Something that Kevin Rudd made a big deal about in the 2007 election campaign was attacking the amount of government paid but really party political advertising that the then Liberal government undertook. Mr Rudd was going to tighten things up, and ensure government moneys were only used for legitimate informational advertising, and not political advertising.
Once elected his government put in place a process whereby government advertising campaigns costing over $250,000 had to be reviewed and approved by the Auditor-General. This process was changed earlier this year so that the review is now by a Independent Communications Committee, which comprises some retired public servants. Okay, I would have thought, vetting advertising is not really what the Auditor-General is there for, so fair enough to put something else in place.
Now I saw some advertisements on TV a week or so back promoting the virtues of the government’s reforms to the Australian health system. I did not see any useful information in these advertisements, thinking they were really puff aimed at making people feel good about the government. I was certainly none the wiser about the changes being made to our health system. Hmm, I thought at the time, government political advertising – obviously there’s an election coming up later this year.
But the news today that the government is spending $38 m on an advertising campaign defending its proposed resources super profits tax against the mining industry’s campaign against it, really does show that Rudd and his government are cut from the same cloth as the former government – once they have access to the resources of government they just can’t keep their fingers out of the till, and seem to lose the ability to see the difference between legitimate government advertising and party political advertising.
What’s worse is the weaselly way they got this advertising around their own guidelines and review process. The rules allow for the Cabinet Secretary (Senator Joe Ludwig) to exempt a campaign from compliance with the guidelines on the basis of a national emergency, extreme urgency or other compelling reasons. A spokesperson for Senator Ludwig said the minister had relied on extreme urgency or other compelling reason rather than the national emergency provision.
What was the extreme urgency, or other compelling reason? Supposedly it was, in Senator Ludwig’s statement of reasons for approving the request from Treasurer Wayne Swan:
“I note and accept the Treasurer’s advice that there is an active campaign of misinformation about the proposed changes and that Australians are concerned about how these changes will affect them.
“I further note and accept the Treasurer’s advice that, as tax reform involves changes to the value of some capital assets, they impact on financial markets.”
How about the real reasons the government thought the need to run this campaign, rather than the bullshit justification? Something along the lines of we have an election coming up, know we’re on the nose electorally right now, don’t like being criticised and need something to distract attention from other areas of our election commitments that we’ve failed to deliver on. Plus, we’re getting into panic mode and desperately need to score some points.
The Howard government got kicked out of office in 2007 in part because they were seen to be out of touch and sneaky. The Rudd government campaigned on this basis that they would not be those things. Like a lot of things with Kevin Rudd and his government, this now looks to have been plenty of promises but bugger all delivery. Reality is that they are just as much a pack of slimy weasels as Howard and company were.
I have a feeling that Rudd is going to get smashed at the next election. In a way he’s been worse than Howard. After all, we knew he was a weasel. Rudd raised expectations, and has really failed to deliver on them – all talk and no action might be a touch harsh on him, but clearly this government has great difficulty distinguishing between activity and results. Yes they might have been very busy, but have they delivered on their promises? I think raising expectations then failing to meet them, then trying to bullshit your way out, is going to see the voting public really take to the government harshly at election time.
And right now, I think Rudd deserves it!
