News of the Tasmanian government's draft bill to scrap the state's draconian election blackout laws is a hallelujah moment.
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As it stands, newspapers staff could be jailed or fined $15,900 for publishing political stories and advertisements on state election day. Not just political stories, but any story that was an election issue.
In theory, if a politician made an announcement in relation to education as publishers, we would have to be careful not to print any stories that could be connected to that issue.
When you have a six or eight week campaign that makes the content for that edition very difficult to make entertaining.
The current law means we can say an election is happening and where to vote. But nothing else. Not only is it a ridiculous concept, but the laws also treat you – the consumer – as fools.
As if you're not smart enough to make your own decisions after weeks of listening to preaching politicians.
They are even more archaic in a world dominated by social media, where it is OK for anyone with a smartphone or computer to publish anything they like on election day.
Likewise with television networks.
Tasmania is the only state in Australia with such prohibitive laws, which have long drawn the ire of industry stakeholders.
Newspapers can report on federal and local government elections on polling day, but not when it comes to the second-tier of politics. Go figure.
So the proposed Electoral Act amendments, to be announced on Thursday, are commonsense reform promised by Will Hodgman during March's election and the byproduct of a review commissioned in May.
The public will be given until the end of January next year to comment on the modernisation of the act.
We support these changes. At The Examiner we pride ourselves on our editorial independence and being a voice for the region. For 176 years we have developed this trust with the community.
The current act limits our ability to do our job at a critical moment – an election.