Senate debates
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Questions without Notice
Advertising Campaigns
2:43 pm
Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to Senator Minchin, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Can the minister confirm that since the last election the Howard government has spent more than $800 million on advertising? Isn’t this spend five times the amount the government will spend on the mental health program this year and six times as much as it will spend on rural health services? Can the minister confirm that the advertising spend included: $93 million for advertising the government’s extreme industrial relations changes; $27 million for advertising private health insurance; and $52 million for climate change spin, including $23 million worth of advertising? How much public money in total has the Howard government spent on advertising since the start of this year? How much more will the Howard government spend on advertising before the election?
Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
These are rather tired old arguments about government advertising from the Labor Party. It well knows that all governments of all persuasions naturally and legitimately are able to advertise government programs and policies. We always get criticism from the other side if people are uninformed of government policies and programs. It is in fact the job of governments to inform their citizens of the policies and programs which governments are implementing on their behalf. All the Labor Party is reflecting is the fact that we are an activist, reformist government and it is our proper role to inform the Australian people of the many exciting programs and policies that we have brought to bear during our 11 years in government. It is our job to let them know of all the good things that we are doing for them—of all the jobs that we are creating.
Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The opposition does not want to hear about the fact that it is our proper prerogative and responsibility to let the Australian people know about all the exciting things that we are doing on their behalf and that is why they have elected us on four consecutive occasions to govern this country. We have no shame whatsoever in ensuring that the Australian people know exactly what we are doing on their behalf.
How dare the Labor Party lecture us about government advertising! Do they watch television when they go back to Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane and see the shameless behaviour of the state Labor premiers who appear in all the government advertising campaigns run by the state Labor governments? We do not get information when we turn on our TVs back in our capital cities; what we see is Mr Beattie, Mr Rann or Mr Bracks poncing around on screen telling the people what great guys they are. It is outrageous what the state Labor premiers have been doing with their taxpayers’ money, so we are not going to listen to any lectures from the Labor Party about government advertising.
Alan Ferguson (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
When the Senate has come to order, I will call Senator McEwen.
Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware of the Prime Minister’s view in 1995, when he said:
In a desperate attempt to find an election life raft, the Prime Minister is beginning an unprecedented propaganda blitz using taxpayers’ money.
Can the minister confirm that the cost of the ‘unprecedented propaganda blitz using taxpayers’ money’ in the year leading up to the 2007 election will be more than $500 million? Why should taxpayers have to spend half a billion dollars of their money on the Prime Minister’s ‘election life raft’?
Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I am not sure where the senator gets her figures from but the information given to me is that, for the 2006-07 financial year, total advertising placed through the central advertising system was $171 million. If we look at what the state governments are doing—I always think that is quite relevant—we can see that in the course of 2006 state governments, whose total budget is about half ours, actually spent $354 million. So the state governments are not only spending twice as much as us; their total budget is only half the size of ours. They are not doing anything anyway. What have they got to advertise? The state governments do absolutely nothing except fail completely to supply their citizens with public transport. They cannot supply them with water. What do these state governments do?