Pinocchio ploy nosedives after leader's gaffe

THE Liberal strategy to paint Steve Bracks as Pinocchio suffered a credibility blow yesterday when Ted Baillieu was caught out spruiking a Liberal Party website that he suggested was published by disgruntled voters.

THE Liberal strategy to paint Steve Bracks as Pinocchio suffered a credibility blow yesterday when Ted Baillieu was caught out spruiking a Liberal Party website that he suggested was published by disgruntled voters.

After reciting a list of unfulfilled election pledges by the Government, Mr Baillieu said: "Now (there is) a website dedicated to Steve Bracks's broken promises. I think it's called 'Bracks's broken promises'. It's not my website. I'm just making the point that there are a lot of people who think there are a lot of broken promises."

Mr Baillieu denied it was a Liberal Party site and claimed to be unaware of its origins.

But he was forced to concede during the interview on 3AW - after presenter Neil Mitchell called up the website - that it was authorised by Liberal Party state director Julian Sheezel.

The revelation should not have been a surprise. The Victorian Liberal Party's internet home page has a link to the site next to a picture of Mr Baillieu.

The broken promises website displays Mr Sheezel's name at the foot of each page, but there is no other indication that the site is associated with the Liberal Party.

The blunder came as the Liberals unveiled an inner-city billboard depicting Mr Bracks as Pinocchio and bearing the slogan "You Can't Trust Labor".

Mr Bracks seized on Mr Baillieu's gaffe. "If the director of the campaign is organising a website, he might as well be frank and say it exists and it's part of the Liberal apparatus," he said.

After his blunder, Mr Baillieu announced that his party would build a $12 million 4km rail extension from Epping to South Morang in Melbourne's north.

The extension - postponed until after 2020 by the Government despite its previous election promise to build it - runs through Transport Minister Peter Batchelor's seat of Thomastown. Mr Batchelor said the estimate was impossible, and a feasible project would cost $300 million.