And possibly air conditioning for parliament house…
The Howard government has spent more than twice as much money on advertising compared to climate change, Labor says.
Labor’s public accountability spokesman Kelvin Thomson said the government was about to become the first in Australia’s history to spend $1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money on government advertising.
Senate estimates revealed it had already spent $1.27 billion until this financial year, and a further $250 million was buried in the budget papers for 2006-2007, Mr Thomson said.
“At the same time, we know the government has only spent some $670 million on climate change,” he said.
As a member of the creative/advertising industry, in some way I benefit from that $1.5 billion dollars – but that’s just a stupid amount to be spending on self congratulatory advertising and political hot air.
To give you an idea of how much that is in real terms, imagine the average Australian salary is around $35,000 – you would need over 42,857 people contributing every cent they earn this financial year to reach that amount – or 2,228,564 people contributing 1 weeks earnings.
November 12, 2006 at 10:27 am
steve bracks was asked a similar question about his government’s budget for advertising.
he said it was about “saving lives” rather than politics.
whatever.