We had the television turned onto Ten last night (watching first Jamie Oliver and then, pathetically feelgood as it is, Love Actually). During those three hours or so, there must have been at least five or six ads run from the employers group for keeping WorkChoices. On top of those came two ads from “the Government” - one was about the use of 000 for emergencies (”stay on the line or we can’t help you”) and the other was about the super changes coming in later in September (what serendipitous timing for “the Government”). (Print ads for those super changes are in today’s newspapers too.)
I have no way of knowing whether this is complete coincidence, but this week I received my first ever telephone call from the Family Assistance Office, which administers the family tax benefits which I, like the majority of Australian parents, receive. They were just checking in to make sure everything was okay…
What an incredibly friendly and helpful Government we have.
In today’s SMH, there’s a little story which reveals that “the Government” is soon to run another helpful ad campaign telling us what we can all do to prevent climate change. Greenpeace is critical of the ads, but “the Government” didn’t return the Herald’s calls.
It looks like the “pre-election spike” in Government advertising is well and truly with us.
Same over on SBS during the athletics. Must be costing us a bomb.
I turned off Ch7 last night simply because of the govt ads: it really was super-saturation.
There definitely needs to be some accountability for govt advertising but I can’t see either party, when in power, giving up the treasure chest of ‘public information advertising’ now that it’s been opened.
I think what you are reporting is advertising aimed at women perhaps to counter the “Your rights at work” ads which also seem to be directed at women.
In 1993 Keating thanked the “women of Australia” who did not vote according to the predictions of the opinion polls.
Are women then the real swinging voters and the ones at whom political advertising is directed?
Isn’t 10 the Network for the young and hip?
Bombarding them with super ads sounds like a double waste of money.
The Prime Minister sent me a booklet about how I could talk to my (non-existent) kids about teh drug use! It went in the recycling bin with the rest of the junk mail. But wasn’t the exact same campaign run *before the 2004 election*? All the Brissie street press also carries government ads about teh evils of marijuana.
Suburban women swung against Latham last time. Rudd’s got them back according to the polls. So, yep.
The fact that most of the ads are incredibly lame counts for something. The employers ads showing cartoon unionists ripping things up with their nasty tattooed arms with the sleeves rolled up ( they’re obviously not desk-jockeys from VECCI) are unbelievably naff, likewise the reasonable lady having her concerns about Workchoices answered, and then nodding like a dashboard doggie in satisfaction.
My favourite, though, is the Government info ad about ringing the Terrorism Hotline with your suspicions. The voiceover callers say things like ” I think they were planning something” , no doubt overheard when she sat behind a group of mujahideen on the 52 tram to Coburg. Utterly feckin’ laughable! I’m going to ring them up the next time I hear four lady bowlers organising a cake stall…” I think they were planning something…”
Su, you said
Okay, so how do we stop the crooks stealing OUR money so they can continue practicing THEIR crookery at OUR expense?
I got the same anti drug booklet as Mark. I live in Howard’s electorate and this latest piece of wasted old growth forest joined all the others I have got from him - straight into the recycling.
At the moment I’m averaging about one piece of propaganda from either Howard or “The Government” a week. I predict this will increase.
Yep, time for the ALP to say something about this, tying it in TEH LONGEST CAMPAIGN EVA theme eg “Australian taxpayers are sick and tired of watching these non-stop government re-election ads, and paying for the privelege”
Mark on 1 September 2007 at 5:09 pm
Mark, I have a number of god-children and am planning a family of my own. I am pleased that the govt is inundating families about the “teh evils of marijuana…[and] drug use”. It saves my breath.
If you were likewise situated I would be surprised if you would not share my feelings. I doubt that “the good society” needs more over-weight, dopey teenagers with expensive nasty habits.
But if you want to be identified with the nihilism and solipsism that ic typical of post-modern liberalism then be my guest. That attitude is the ideological labour-saving gift that keeps giving to skeptics of post-modern fashions.
Oh, and while you are at it you can lose the Brisbanian triuphalism. Brisbane is coming along nicely but still has a fair way to go before it can rival Melbourne as the AUS capital of arts and sciences.
I don’t know, at least the drugs booklet gave me a chuckle. The best part about the drug booklet was that it was ‘written by Gary Nairn’. I had visions of him sitting at his desk with some staffers or getting on the intartubes trying to find all the street names they could for the various drugs listed in an attempt to connect with teh druggie youth. There’s not much more hilarious than officious types attempting to use street slang.
Mark,the gender breakdown of voting intentions in Newspoll, Morgan etc. does not seem to be published even on the home sites of the pollsters and the likes of Poll Bludger and Possum Comitatus etc seem not to care either.
Is this female swinging voter phenomenom something simply known about by the campaign directors for each party but which is somehow otherwise unmentionable?
