Coronavirus: Queensland Labor shifts goal posts for pre-poll ad blitz

The Queensland Labor government has quietly relaxed rules banning most government advertising within six months of an ­election.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in Brisbane on Monday. Picture: Annette Dew

The Queensland Labor government has quietly relaxed rules banning most government advertising within six months of an ­election, as it bombards the airwaves with material spruiking its infrastructure spending and ­response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The government’s code of conduct previously stated there should be no advertising within six months of the scheduled date of an election “unless there is an urgent emerging issue”.

In new guidelines published in December, advertising “should cease when caretaker period commences” unless there is an urgent emerging issue, the material ­addresses a social-education issue (such as road safety or health), or it communicates information such as train timetable changes.

The Queensland election — the first with a fixed date and a four-year term to follow — is on October 31, and the caretaker period begins on October 6. Under the old rules, most advertising would have been restricted from April. The coronavirus pandemic would certainly be defined as an “urgent emerging issue” under either set of rules.

Recent government advertising campaigns have focused ­heavily on the government’s signature infrastructure project, the $5.4bn Cross River Rail public transport tunnel, which is under construction and is featuring on highway billboards, glossy letterbox drops and other ads.

There has also been a surge in advertisements promoting the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, and social media material — circulated by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and branded with just her name — disseminating COVID-19 messaging.

One television ad, authorised by the government to sell its economic recovery plan, points out the state’s effective management of coronavirus compared to Victoria and other jurisdictions.

“Queensland: the world has been ravaged by COVID-19, with more than 19 million cases. In Australia, strong action on borders has worked well and Queensland has one of the lowest rates in the country … we must take social distancing seriously or risk undoing all our hard work,” the voiceover says.

Labor and LNP focus groups are understood to be showing Ms Palaszczuk and her handling of the coronavirus crisis are hugely popular, a finding backed by Newspoll, which revealed 81 per cent of voters approved of Ms Palaszczuk’s COVID management.

The message is being received so strongly by ALP strategists that the party is planning to put Ms Palaszczuk alongside her candidates on their corflutes: the first time a Queensland Labor leader has ­appeared on the signs since Peter Beattie in 2001.

Opposition Deputy Leader Tim Mander said the government was “using taxpayers’ money to fund blatant Labor Party propaganda”. “Taxpayers’ money should be used to create jobs, not trying to save Annastacia Palaszczuk’s job,” Mr Mander said.

But a spokesman for Ms Palaszczuk said the rules changed when the government introduced fixed four-year terms, and said the ads were prioritising “strict health and safety messages and the fight against COVID-19, both health and economic”. “With a fixed election date we were able to nominate caretaker as the time when government advertising stopped. Before fixed terms, the six-month mark was as much certainty as could be guessed,” he said.