 |
|
|
|
Unhappy with the Howard Government’s use of publicly-funded advertising to get its message across, opposition leader Kevin Rudd has pledged to refer big-budget ad campaigns to the Auditor-General if he wins office later this year.
The public will be informed about the changes through an $8 million television and print media campaign, to start shortly before the 2010 election.
Mr Rudd told the Herald that the Howard Government had spent a total of $1.7 billion in taxpayers’ funds over the past 10 years to pay for Government advertising. Labor’s taxpayer-funded advertising scheme, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, cost a mere $800 million a year.
“Make no mistake, the purpose of these advertisements was to re-elect the Howard Government,” Mr Rudd told the Herald. “Governments are entrusted to spend taxpayers’ money to provide essential services—not to use them as a re-election war chest.”
Mr Rudd later supplied The Daily Grind with a substantial dossier of government spending designed to win elections, which later turned out to be the 2007-08 Budget with a different cover stuck on.
