The welfare and community sectors have expressed relief at a move by the Rudd Government to allow them free speech while providing services under government contracts.
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said they would review thousands of contracts with non-government organisations to remove clauses inserted by the former Howard government gagging them from criticising government policy.
Ms Gillard said non-government organisations had been forced to clear public statements with ministers' offices and in many cases staff appointments were subjected to a government veto, creating a climate of fear among those who provided employment services, help for the homeless, disabled and social services generally.
"Under the former Liberal government there was always the implied threat that if you stepped out of line and you said too much, that the government could act against you," Ms Gillard said.
"The former government obviously took the view that silence was better, we take the view that debate and hearing everybody's voices is much better."
Ms Gillard said that she and Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin had instructed their departments to ensure future contracts contained no such clauses.
Australian Council for Social Service president Lin Hatfield-Dodds said it would allow for a return to "robust" public debate on a range of welfare and community sector issues.
Policy debate over the past decade had become "shallow" because of fears among non-government organisations they could lose government funding if they spoke out.
"We've really had a climate of deep uncertainty where many organisations have been unclear on what they can and can't say, to the point where some people had to seek legal advice," Ms Hatfield-Dodds said.
UnitingCare Australia associate director Lyn Markin welcomed the decision, saying a strong and articulate community services sector was crucial for the delivery of quality services for the disadvantaged.
But one of the authors of a 2004 Australia Institute report on the impact of government funding cuts and censorship of NGOs, Sarah Maddison, said it would take years for the sector to rebuild lost expertise.
Dr Maddison, who is senior associate dean in the faculty of arts and sciences at the University of NSW, said the decision would allow public debate resulting in better government policy.
"Under the Howard government, Australia's NGO sector was clamped down upon in a way that has been very unhealthy for our democracy and really contributed to some of the poor policy and governance decisions," she said.
Governments who were not open to hearing feedback from welfare service providers ignored hearing the first-hand experiences of those most affected by their policies.
"The NGO sector has been decimated in terms of its capacity to provide that feedback and their bureaucracy has also been gutted," she said.
Greens senator Rachel Siewert said it was a "great" first step but more needed to be done to undo the legacy of the Howard government, which had diminished community engagement in policy development.