WTF $12million on carbon tax ads....... (2 Viewers)

[cosmo kramer]

what speech shouldnt be free

 

[Drongoski]

Fuck both major parties. Let's be a republic.

How about:

The People's Republic of Australia

 

[SylviaB]

lol lentern thinks the government should stop people from saying certain words in a certain order

 

[Garygaz]

tax higher income earners more so we can advertise covert labor party messages in attempt to save the polls. herpaderp.

cause that 100 million wouldn't have gone to good use down at the royal north shore. fuck.

 

[abbeyroad]

k here's a thought
how about a government system where there is no central government?

omg sedition dirty anarchist pig dog moral outrage!!11!

 

[atreus]

These sort of ads can only be justified if they are solely designed to provide factual information about upcoming changes to the law following the passage of a bill through parliament.

This ad campaign does not fit such a criteria at all. It does not even attempt to explain the proposed scheme. Even if it did there isn't even a bill written and before parliament. Parliament isn't the executive's rubber stamp and it cannot be assumed that a proposal will be the same as the bill that finally becomes law. There may be amendments, it may not even pass. Hence ad campaigns should ideally wait until after royal accent. To do otherwise is an affront to parliamentary democracy.

Gillard defends the ads by saying Howard did it. Well two wrongs don't make a right. I also recall the intense criticism from Labor at the time of the WorkChoices and GST ads. Rudd called such government advertising 'a cancer on our democracy'. Too right. Astounding hypocrisy. Note also that both the Work Choices and GST ad campaigns came AFTER their respective bills had passed the parliament.

This is true, but I think the government needed to do something to stem the damage this is doing to the economy (not caused by the policy itself, but the hysteria that has been whipped up about it). Industry groups are starting their own ads soon and your average voter thinks armageddon is coming. The ads will do nothing to repair the damage done to Gillard's rep, nor should they.

The fault is mainly the government's for announcing a policy in February and not developing the detail until 5 months later, but the blame should be shared by the Opposition for claiming a policy is going to kill us all before the details were released.

 

[cosmo kramer]

what about a government where there is no central government but a government on the edges and then there is nothing in the centre

 

[Lentern]

lol lentern thinks the government should stop people from saying certain words in a certain order

Certainly it should stop you saying them.

 

[krnofdrg]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/mo...carbon-tax-blitz/story-fn7x8me2-1226096362145

 

[Blastus]

Yes, but you first mentioned it was labor.


Frankly this is only a problem because of this obsessive freedom of speech complex we have in this nation. A blanket ban on televised advertising for political causes be them Government, Opposition, Getup, The Minerals Council or the unions would see and end to the hundreds of millions of dollars which are burned up in this stupid game of sloganeering every election, money which could be used for something good.

I disagree with this on a base, fundamental philosophical level.

From a pragmatic standpoint I don't really have an issue with it. They do it in the UK, don't they?

 

[Lentern]

I disagree with this on a base, fundamental philosophical level.

From a pragmatic standpoint I don't really have an issue with it. They do it in the UK, don't they?

Not sure about the UK, I think in NZ parliamentary parties get an allocated 3 million to spend on advertising and that's it which seems to work ok but I don't like the idea of parties that are already in the tent getting a helping hand over ones that aren't.

 

[Azure]

This is far beyond a Labor vs Liberal type of thing, and is really proof that both candidates from both parties have absolutely no business being in politics.

Bring on significant political reform in this country coupled with minimization of government.

 

[Chemical Ali]

Labor spends 12 million on carbon tax ads (imo if anyone's against the carbon tax, seeing the ads will just make them angrier)

That's about half what the mining industry spent to get rid of a prime minister they didn't like