Coalition accuses Labor of ‘wasting’ taxpayer dollars on ad campaigns
Labor has been accused of “wasting” taxpayer dollars on “slick advertisements” to sell its policies ahead of the federal election.
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Labor has been accused of “wasting” taxpayer dollars on “slick advertisements” to sell its policies ahead of the federal election, with $18 million allocated to spruik health initiatives on top of cash spent promoting free TAFE and a manufacturing plan.
The federal government’s mid year budget update includes a new $8m advertising spend to “raise awareness of Medicare services” and a further $10m to promote pharmaceutical changes that allow patients to get 60 days of a prescription filled at once – a policy that came into effect more than a year ago.
The fresh spending is on top of a raft of advertising tenders released by the government in the last three months, such as a $3m campaign to promote fee-free TAFE and a $4.2m media buy related to Labor’s Medicare urgent care clinics.
Opposition government waste reduction spokesman James Stevens said Australians would be “rightly infuriated” to see their money being spent on the “slick” ads for Labor policies in the lead up to the federal election, which is due by May next year.
“Anthony Albanese is trying to hoodwink Australians into thinking he actually has a plan to fix his cost-of-living crisis,” he said.
“Clearly the Prime Minister has given up on trying to govern, instead resorting to wasting taxpayer funds on advertising campaigns to look like a good government, rather than actually being one.”
Labor has already started running ads promoting its manufacturing plan, called a Future Made in Australia, including short videos on social media spruiking its Building Women’s Careers program.
But the Coalition has argued this program is yet to have any projects up and running, with opposition deputy leader Sussan Ley saying Australians would be “pretty annoyed to hear Anthony Albanese has spent millions of their tax dollars on ads for his media announcements”.
“What’s worse, in many instances, like Future Made in Australia and women in skills programs, Labor are advertising announcements as if they were achievements, and the ads are running before the programs have helped a single person anywhere,” she said.
Labor has hit back at the Coalition attack on ad spending, with Albanese Government spokesman accusing the opposition of “hypocrisy”.
“Just because Peter Dutton is opposed to, and voted against cheaper medicines, stronger Medicare and Free TAFE doesn’t mean Australians shouldn’t know about them,” the spokesman said.
“The hypocrisy of Peter Dutton can’t be ignored given he was a member of the government that spent the most on advertising in Australia’s history and doesn’t have a single policy to put his name to aside from his $600bn nuclear power plant scheme.”
The spokesman said both Labor and Coalition governments had made “provisions for public information campaigns on issues that are of importance to the Australian people”.
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Originally published as Coalition accuses Labor of ‘wasting’ taxpayer dollars on ad campaigns
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