Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

It will not have escaped the notice of Australian families as they turn on their TV sets at night that John Howard is in election mode. You can hardly miss it—ad after ad beamed into lounge rooms each night, courtesy of this profligate government, on superannuation, Work Choices and private health insurance. Ad after ad after ad—and this is only the beginning.

Harold Mitchell has said that the government is spending so much on advertising that it is having trouble actually finding airtime for them. This weekend, as families go about the juggle of getting the kids to sport, cleaning the house, getting through the pile of washing, doing the weekly shopping, filling the car with petrol and hopefully getting a few spare minutes to drop in on grandparents, they will have had a week of the government’s new Work Choices ads. The government PR campaign on Work Choices over the past week has cost $4.1 million alone. That is $24,404 an hour. This comes on top of the $55 million spent on the original Work Choices campaign. Over the coming months, the Howard government will spend some $111.2 million on 18 media campaigns. This is on top of a further $20.5 million campaign planned again to promote the Howard government’s Work Choices legislation, an additional $500,000 print advertising campaign and, as we heard in question time today, a direct mail campaign on climate change that the Prime Minister is trying to deny exists.

It is worth noting that, while the government squanders $4.1 million per week on political advertising, the average weekly earnings for Australian adults are $1,071. In my electorate, where the mean taxable income is almost 15 per cent lower than the Australian average, families would be right to ask, ‘What else could this money have been spent on?’ I am sure families struggling to cope with record healthcare costs would appreciate some much needed relief, with the cost of visiting a GP having doubled under this government. I am sure that those families that have had their overtime or penalty rates cut will be asking why the government is telling them they have to make a financial sacrifice for the good of the economy when the government is now the nation’s second biggest advertiser, outspending Harvey Norman, Woolworths and Nestle. I am sure families struggling to find the HECS fees for their kids next semester would appreciate increased government funding for university students. Investment in tertiary education has declined by around seven per cent under the Howard government, while student debt has tripled since 1996 to $13 billion.

I am sure the families who have had to face a mortgagee sale—unable to find the mortgage repayments after four back-to-back interest rate rises since the government promised to keep them at record lows—will feel no comfort that the government wants to inform them of the number that they need to call if they are being ripped off by their employers. Contrary to the Howard government’s arrogant claim that ‘Australian working families have never been better off’, families are struggling. Far from feeling better off or relaxed and comfortable, families in Australia are increasingly anxious about their financial circumstances. Some 5,000 families recently told the Family Watch Taskforce that financial constraints are denying them the opportunity to make real decisions about the size of their families, home ownership and time out of the workforce after childbirth.

Middle Australia is working harder than ever before. Longer hours and second and third jobs are eroding family life. Parents are worried about the impact of health costs on their ability to ensure their children are getting the health and dental care they need. They are also concerned about what the rising cost of education means for their children’s future. The pressures on families are real. Household debt is at a record level: the average Australian household now owes $1.58 in debt for every single dollar that they earn in disposable income. Australian household debt is now over $1 trillion. Eight interest rate rises under this government have added around $140,000 to mortgage interest payments on the average median price of homes in capital cities over the life of the loan. Australian households are now spending a record 9.3 per cent of their disposable income simply paying off the interest on their mortgage. And grocery bills have increased by around nine per cent over the past two years. These huge impacts on Australian families come on top of rising petrol prices, which are now pushing well over $1.30 across the nation and are set to rise further.

As families this weekend catch their breath after a busy week, we here in this place reflect that in that week the government has spent $585,000 per day on ads—4.8 times the average outstanding mortgage, 10.5 times the average yearly adult earnings and enough money to cover out-of-pocket costs for over 8,300 people visiting their GP for an entire year. You have to wonder about the priorities of this government. (Time expired)

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