Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

‘Have now,’ he just says. I bet you have, as the government desperately tries to dig itself out of a political hole with taxpayers’ money. Now that you have seen it, get up to the dispatch box and tell us what it cost. Be honest about it in your reply.

The Prime Minister has not ruled out polling and polling and polling to see whether the advertisements being funded by Australian taxpayers are helping the government’s political interests. The government has never come clean on what was said in the polling report we revealed to the Australian public. The government did not reveal—we revealed—to the Australian public the Open Mind Research Group’s advertising market report of 24 April. But from Senate estimates hearings today—the process the government hates—we do know this. Just for one week, the week between 20 May and 26 May, seven days inclusive, this government is going to spend, to screen on Australian television, $4.1 million on the industrial relations ads that you see on your screen today. That is $585,000 a day, or approximately $25,000 an hour.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I would ask you and the House to reflect on the working lives and circumstances of Australians around this nation today. Millions of hardworking Australians got up this morning, they got themselves ready for work, they got the kids ready for school. While spending an hour on that simple task the Howard government spent approximately $25,000 of their money on advertisements for its self-interest and political interest. Those families might well have had breakfast in a dining room at home, and you can bet that the dining room they sat in was not worth $540,000—indeed, their whole house would not be worth that. Not for them the indulgences that the Howard government craves for itself.

Then for those families it was off to work—jump in the car, go via the childcare centre, via the school. Petrol in Penrith today cost $1.27.9 a litre, and that will not be the highest price around this country this morning. As they were driving to work, spending hard-earned money on putting petrol in their tank—

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