Thursday, 7 April 2022

Government advertising

Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (11:16): I want to draw the chamber’s attention again today to the extraordinary report by the Auditor-General from yesterday citing the waste of public money and the money squandered in unnecessary government advertising—partisan government advertising—advertising that breached the law and advertising where the Department of Premier and Cabinet did not properly brief departments. But it is clear that the Premier is driving a lot of this. The Premier is determined that he will not apologise for the misuse of public money. He will not repay the money that is due to be paid back to the people of Victoria. That taxpayers money should not have been spent on partisan advertising.

This is a government that has a shocking record of misusing taxpayers money for its own campaigning purposes. We saw what happened with the red shirts, with the theft of public money and with them forced to pay it back. Here again we see an extraordinary arrangement where the government has breached the law. The Premier is thumbing his nose at the Auditor-General. This is an Auditor-General who is an independent officer of the Parliament and has made the decision that this matter breached the law.

It is clear that millions of dollars could have been spent on a whole range of other projects, whether it be helping small businesses recover or cutting the hospital waiting list. There are massive numbers of spin doctors employed across government, and there is the misuse of government advertising money. The government, the Premier, refuses to pay it back or even apologise for this effective theft of public money for Labor Party purposes. It is shameful, it is wrong, and the Premier ought to be held to account for this. I say the community is sick of these matters and sick of the waste.