Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Xenophon for his contribution and for his indication of support for the amended motion. I have noted what Senator Ludwig has had to say in this regard, and can I say that hypocrisy is writ large in what the government has to say on this matter. Senator Ludwig wanted to talk in great terms about what the former coalition government did. Yet, of course, he ignored the government’s own words in relation to that previously: those words, from the then Deputy Leader of the Opposition and now Prime Minister, and the then spokesman on government waste and now finance minister, that Labor ‘will end the abuse of taxpayer funded government advertising’.

Senator Ludwig spoke about the committee process, the Auditor-General reviews that have been put in place, yet we know they were circumvented on grounds of so-called ‘national emergency’ for the mining tax campaign. What is to say you will not do this again? We know that Mr Combet has confirmed the government is looking at options for public communications. The government should rule this out. This is a highly charged political debate. There is no place for government advertising in this debate at this time, and Senator Xenophon is quite right: politicians should be able to sell these issues on their merits. That is the challenge for the government.

There is also a challenge in this for the Australian Greens. I have not heard their position on this motion, but I challenge them to support this motion. Senator Brown has previously championed issues of government waste in advertising. He has introduced bills to do so, and he has claimed, in introducing them, that such bills are ‘designed to protect both the public purse and public interest from self-invested government advertising’. I challenge Senator Brown and the Australian Greens to support this motion and, through their involvement in the carbon tax with the government, ensure the Australian purse is protected from such self-interested advertising in the future.