It was a woman I understand who thought up the idea of “children overboard” and the idea to provide buckets of money for the Tasmanian hospital.What else has she got up her sleeve?
Surely it wouldn’t harm women worth their salt to be told they are regarded as easy advertising vote fodder by Ratty’s lot and that they should be especially cautious where there is advertising pertaining to childrens’ welfare and the family budget.
What US polls I have seen, especially exit polls for the last House and Senate election,give a breakdown of reported votes by gender and other demographic stuff.
If we did it here it could warn women that their caring role is in danger of being hijacked by a “friendly and helpful Government”.
The Super booklets were a laff. Ostensibly to explain the ‘biggest change in super ever’ (funny, I thought the introduction of compulsory super was the biggest reform).
Reading between the lines, the one thing the lengthy booklet of happy folk did not explain was that the purpose of the law was to make us work longer, to address labour market needs/demographic changes.
Not to be picky, but who realy epects this to change if the ALP take power? I dont know about the other states but the WA ALP showers us with “info” on how wonderful they are about every 2nd week without an election in sight.
What is seriously needed is a cap on government spending on advertising alltogether. A non-accumulating fund to be spent on a yearly basis. I realise it still means you will get a sharp compression of ads in the last couple of months before an election, but it couldnt be any worse than the current free for all?
I managed to see three of these ads in a single break on SBS (presumably they have fewer commercial advertisers to dilute the government/business ones) - government IR and super ads sandwiching the business union-heavies-in-dress-shop one. Whoever it is who reads ‘authorised by’ messages at three times normal speed must be getting plenty of work (although such people have in any case had a dramatic expansion in employment opportunities in recent years courtesy of the mobile phone industry).
John Singleton in his 70s tome “Rip van Australia” (obtainable in most charity shop for 50 cents)suggested that governments be prohibited from advertising during election campaigns on the grounds that their wonderful competence MUST have been demonstrated during their reign, otherwise they’d be too ashamed to seek re-election.
I too received one of those booklets on drugs, didn’t consider opening in it even for the guaranteed laugh I would’ve got and threw it in my recycling bin too. I also last week got my first taste of the spiffy ALP propaganda. It actually was a really nice looking piece promoting the new ALP member for my federal seat of Port Adelaide. Butler I think his name was as Rod Sawford(?) is resigning. Either way Port Adelaide is probably the safest Labor seat in the entire country and will win it again regardless of who the face is.
Fairly sure that 000 is a reasonable service announcement, and a State service too…
Let’s face it: most lefties (like me) watch the ABC and SBS and generally avoid the commercial stations, and I got a very strong sense after the last election that people on the left just didn’t understand how effective the Liberal ads were - and how many there were!
I’ve got two points to make here: I’m a pretty partisan Labor supporter, but I hope lots of left bloggers donate money this election (I’d prefer donating money to Kevin07, but donate money to the Greens if you must, just so long as people put their money where their mouth is). Please donate money or get involved - you don’t have to join the ALP to volunteer on campaigns. I’ve been involved in politics about 10 years, and this is the biggest - in terms of the sheer numbers of people volunteering - that I’ve ever been involved in. If you’ve ever thought about getting involved, now’s the time.
The other thing is this: there are a lot of intelligent, creative left bloggers - does anyone have any ideas about what bloggeers can do to get more young people on the electoral roll?
Jack, here’s a tip: Try getting a root.
I’m pretty sure there’s been some Newspolls this year which have disaggregated the vote by gender - it’s a bit too late at night for me to go searching but from memory you might like to check the cumulative Newspoll data Possum posted a while back.
No it doesn’t, Jack. It’s instructions about how to talk to the kiddies about drugs, not for the kiddies to read.
No idea where that came from. I mentioned the Brissie street press. No doubt the Melbourne street press also has government funded ads in it. It’s just that I can’t pick up a copy of a Melbourne street rag because I’m in Brisbane. Obviously.
He’s tried ChristineK but having it compulsorily “dry” instead of “wet” goes against natural phenomena.
Christine, was trying to conjure a rejoinder about a bloke who is happy to outsource the Prohibited Substances Education of his pending sprogs to “the govt” because “it saves my breath”. Your insight has rendered my aspiration moot.
“Christine Keeler on 1 September 2007 at 11:18 pm
Mark, I have a number of god-children and am planning a family of my own.
Jack, here’s a tip: Try getting a root.”
You’re a wicked, wicked woman, Miss Keeler.
A prescient post. In today’s Age Howard’s $2 billion ad splurge
Propaganda is an important tool for a police state. As is politicisation of the public service, al la Barbara Bennett. I heard Sharon Burrow talk yesterday. I didn’t realise the extent to which the ABCC is conducting a “war against workers” under a cloak of secrecy. I am flabbergasted that Kevin07 supports this too.
