I have noticed on free-to-air TV lately a lot of State Gov advertisments. These ads seem to be telling us what a great job the state gov is doing. Now sure, I could get a warm fuzzy feeling and put 2 and 2 together and think 'hey I should vote for Iemma and keep the party going" or I could be cynical and think "are these gov departments throwing money at the media to buy their favour?" I suspect the latter - Iemma seems to get a lot more time on TV than the other candidates. It is amazing how these ads seem to become much more prominent just prior to an election.

What is your opinion?

Of course! these polititians are rich beyond what they are worth, they can have no trouble paying off any media interest. Its always only before election time that they bring out their propaganda. and in between, its to bag out the opposing party.
Great job they done? What about railcorp? they state trains run on time now but this is only due to the fact that they run slower now!
The road tunnel systems?
Or even public schools.
Clap Clap mr iemma.

Very true Spacscilib.

You'd be surprised how much of this kinda stuff goes on.


It's either MONEY or the cross-ownership media laws.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Columnist-wrote-Downer-speeches-report/2007/02/22/1171733876234.html

A conservative News Limited columnist was paid more than $11,000 of taxpayers' money to write speeches for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) outsourced several ministerial speeches, including a July 2005 address to the Hillsong Church in Sydney, to a recruitment firm that engaged columnist Christopher Pearson to write them, Fairfax newspapers reported.

Mr Pearson was paid $11,364 by the government for the speeches.

Other speeches written for Mr Downer by Mr Pearson included inter-faith dialogue, terrorism, regional foreign policy challenges, and economic and environmental issues, the report said.

I'm glad you mentioned the Commonwealth Government - Freediver.  The State Government is paying for it's election advertising from political donations and not using public money.

On the other hand - we have the Federal Government spending millions of dollars of taxpayer funds promoting their unpopular policies, private health insurance, workchoices, etc.  These have run into tens of millions of dollars.

As far as Alexander Downers' speeches go - these Ministers have their own private speech writers - so what are they being paid for?  But then everything is contracted out these days, while the ministerial staff have to sit around and twiddle their thumbs.  We certainly never hear of efficiency in these ministerial departments - only the fact that the obscene amount of $87 billion is stashed away safely to pay for their superannuation.

Neither major party cares one way or another about how much money they waste - it's just a bottomless pit as far as they are concerned.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/govts-2b-ad-spend-unremarkable-abbott/2007/09/02/1188671776490.html

The federal government says it is legitimate to spend $2 billion on advertising campaigns, dismissing Labor claims the taxpayer dollars should have gone to schools and hospitals.

Health Minister Tony Abbott admitted on Sunday the advertising bill since 1996 seemed high, but added he thought it was actually unremarkable.

"While that figure over 10 years sounds a lot, the NSW government spent $110 million between the middle of last year and the election campaign (in March)," he told reporters in Sydney.

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Downer gets constitutional 'egg on face'

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Downer-gets-constitutional-egg-on-face/2007/09/17/1189881398632.html

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has accused Labor leader Kevin Rudd of ignoring the constitution - then got a key constitutional point wrong himself.

Mr Downer added three months to the government's term in office, saying the life of the parliament was three years and three months.

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Rudd keen to overhaul political ads

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/rudd-keen-to-overhaul-political-ads/2007/10/09/1191695898544.html

Labor leader Kevin Rudd has called for all taxpayer-funded political advertising to end three months before any election is due.

Mr Rudd said the amount of government advertising on television was starting to corrupt the democratic process.

Labor estimates that the federal government is spending $1 million a day on advertising in the lead-up to the election and up to $300 million this year alone.