Matt Johnston: Spin will only take you so far
It’s all well and good to say Victoria is in the middle of a Big Build, but if people are hearing only about blown out budgets, it will jar.
Opinion
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One of the Andrews government’s most frustrating habits is the way it tries to control the narrative at any cost. Instead of putting out information and allowing the public to digest it, there is a preference to try to micromanage “the message” and keep a tight hold of detail.
It’s not unique to the Victorian Labor Party, of course. The Morrison government has this bad habit, too. So did the former Napthine government.
During the pandemic the tight grip on information has become particularly noticeable, with the argument sometimes proffered that certain information could undermine public faith in the health system (or, heaven forbid, the government).
Freedom of Information long ago became an oxymoron in Victoria.
Most documents are sealed under Cabinet in-Confidence restrictions that are used to mask even basic briefings to ministers.
Daniel Andrews swept to power in 2014 promising to boost transparency, but has failed to deliver.
He also pledged to reduce the taxpayer’s advertising burden, which happened for a couple of years before normal service resumed.
There is a fine line, on government advertising, between necessary information and puff pieces that boost an agenda.
Transport infrastructure building has been a major hallmark of this government, and it likes to spread that message. But there’s also obviously a need to tell Victorians which roads and rail lines are shut, and when.
Documents obtained by the state opposition under Freedom of Information — it occasionally works — show that in two-and-a-half years there was about $10m spent on ad campaigns through the Major Transport Infrastructure Authority.
Opposition transport spokesman David Davis also points out the tens of millions of dollars spent on an army of spin doctors doing the bidding of minister Jacinta Allan.
Some of the campaigns that irked the state Opposition, and no doubt many readers, includes spending almost $745,000 on the High Capacity Metro Trains project.
That project, which allows for 20 per cent more passengers through $2.3bn spent on 65 new and bigger trains, was almost two years late and hadn’t resulted in a single carriage hitting the tracks when advertising was spent.
This financial year, in which coronavirus has dominated everything, the government has started slowly on marketing its Big Build — a lazy $125,000 on the North East Link Project and $187,000 on level crossing removals along the Upfield line some of the major spends.
It is true that many of the campaigns paid for through the infrastructure authority have been directly related to closures of rail lines and roads. But the line between public information and a politically-beneficial campaign is hard to distinguish in some campaigns.
This is particularly the case nearer to elections, when the flow of ads tends to increase.
That the government should stick to factual and necessary ads goes without saying, but political types always want to boost their credentials and agenda ahead of an election.
Just look at the way the Napthine government spruiked a non-existent airport rail link in 2014, or the way the Brumby government spent $130m on advertising and marketing in its final year in office.
Voters aren’t stupid, though. They can see through spin and won’t believe their eyes and ears unless campaigns are credible.
What will be more important for the Andrews government than creating glossy marketing material is to ensure the projects it inevitably promotes — such as the West Gate Tunnel, Melbourne Metro Tunnel, and the North East Link — are better managed and are can be delivered on time.
It’s all well and good to say Victoria is in the middle of a Big Build, but if people can’t see the results of anything, or are hearing only about budgets being blown and project timelines being torpedoed, it will jar.
At the last election I spoke to many people who were not tapped into politics but who thought a lot of stuff was being built.
They didn’t think this because they were told, but because it was pretty bloody obvious — cranes were in the sky. Show, don’t tell.
This term was always going to be a test of delivery for the government.
Especially before COVID-19 took over everything.
Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan late last year faced the media to outline details of a $2.7bn overrun on Metro, which is being shared between taxpayers and the project builders.
There will be many more instances of this, and the government will probably try to flush them all out well before the November 2022 state election.
The West Gate Tunnel has been a disaster, with major tunnelling stalled for more than a year due to a dispute between its builder and project proponent, tolling giant Transurban.
Already, Transurban has informed the market that it will be delivered late, now scheduled for 2023.
The cost overruns are yet to be revealed, but will be massive.
Will this government splurge more taxpayer cash on advertising the benefits of that mega toll road — which will eventually save motorists 20 minutes on their commute from the west — well ahead of the new opening date? For example, before November, 2022?
The risk then would be to create a disconnect between what voters have seen, and what they are being told.
Not even the world’s best ad gurus could spin that away.
Matt Johnston is Herald Sun major projects editor
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