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

the Howard government spent another $25,000 of their money, in just one hour. The Howard government in this place pride themselves on being economic managers. They pride themselves on their economic credentials. They regularly come to the dispatch box and primp and preen about how good they are as economic managers. Indeed, the minister will do it today in reply to this matter of public importance. But Australians are entitled to ask themselves this: how is it good economic management to waste $585,000 on industrial relations propaganda each and every day in the government’s political self-interest, when so many of our Australian working families are under pressure? How is that competent economic management? How are those good economic credentials? Australians today who are driving past schools that need repairs, who are driving past local hospitals that need more funds, who are dropping kids off in child care and who are worried about the affordability of that child care are entitled to ask themselves: how is it competent economic management to waste $585,000 every day, in the government’s self-interest, instead of taking some pressure off those working families? It is a question I would like the minister to answer—not turn his back on.

Apart from the waste, the economic irresponsibility, the arrogance and the self-interest that this government exudes, there is its policy crisis when it comes to industrial relations. Mr Deputy Speaker, I ask you to contemplate the following: in the ordinary course of things, don’t governments design policies and then from time to time choose to advertise those policies on TV? Isn’t that the ordinary course of things? You design the policy, and then you make a decision about whether or not to advertise it on TV. This is the first time in Australian political history that a government has designed the ads and is now retrofitting the policy to the ads. The advertising came first, the policy is coming second. It is a new low. You don’t design a policy and then advertise it. You design an ad and then find a policy which justifies it. The Prime Minister’s answers in question time today made this so entirely stark. There he was reading from an advertisement that has been out in the public domain since 5 May—television advertising and all the rest. He was there reading from propaganda that talks about a so-called fairness test. Then he has to admit in this parliament that there is not a bill for it, and that there will not be a bill for it until next week. Indeed, last sitting week, this minister could not even speculate on what was going to be in this fairness test. The Howard government is not hunched over policy briefs and research analysis—true independent work—designing this bill. It is hunched over advertising scripts, seeing if it can design a bill that fits the advertising. This is breathtaking arrogance, breathtaking manipulation. We know that the Prime Minister is a clever politician, but we have never seen the likes of this before. We have never seen such cunning in Australian politics.

The Prime Minister today bounced to the dispatch box. He was proud of the fact that he announced on 4 May this policy change to a law, the name of which he can no longer bear to speak—Work Choices—

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