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September 9, 2026
Coalition frontbencher James Paterson has blasted the Secretaries Board for seeking to ban video footage from parliamentary hearings being edited and shared on social media as "an affront to democracy, an assault on transparency and an unprecedented restriction on free speech".
Senator Paterson, whose YouTube account is a masterclass in the use of Senate estimates clips to criticise political opponents and demand answers from the bureaucracy, told The Canberra Times it would be unacceptable to restrict the sharing of such recordings.
"Proceedings of the parliament are public - for good reason," the Victorian Liberal senator said. "They are available not just to parliamentarians but journalists and academics and citizens."
He stood by his use of the material on social media, saying that "the strongest response I get when sharing videos of estimates are the full, unedited clips of the extraordinary lengths some officials go to avoid answering reasonable questions in the public interests".
"Australians can see that for what it is and if officials don't want to be criticised for it then maybe they should just answer the questions as they are required to."
The opposition defence spokesperson previously held the finance and public service portfolio, frequently going head-to-head with Finance and Public Service Minister and ACT Labor senator Katy Gallagher.
Favourite APS targets of the national security hawk have included Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster, Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson and Defence secretary Meghan Quinn.
The Secretaries Board, made up of agency heads and chaired by Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Steven Kennedy, is concerned about material from hearings being presented online without proper context, exposing bureaucrats to "ridicule, hostility and abuse".
"Recognising the evidence provided to a committee is on the public record, these officials have not consented to a subsequent use of their image, or its use by parliamentarians and their political parties for party-political purposes," the board said in a submission published on Monday.
"In our view, the use of officials' likenesses and their evidence in this way has the potential to be harmful both to the individual and the public sector as a whole."
At budget estimates in June, Senator Paterson quizzed newly appointed Ms Quinn on the savings to be obtained through the Albanese government's changes to AUKUS submarine acquisitions.
"In terms of the exact savings equation, that's not in the public domain," Ms Quinn told the committee.
Senator Paterson clipped the exchange and posted it with the caption: "New Defence Secretary refuses to say how much AUKUS submarine changes save taxpayers."
Last year, Senator Paterson grilled Ms Foster on Home Affairs' decision to "cancel the Australian flag" in senior officials' headshots, with the interaction appearing on his social media channels.