

If, during an election period a broadcaster broadcasts election matter, the broadcaster must give reasonable opportunities for broadcasting election matter to all political parties contesting the election, being parties which were represented in either House of the Parliament for which the election is to be held at the time of its last meeting before the election period.

There is no obligation for licensees to broadcast any election matter free of charge.

Whether opportunities were considered to be ‘reasonable’ would be established during an investigation if the ACMA were to investigate a matter that required this issue to be considered.

Election ‘Blackouts’

Elections blackouts are actually called the ‘relevant period’. This period commences at midnight on the Thursday morning before polling day and concludes at the close of the poll (i.e. voting) on polling day.

Election blackouts only apply to parliamentary elections—that is, federal and state or territory elections. There is no blackout period for local government elections.

For federal elections, the ACMA updates its website information about current election blackouts shortly after election dates have been publicised by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). The website is not updated for state and territory by-elections.

Keeping Records

A licensee must keep, for the ‘required period’, a record of the:

name
address
occupation

of the person (or the name and address of the principal office, if the person is a company) that requests the broadcast of political matter (subclause 4(3) of Schedule 2 to the BSA).

The ‘required period’ is the longer of six weeks from the date of the broadcast or until the day on which the election ends (if the matter relates to an election or referendum and was broadcast during the relevant election period). The ACMA can direct a licensee (in writing) to keep records for a longer period. These records must be given to the ACMA if requested by written notice.

What is ‘At the Request of Another Person’?

Only political matter that is broadcast at the request of another person is subject to the requirement about broadcasting the required particulars.

A person can include a political party, a corporation and any other association (incorporated or unincorporated), as well as a natural person.

Licensees are not prevented from advocating on social issues and from time to time may support policy initiatives.

The required particulars do not need to be broadcast if political matter is broadcast on the licensee’s own initiative.

What are the ‘Required Particulars’?

The required particulars are the authorisation details that must be broadcast following political matter. The provision about broadcasting the required particulars of the person who authorised the broadcast applies at all times. It is not restricted to material broadcast during elections, or in times of significant public debate on certain issues. When advertisements are broadcast outside an election period or are not on behalf of a political party or other ‘disclosure entity’ (defined below), they may still be political matter and be required to be ‘tagged’ with the required particulars. Community broadcasting licensees are also required to include sponsorship tagging in addition to the required particulars. The required particulars must be announced at the end of the communication in the same language used in the communication.

The particulars must be notified in the same language as the broadcast, unless the broadcast is in 2 or more languages, in which case the particulars must be notified in English.

The BSA defines ‘required particulars’ as the particulars set out in the following table:

Broadcast is authorised by:	Required particulars:
a disclosure entity that is not a natural person	(1) (a) if the entity is a registered political party – the name of the party (the registered name) that is entered in the Register of Political Parties under the Commonwealth Electoral Act or that name omitting any of the following: (i) if the registered name includes both a word or phrase and its abbreviation – the abbreviation; (ii) if the registered name includes ‘Incorporated’ or an abbreviation of that word – that word or its abbreviation; (iii) if the registered name includes ‘of Australia’ – those words; (iv) if the registered name ends with ‘Australia’ – that word; (v) if the entity is a registered branch or division of a registered political party – the words indicating the name of the branch or division; or (b) if the entity is a disclosure entity (but not a registered political party) – the name of the entity entered on the Transparency Register under the Commonwealth Electoral Act; or (c) if the entity is not an entity covered by paragraph (a) or (b) and a return has been given under Part XX of the Commonwealth Electoral Act in relation to the entity – the name included in the most recent return given in relation to the entity; or (d) in any other case – the name of the entity. Note: For example, under paragraph (a) the registered name “Quokka Party of Australia Inc.—NSW” may be notified as “Quokka Party” (2) the relevant town or city of the entity (3) the name of the natural person responsible for giving effect to the authorisation.
a disclosure entity that is a natural person	(a) the name of the person (b) the town or city in which the person lives.
any other entity (that is not a disclosure entity or a natural person)	(a) the name of the entity (b) the relevant town or city of the entity.
a natural person (who is not a disclosure entity)	(a) the name of the person (b) the town or city in which the person lives.

The required particulars refer to specific terms:

Disclosure entity - A registered political party or other political entity as set out in the BSA.
Authorises - A person authorises the broadcasting of political matter only if the person is responsible for approval of the content and the decision to present it for broadcasting
Relevant town or city - The town or city where the entity has a principal office or premises, or the town or city in which the natural person who was responsible for giving effect to the authorisation lives.

Political Sponsorship of Community Radio Broadcasting Stations – FAQs

Below, we answer some frequently asked questions (FAQs) around political sponsorship of community radio broadcasting stations.

If your community broadcasting station is considering entering into a political sponsorship arrangement, it’s a good idea to discuss your station’s individual circumstances with your Member of Parliament/Senator or their support staff about all the rules that apply.

