Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

There is also the hypocrisy of the Labor Party in other areas. On Sunday, 25 March 2007 the Victorian Minister for Industrial relations, Rob Hulls, put out a press release saying that the Victorian government ‘is going to launch an advertising campaign against the federal government’s workplace laws’. Hang on! Where was the outrage from the Labor Party on that? I am sorry; did I hear something? The Victorian Minister for Industrial Relations is using Victorian taxpayers’ money to launch a campaign against the federal government’s laws, which in fact the Victorian government could pull back from referral. They are so outraged about the laws they have agreed to that they are going to campaign with taxpayers’ money against them. Rob Hulls said, ‘The new campaign will feature television, radio and press advertisements which will run over the coming months.’

Can you see what the Labor Party want to do? They have got their ugly mates in the states running deceitful ads trying to define federal laws. They have got their union boss mates running campaigns defining our laws but we are not allowed to tell the Australian people what the laws are. The Labor Party are trying to create such public outrage about the expenditure on the ads that they alone can define what the laws are and the state Labor governments can use their taxpayers’ money to define what the laws are. That is exactly why when Kevin Rudd came out with his so-called policy on advertising—

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