Senator Bob Brown has pledged that, if Parliament sits next week, he will make sure it doesn’t totally waste its time:
If the Prime Minister doesn’t call the election this weekend, I will introduce a private members’ bill when Parliament resumes next week requiring the total amount of taxpayers’ money spent on government advertising to be included in every advertisement.
I applaud the principle behind this, and I hope that he introduces the proposed amendments when the new Parliament sits if he doesn’t get the opportunity next week. Government advertising can be used to raise public awareness about important issues and services. But as we have seen this year, and in many years before (not only under Team Howard), it can be used to disseminate propaganda for the party that has formed Government.
Displaying the cost of the advertising would do nothing to discourage the former kind of advertising, but it should make the Government think twice about the latter. I would have no problem seeing a hefty price tag for an advertising campaign that was in the genuine public interest. But instead of being able to dodge questions for as long as possible, the cost of the advertising could be made transparent to the public, the media and the opposing parties.
My main concerns about Senator Brown’s proposed approach are practical: Can the total cost of the campaign be known before it is finished? or will the Government manage to present a lower figure because that was the cost at a given point in time?
I can’t imagine that these proposed amendments will succeed, but at the very least I hope we get to hear Team Howard (and perhaps Mr “Me Too”) defend why taxpayers should not be given a clear account of how much of their money is being invested in advertising campaigns, so we can judge whether the expected gains match the outlay.
