Ms Celene Craig:

At the moment there is a prohibition on political advertising on broadcast media. Our experience has shown that issues very often can come up. It might be a political individual who is looking to promote him or herself, or some of his or her activities. There are certain rules around all of that. For example, if someone is taking an issue or wants to promote a position on a particular political issue that may be going through legislation and wants to do that by way of advertising, that is the kind of challenge that might need to be considered. The position of the BAI as previously expressed before this committee is that the whole area of advertising needs to be looked at the round. We certainly would see something of an imbalance in regard to the rules currently applying to broadcasting and those applying in an online environment. There is a need to look at the whole issue in the round and ensure a fairness in the way the rules are applied. An electoral process is one very clear context in which political advertising occurs but political advertising in its broader definition can also apply to lobbying groups and agencies such as that, which might have particular political interests and want to promote their particular point of view. Clarity around what political advertising is, and looking at how those rules can be fairly applied across the whole range of media, would be the way in which I think the BAI believes it should be considered.