Locked in

There have been sighs of relief among journalists and financial analysts that Treasury is not going to take a hard line in the wake of Budget embargo breaches. Many are still suffering some inconvenience after the Reserve Bank abolished lockups in response to a MediaWorks reporter leaking its March interest rates decision ahead of the embargo. This year there were a couple of breaches in the Budget lockup, though they were of a minor nature, such as National Party staff posting a picture of the lockup scene to social media. While many would find it amusing for the National Party to be banned from future lockups, there were worries Treasury might use the incident as an excuse to copy the Reserve Bank and end lockups. Instead, everyone got another warning about lockup privileges and rules, which ban the publication of even non-material pictures.