Australia Post has admitted it accidentally inserted election candidate materials with how to vote information from Port Stephens Council.
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The NSW Electoral Commission launched an investigation after it was notified that promotional materials from mayoral candidate Steve Tucker and East Ward candidate John Nell were found inside the council leaflet advising voters of polling locations.
The concern was that bundling the materials might infer council support for the two candidates, when delivered to the Tanilba Bay and Anna Bay areas.
“Australia Post can confirm that unfortunately some unaddressed mail articles, including promotional material for Steve Tucker and John Nell, were accidentally slipped inside the ‘how to vote’ pamphlet when delivered to a small number of letterboxes,” a spokesperson for Australia Post said.
“This goes against the strict procedures we have in place regarding delivering any election campaign material, be it federal, state or local, and we will be reminding all delivery staff of our process on delivering any political campaign material.”
Given the nature of what had happened the NSWEC said it was “satisfied that no offence has been committed”.
Port Stephens Council said it too was satisfied with the conclusion of the NSWEC investigation.
“The NSW Electoral Commission has advised that the bundling of material occurred at an external distribution centre for Australia Post and was in no way caused by any arrangement between council and the candidates,” the council spokesman said.
