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Shadow Housing Minister Jason Clare has defended the rigid Labor rules restricting the party’s access to media after an internal briefing document was leaked this week. The Australian Labor Party sent an extraordinary letter to its candidates, key members and press secretaries ordering them to ensure all media engagements and talking points are approved by a team of unelected campaign directors. The internal briefing document – which has been obtained by Sky News Australia – unveiled the new measures Labor would take to ensure it controls media messaging this election. Labor’s candidates, members and press secretaries have been warned that all interviews must be approved by campaign headquarters staff while all policy discussion talking points will be drafted in advance by party bureaucrats. When asked if he was worried about the “lack of discipline” in his party given the document was leaked from within Labor, Mr Clare told Sky News Australia he was not. “No, not losing any sleep on that at all,” Mr Clare told Sky News Australia. “One thing that’s not seen in campaigns is the army of people that tend to sit behind transcripts, day after day, hour after hour; I’d much rather have volunteers out there winning votes than typing up transcripts. “Any journalist that wants to get a transcript of what I’m saying or an audio file of what’s been said at a press conference can simply ring the campaign and get that. “It’s standard practice in all of these campaigns … on both sides that you coordinate who does the press conferences, who’s talking to the media on different days.” Mr Clare said Australians would see “plenty” of him, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, Katy Gallagher and “key” members of the frontbench.
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