Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I ask the Prime Minister to confirm the evidence given in Senate estimates that, on Friday, 4 May, the day he announced changes to the industrial relations laws—formerly known as Work Choices—his office required full-page advertisements to be bought in national newspapers at a cost of $470,000 and published on 5 and 6 May, less than 24 hours after the announcement. Prime Minister, doesn’t this prove that your industrial relations changes were hastily cobbled together and are just an excuse for a taxpayer funded advertisement campaign? How is wasting hundreds of millions taxpayers’ dollars on pre-election PR campaigns compatible with prudent economic management, and how is it justifiable to working families under pressure?

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