March on the police state.
I love those ‘talk to your kids about drugs’ booklets, for the conversations they cause. Six times out of ten, by the time parents imagine their children are ‘old’ enough for the Talk, the children are far better informed and practiced than Mum and Dad.
BTW, ‘Goey’ Johns? He’s just undone every single anti-drugs message of the last decade. Yes kids, you can maintain a fearsome drug habit and still be the best rugby league footballer in living memory.
Saw a comment by another poster on the drug booklet.
He said got the drug booklet today
nothing in it
rolled a page and smoked it
got a bad cough.
My youngest had “SUPER K!” in hospital. What a crock. No drowsiness at all, and judging by his reaction to hospitals now, absolutely NO memory loss. Let’s face it, if you don’t already have the kind of relationship where these things are talked about, a gov booklet will make no difference. We had the marijuana talk the first time we stumbled on a choccie- milk bottle bong at the beach.
I’ve started a new post for discussion of drugs.
This one is for discussion of government advertising. (Discussion of anti-drugs advertising by the government is fine here, I just thought there was a lot more could be said about drugs in a dedicated space.)
Mark says 2 September 2007 at 12:36 am
I always thought the noun “families” included both parents and literate children. My comment did not exclude the notion that such people could read the thing too. TO jog your memory:
Perhaps things are different north of Tweed Heads.
I see that you have artfully dodged my question, namely: do you really think it is a good idea to sneer at the Howards fairly successful “war on drugs”? The spread of this sub-culture of vice has caused a tidal wave of human misery to sweep accross our society over the past generation.
NO doubt you are too young to have missed the worst of it so you cant be blamed for insouciance.
I’m not going to respond to this comment, Jack, because suz has clearly indicated that she doesn’t want this debate on this thread, and has started another thread for that purpose. Please do her the courtesy of reading her comment, and act accordingly.
Enemy Combatant on 2 September 2007 at 7:58 am
I did not limit my concern to just my “pending sprogs”. I mentioned my actual “god-children”. I guess the distinction between potential and acutal is a little too subtle for you to grasp.
YOur comment implies that it was silly or uncool of me to be pleased that the authorities are taking steps to care for the well-being of children who sometimes come, or might come, under my care. YOu need to do a bit of soul-searching, and world-handling, before you making shallow and amoral comments about things that you know not.
More generally your comment is a diagnostic of the nihilistic depravity of what passes for (post-?) modern liberalism.
I lived for over almost two decades in St Kilda and Kings Cross. I have forgotten far more about that world than you would ever care to know.
I hate the drug industry, especially the way it exploits and destroys young people and women. I am glad that Howard is fighting it with every available resource.
And I like the way he is countering child abusers as well. I know enough of this scourge through my travels up the Top End to know that I am for anyone who is seriously against it.
I find it revealing that some people on this site line up against Howard on these core moral issues. Such people seem to have lost their moral compass in a desperate effort to be “with-it”.
If, in fact, they ever had it to begin with.
Christine Keeler on 1 September 2007 at 11:18 pm
Peter Kemp on 2 September 2007 at 7:34 am
Fancy letting the whole wide world know about your vulgarity and ignorance. If I were you I would not be advertising these personal characteristics.
I am embarassed for the both of you.
I’m glad you made that equation, Jack. Because you’re demonstrating a similar level of moral vacuity as the PM and his camp followers. Please spare us the self-righteous tone. To oppose Howard’s “war on drugs” because it’s designed to fit his own political interests and reinforces his own delusions about society and because it’s highly likely to be ineffectual is not to celebrate drug use, just as pointing to the agendas at play in the NT doesn not mean that you condone child abuse.
Now, I’ll point out to you once again your discourtesy in ignoring suz’ desire that comments about drugs go on the other thread, and my reminder.
Are you serious Jack, from you, the aficionado pumping out multiple perverse theories of “wet” and “dry” in all affairs human, ad nauseam, ad infinitum?
(Jack’s blogging keyboard BTW is not “qwerty”, it’s specially made for lightning fast “wetanddry” dichotomies)
Relax Jack. Here’s a must read, step 2 after Christine’s advice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreplay
On a more serious note I cannot see a way that governments can be weaned off using the public till for this sort of advertising. Perhaps only with a minority party holding the balance of power and demanding water-tight legislation against it as their price. It’s just such an irresistible perk of incumbency.
Heres an intresting articule from todays Sydneys Sun-Herald re the governments advertising
spending, http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/howard-ad-spend-reaches-2-billion/2007/09/01/1188067429684.html?s_cid=rss_national.
The booklet on drugs didn’t stick to my fridge! Have I done something wrong, or does it somehow know that my only child has already grown up drug-free and is living elsewhere (where I assume she would have got her own copy)?
