Shouts from the desert

Over the past month or so Bennelong voters have been on the receiving end of weekly letters from the Prime Minister. At least most Bennelong voters have been on the receiving end of such letters. You see, apparently the Prime Minister is somewhat miffed at me so he has taken my name off his mailing list. As a result, each week our letterbox gets a letter from the Prime Minister addressed solely to my wife, with my name left out of it. For comparison, a letter from Maxine McKew a week or so ago was addressed to both of us.

This does not surprise me in the least &emdash; when I decided to run against him in the 2004 election I resigned my lobbying role because, as I told some people "John Howard is an incredibly petty man and he will seek to take revenge on the organisation if I continue to represent it." The removal of my name from the electorate mailing list therefore strikes me as entirely consistent with the Prime Minister's character.

My wife and I find the Prime Minister's immaturity highly amusing, however there is a real problem with his taking this step. The letters contain a return address &emdash; the address of his electorate office, not the address of his campaign office. Additionally the authorisation line indicates the letter was authorised by John Howard using his electorate office address.

Members of Parliament seeking re-election normally use the address of their campaign office on local election correspondence, with their campaign manager authorising the correspondence. The fact that the PM has authorised this using the electorate office address suggests he claims to be sending the letter in his capacity as the elected representative of the voters of Bennelong, not in his capacity as a candidate for re-election.

What is the difference, you ask? The difference is that in his capacity as the elected representative of the voters of Bennelong he is given a communications allowance which covers the printing and mailing of these letters. The purpose of the communications allowance is to fund communications that are necessary for the elected representative to fulfil their role as a representative. Even in the best of circumstances this allowance is likely to be rorted, but his duties as the elected representative of Bennelong voters extend to all voters in the electorate, including those who are unlikely to vote for him and including those he is not happy with.

By sending out these letters to all voters in his capacity as an elected representative, but having removed my name (and presumably the names of others who have opposed him) he has given up the pretence &emdash; if, as seems likely, he has used his communications allowance to fund these mail-outs, he is openly misusing funds for partisan purposes that were provided to assist him in fulfilling the obligations of his office.

While this is hardly the greatest wrong the Prime Minister has committed in public office, it is nevertheless one additional data point reflecting on his character.