Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm whether or not the government is planning to mail to all eight million households in Australia a taxpayer funded, full-colour brochure on climate change with a personal covering letter from the Prime Minister? How much money is this new advertising campaign going to cost Australian taxpayers? How is this expenditure consistent with the principles of prudent economic management?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No such decision has been made by me or, to my knowledge, by the government. But I do reserve the right to engage in a public information campaign in relation to these matters. I do reserve that right. I know the Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues have been talking a lot about government advertising. I think it is legitimate to inform the Australian public of changes to the law. I defend the IR campaign. It is not a political campaign. I defend the superannuation campaign. And I defend the campaign in relation to private health insurance. All of those campaigns are in relation to changes to the law and I think the Australian public are entitled to know what those changes are.