Keeler:
Kemp:
Step two, eh? Peter, you’re doing it wrong.
Most of the ones that have been delivered to my building have been removed from people’s letterbox and chucked in a pile with the other junk mail, unopened and unread. I have a feeling “An Important Message from the Prime Minister” isn’t a good tag line these days.
Peter Kemp on 2 September 2007 at 3:20 pm
Modesty forbids me from answering CK & PK’s puerile question.
Morality was obviously not much use in preventing them from asking it.
Your sleazy personal commentary makes a nice fit to your nutty political ideology. Didnt your mother teach you that a gentleman does not kiss and tell? You both come accross as a low-life bogans so perhaps I should not be too judgemental.
I always get a good laugh out of the “presumption of cool” that so many Left-liberals are so keen on broadcasting. Obviously havent read much Larkin, let alone lived life out of their comfort zone.
Once upon a time I thought it was clever to put on that act. When I was a teenager, about a generation ago. But a little personal odyssey goes a much longer way than a lazy political ideology.
No wonder post-modern Left-liberalism is now irrevocably associated in the public mind with ideological lunacy and moral degeneracy.
Amphibious:
Your quote of John Singleton was very apt
How can we get that turned into Law? [with mandatory 5 years imprisonment for breaches of that law, of course].
Maybe we could get that law extended to cover unnecessary propaganda and/or onanist campaigns during a term in office too …. think of the revenue savings!
Mark on 2 September 2007 at 1:10 pm
I dare say that I should be the last person to throw stones, having lived in glass houses for most of my adult life. Let me confess outright that I am no better than the next man in the personal morality stakes. I think that I am not the first Christian to take some comfort from St Augustine’s prayer.
mark says”
Yeah and the Left-liberal solution to the subcultural/multicultural mixup - free for all and tribal Alpha males - has been oh so “effectual”.
How do you know in advance that Howard’s anti child abuse policy will not work? Your Left-liberal crystal ball has not exactly been clear as day in the past, else we would not be in theis pretty pass.
YOu are empirically wrong about the “ineffectuality” of the war on drugs. Howard has put the Salvation Army on to the problem and hundreds of lives have been saved. Conservative nationalism gets results.
I dont have a problem with Howard following his own political interests so long as they are in-line with civil society’s interests. Thats the way populist democracy is supposed to work.
Yesterday it was indigenous child abuse, today it is sporting drug abuse. What a charming legacy Left-liberalism is leaving for its children. It is a diagnostic of Left-liberal “delusions about society” that they see their stale, shopworn cliches as a part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.
mark says:
Sheesh, fussing about a little off-topic thread “discourtesy” in the midst of all these bottom-crawlers reminds me of Willard’s reaction to General R. Corman’s verdict: “Charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.”
How many children have been found to be abused?
What’s “the war on drugs” got to do with “nationalism”, pray tell?
Kim on 2 September 2007 at 7:20 pm
Good question. Nanette Rogers went along way toward answering it. ABC reports:
For her troubles Ms Rogers has been subjected to a semi-official ostracism from the local legal and political community. I know this for fact from folks on the ground in Alice Springs. Its an incestuous little community up there, in more ways than one.
Kim says:
Two words: border protection. The human body has a built in xenophobic patrol to deal with alien toxicity. It aint the most popular show on the box for nothing.
I dont know if it has been successful in intercepting terrorists. But drug smugglers have never had it worse.
There is an organic connection b/w cultual conservatism and political nationalism. There is not much point in securing the national polity if there is no cultural identity to conserve.
That’s a very stretched bow there, Jack.
I take it - with all your “on the ground” knowledge - you have no comment on the fact that the federal government “health checks” have turned up very very very little evidence of sexual abuse.
Shorter Jack: My “wet and dry” multiverse has been rooted by sexual innuendo.
Thanks for that link pjw.
Since the last election Mr Howard has spent a record $850million of taxpayers’ money on government advertising, an analysis by The Sun-Herald has shown.
The Government disputes this figure, but despite repeated requests has been unable to say why.
Spending in this year alone is expected to peak at $200 million before Mr Howard calls the election.
Mr Howard was elected with a mandate to cut back on federal advertising.
They really are brazen, aren’t they.
Suz:
So that means that the propaganda expenditure so far is, at my guess, about twenty times the amount of money that would have been paid to ill and injured war veterans whose pension and treatment claims had been knocked back by this wonderfully generous, flag-waving, patriotic government.
Anyone for a Royal Commission?
On the Family Assistance Office call, I got my first call from them the other week, and a letter in the mail. Apparently they just want to help me out. I’d never heard of them.
My daughter turned eight today.
Well don’t miss the opportunity this provides. If you’ve got a lawn that needs mowing or somesuch these seem to be the people for the job.