Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

I refer in particular to the answers given by Senator Minchin regarding government advertising. Today, we were told by Senator Minchin that he has no shame when it comes to the wanton waste of public moneys with regard to government advertising. In the run-up to this election, $500 million will be spent by this government in a desperate attempt to secure a life raft in the face of increasing levels of public dissatisfaction.

Some $2 billion has been spent on public advertising since this government came to office. This is a desperate attempt by this government to avoid public accountability. This government is seeking to pump out hundreds of millions of dollars in propaganda to hide from the public, in a period when it should have called an election. We all understand this is one of the longest running parliaments in the history of this Commonwealth. This government is desperately running from the Australian people. This government has sought to abuse public advertising in a manner which goes to the heart of the nature of the deceit of and the contempt for the Australian people shown by this government.

In last year’s annual report of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, they avoided reporting on government advertising. They neglected to report a whole series of sums, including $209 million for 2005-06. Of course, this year’s figures will not be reported until well after the election—this figure of $500 million that the government is spending in the run-up to the election. This government’s deceit and dishonesty have now been visited upon its own ranks. We know about this because the situation arose some years ago, when Shane Stone pointed out to us that this government has a reputation for being mean and tricky. There has been a period of total turmoil while the government has visited upon its own ranks this deceit and deception.

We are now told that Mr Costello will take over from this Prime Minister at some point in the future—on the condition, of course, that the Liberal Party agrees. This is about the fifth time that promises have been issued to Mr Costello by Mr Howard. Going back to 1994, Mr Costello was told that the Prime Minister would serve only two terms and then hand over. Mr Ian McDonald, of course, was a witness to those discussions and kept a note in his wallet for 13 years. He kept the faith for 13 years—the poor hapless fool! He should be able to provide advice about this Prime Minister’s capacity to tell the truth. We had a situation back in 2003—