ALEXANDRA KIRK: As Tony Abbott takes his anti-carbon tax crusade to Western Australia for the next couple of days, the Opposition’s got hold of Labor’s draft plans for a $30 million taxpayer-funded advertising blitz slated for January last year.
It’s centred on Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme but was dumped as was his CPRS [Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme].
Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham, who obtained the documents under Freedom of Information, has challenged the Prime Minister to rule out dusting off this campaign or using the unspent money on a new one.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: We’ve seen before now that Government advertising campaigns are often viewed with cynicism by the public. They often see through them. They saw through them with the mining tax; they probably saw through it under the former Coalition Government with WorkChoices.
I think if this Government is silly enough to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars trying to convince people about a tax that will dip further into their pockets, they will find that it probably backfires and costs them more than it does benefit them.
TONY EASTLEY: Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham ending that report from Alexandra Kirk.