Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

Rudd Labor. Absolutely! The issue here is that the Labor Party has been caught red-handed. This is a political stunt; this is a political scam. Why is it that, during question time, the Special Minister of State, Senator Ludwig, refused to answer my questions and those of my colleagues on this matter? Why was it that the Special Minister of State refused to say whether he had sought advice as to whether these signs also breached state electoral acts? Senator Arbib was also asked that question, and I suspect that those following me are going to have some comments to make on this.

In 22 months, a government that was elected, supposedly, on the back of openness and transparency has already revealed itself as one of the most deceitful governments that we have seen in this country’s history. This is a blatant politicisation of schools. This is a blatant attempt to ensure that, twice a day between now and the run-up to the election campaign, parents will go into those schools and see those signs. Now that the government has been caught out red-handed, what is it going to do? Apparently it is are going to put up authorisation stickers—stickers required on political material—