Notes: If we have placed a word or phrase in italics below, it means that the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA) has defined the word or phrase for us. When we say ‘you’ or ‘your station,’ we are referring to community radio broadcast licensees, licenced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) under the BSA.

FAQs

Regarding interviews with politicians: is it discriminatory to only invite interviews with sitting Senators or Members of Parliament (Federal)?

In itself, the issue isn’t about whether a person is sitting or not sitting at the time. The issue more depends whether there is an election imminent in your area or not.

If no election is pending, then the answer is no, provided you are abiding by all other relevant rules. Engaging with a variety of people, parties and viewpoints is strongly encouraged – including sitting Senators and Members of Parliament, and non-sitting politicians.

If there is an election to be held in your area, it is even more important to provide equal access to different political parties and we encourage stations to engage broadly politically to ensure listeners have access to broad political debate.

But if there is an election to be held in your area, what you talk about during your conversation with a Senator or Member of Parliament is restricted in certain ways by law. If you would like to know more about the rules that apply to such arrangements, some that apply only during elections, and some that apply during election blackout periods, feel free to contact the CBAA.

However, community radio broadcasting licensees must strictly prevent any sponsorship arrangement from affecting editorial decisions about programming content or scheduling, and must prevent a political party, the Commonwealth, or a State/Territory, from being in a position to exercise control of your community broadcasting licence. Community radio broadcasting licensees should prevent conflicts of interest when considering any sponsorship arranagement. For more on paid political sponsorship, also see the answer to Q. 2 below.

(Note: A community radio station’s licensee’s ‘sitting member’ means the Member of Parliament for your community (electoral area) at the time, or representing your State/Territory if they are a Senator. Members and Senators are elected by your community to represent the interests of your community, or by your State/Territory to represent the interests of your State/Territory, respectively. This is a key feature of our representative democracy. They will either belong to one particular political party, or they will stand independently from any political party (independents). This becomes important as the other rules come into play.

Are there any Commonwealth guidelines/prohibitions for entering into paid political sponsorship with politicians other than sitting Members, or Senators?

The simple answer to this question is, no. However, your station and the relevant person, should be aware that:

their agreement with your station may be impacted by certain rules that apply at all times, as well as the rules that apply during elections in your area (see above), and
there may be times when the person has paid for a sponsorship arrangement including sponsorship announcements during a certain show or as part of your coverage, but you are obligated to invite other politicians to speak on that show or as part of your equal access to coverage (see above).

Any sponsorship agreement in place at your station should take into account (and make way for) those rules.

Note: For an explanation of ‘sitting member,’ please see the answer to Q 1, above.

Can community radio stations enter into more than one paid political sponsorship arrangement running at any one time, e.g. Federal, State and Local Government representatives?

We are not aware of any rules that would prevent this, provided all other relevant rules are complied with (see the answers to Q.’s 1 and 2, and the list of the rules that apply, below).

Of course, community radio broadcasting licensees:

must prevent the turning over of control of your community radio broadcasting licence (discussed above), and

should consider whether any one or more sponsorship arrangement creates a conflict of interest and have a plan for the way your station would respond to such a situation.

Can Members of Parliament (MPs) purchase community radio broadcasting sponsorship using office expenses under Commonwealth law?

Certain MPs can, yes, but only in regional licensing areas, in accordance with quite specific qualifying criteria and other rules, which are summarised below.

Rules around office expenditure and broadcasting on community radio are dealt with in 66(2), (2A), (2B) of the Parliamentary Business Resources Regulations 2017 (the Parliamentary Business Regulations).

In a nutshell, what do these Parliamentary Business Regulations rules say? Who can enter into agreements using this office expenditure exception?

Community radio broadcasting licensees who hold a regional community radio broadcasting licence (where regional community radio broadcasting licence means a community radio broadcasting licence under the BSA) that has a regional licence area, and
serving Members of the House of Representatives (i.e. Members of Parliament serving in the lower house of Federal Parliament),

Where?

in the regional community where the broadcasting licensee’s area covers the same area as the electorate of the serving Member.

What kinds of on-air community radio conversations are the Members of Parliament prevented from having?

Touting/lobbying (“soliciting”) for votes to be given to another person,
Touting/lobbying for any kind of support other than volunteering, to be provided to a member, political party or candidate,
Touting/lobbying for applications to join or renew membership in a political party; and
Providing instructions on how to complete a ballot paper.

Where can I find out more about this office expenses rule in the Parliamentary Business Regulations?

The Department of Finance’s Ministerial and Parliamentary Services have explained and summarised some of the key rules on their page entitled Conditions for Claiming – Broadcasting on Television or Radio. We recommend that you review them closely.

They include the overarching obligations that must be considered, several specific restrictions, and many exceptions to the rules; but the information on that page is presented in way that is easy to understand and helpful examples have been provided.

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