John Brumby should immediately cancel his wasteful Working Victoria advertising binge and redirect the millions of dollars in proceeds to Victorian hospitals, public transport and policing, Shadow Minister responsible for Scrutiny of Government David Davis said today.
“John Brumby’s outrageous taxpayer-funded Working Victoria advertising blitz does not create one new job for a single Victorian outside the big advertising agencies, who will be rubbing their hands with glee at this latest Labor ad splurge,” Mr Davis said.“Labor promised in Opposition it would ‘put an end to the use of the public purse for inappropriate political advertising and promotion’, but in government it has splurged on blatant party-political advertising designed to promote an arrogant Premier.
“If John Brumby was honest, he would retitle the Working Victoria ads as ‘Victoria’s Not Working’ and spell out the job losses Victoria has suffered on his watch,” Mr Davis said.
No amount of advertising will help those Victorians who have lost their jobs, given that:
- Victoria was the only state to lose full time jobs in 2008;
- The Budget Papers forecast that unemployment will increase significantly, leaving more than 200,000 Victorians out of work by next year;
- 45,000 more Victorians are now unemployed than there were in August last year; and
- Victoria has the equal second-highest unemployment rate of all states.
“The ads fail to meet John Brumby’s own guidelines drafted after pressure from the Auditor-General, and the Opposition will refer these blatantly dishonest and deceptive ads to the Auditor-General for investigation.
“Victorian families want the government to fix the failures in basic services such as health, transport and policing rather than spending their money on wasteful government self-promotion.
“John Brumby must cancel these ads immediately and redirect the millions of dollars that would be saved to fixing basic services,” Mr Davis said.
