Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the government’s Barbara Bennett Work Choices advertisement about young workers, which the government was forced to withdraw overnight. Will the Prime Minister inform the parliament how much the production and broadcast of this advertisement has cost Australian taxpayers? Prime Minister, how can the government spend $37 million of taxpayers’ money on IR ads when many working families are struggling to make ends meet?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. Those information ads are very effective; those information ads will continue. The fact that they are being attacked by the Leader of the Opposition, the ACTU and the Public Sector Union demonstrates just how effective they have been. The Leader of the Opposition, as we know, famously comes from the state of Queensland—might I say the great state of Queensland. I am proud of the fact that there are more Queenslanders on this side of the House than there are on the other side of the House. What is more, we intend to keep it that way. The Leader of the Opposition comes from the great state of Queensland and, never to be outdone, the good old Queensland Premier has a mate here who will be a colleague of his if the Labor Party wins the next election. While the Leader of the Opposition is up here complaining about government advertising, his colleague in Queensland has absolutely no shame about a 14-page colour booklet released in the Sunday Mail. It is great advertising for the Queensland newspaper. I do not want to knock that fine organisation. They will take business from anybody—that is fair enough—even the Queensland government. Here we have page after page, and what is the explanation?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance. The Prime Minister was asked how much the ads cost. How much, Prime Minister?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lilley will resume his seat. The Prime Minister is in order.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are invited to believe that this is a public information campaign. Do you know why? Because it has been run by a Labor government. It has nothing to do with the content of the campaign.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Dr Southcott interjecting

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I see my colleague, the member for Boothby, and he reminds me—I apologise for what I am about to say—of the South Australian Premier, because the South Australian Premier after the last budget put out a full-page advertisement extolling the virtues of his budget. They have absolutely no shame when it comes to this. Let me inform the Leader of the Opposition of two things: firstly, the ‘Barbara Bennett advertisements’, as he calls them, are legitimate information campaigns; and, secondly—not only that—they are completely in accordance with the values of the Public Service Act, as certified by none other than the Public Service Commissioner, Lynelle Briggs. I am informed that to date the information campaign in relation to the fairness test has cost in the order of $23 million. There will be further expenditure. I do not disguise that; I make no apology for it. I think the provision of legitimate information on the fairness test is justified.

If we are talking about the use of government resources to run a political campaign, I also have in my possession a circular from Mary Kelleher, the senior director of the Human Resources Branch of Queensland Health. The circular is dated 11 July 2007 and it has the heading ‘Your Rights at Work campaign’. This is on the letterhead of Queensland Health. It is not the union. What it has to say is:

The Queensland Council of Unions is coordinating the Your Rights at Work campaign on behalf of all unions. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness about the impact of the federal industrial relations laws on all workers, including those in the state system, and the need to remove the laws by removing the current federal government.

This is Queensland Health. Presumably this is legitimate. Presumably this is an information campaign. It is directly political. There is nothing in the Barbara Bennett ads that in any way attacks the Labor Party, in any way attacks the trade union movement or in fact provides other than factual information on the operation of our policies. In those circumstances, our expenditure is totally legitimate. The ads will continue.