Documents reveal that one of the Premiers top bureaucrats admitted that the Brumby Government’s spin machine has grown into ‘an army’ and is working hard to conceal the government’s failures on basic services, Shadow Minister Responsible for Scrutiny of Government David Davis said today.Former Department of Premier and Cabinet Director of Strategic Communications, Andrew Hockley, states in an email that the State Government had ‘a small army of media liaison and event managers in-house’ to oversee a water advertising campaign’s public relations.
“Finally a senior government official has admitted the truth about the enormous size of John Brumby’s spin machine,” Mr Davis said.
“The fact that this government is boasting about an ‘army’ of PR spin doctors to conceal their failures is an insult to every Victorian who struggles without adequate transport, health, police or water.
“Instead of employing more doctors, nurses and police, the Premier has embedded more than a thousand PR operatives throughout every government office,” Mr Davis said.
Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition on the Labor Government’s advertising campaign ‘The next steps to securing our water future’ show that the State Government spent $1.5 million attempting to convince Victorians that the Premier flying in a shiny red helicopter would secure our water supplies.
“The Brumby Government has failed to secure Victoria’s water supplies, and instead has relied upon red helicopters and market research to convince Victorians they have a solution,” Mr Davis said.
(FoI documents attached)
