In a massive shock, the Victorian government dislikes cancer. And, amazingly enough, they fund cancer hospitals. Who woulda thunk it!
But just in case you didn’t know, the Victorian government’s just started a TV advertising campaign, complete with Delta Goodrem jingle, to tell us all about it.
They also like roads, trains, and bicycles, as this ad has been informing us for the past several months – though, personally, I prefer this version.
And you can play hockey and use computers at state schools.
None of these ads have any purpose other than to convince the marginal seat voters citizens of Victoria that the government is doing good stuff.
Note to government: if you want to advertise Labor’s accomplishments in government, use ALP funds to do it.
Such would never happen in SA.
Trust me.
No, on second thoughts, don’t.
Cos it does.
What, no mention of the “Let’s Drain What’s Left of the Murray by Pumping it Uphill Using Brown Coal!”, and the “Let’s Put a Brown Coal Powered Desal Plant where a Dam Should Be!” projects?
Good thing Clarke and Dawe are onto it.
It is a bipartisan tradition in Australian politics now. Who can forget Howard’s use of tax payer funds to sell Liberal party policy. And as you pointed out Robert, they’re just like advertisements for banks. They’re the sort of advert that makes one think… about finding a deserted island some place where there is no TV.
This is such a tired, listless government, that has underperformed in so many areas, that I’m really surprised at its dominance in the polls. Still, the opposition are captured by the same forces (gambling money, belief in the magic of PPPs, I could go on) that I guess people see there’s little alternative.
So that is where all the hockey players come from.
Funnily enough, I was surveyed yesterday evening on behalf of the Vic state government. Lots of questions about their responses to water issues, bushfires, public transport, climate change, hospitals, jobs, the economy / GFC. And more questions relating to where I though responsibility of much of these major issues ie mostly state or mostly federal responsibility.
The best thing about it was that the guy surveying me was in Sydney. Victoria – supporting jobs in NSW
This is what every single government does without exception or variation… it’s not great, but Vic aren’t doing anything out of whack.
Armagny, just because John Howard did it doesn’t make it any more acceptable.
This is a solvable problem. Just create a set of guidelines that says “advertising will be used to inform the public of things they need to actually do something about” and “government advertising will be conducted in a manner that avoids, as far as is possible, creating partisan advantage for the incumbent government” and a Commissioner for Government Advertising to screen government ads to ensure they comply.
This government-propaganda-machine thing really is getting outta hand isn’t it. They’re all doing it, and the content of the propaganda is getting more and more vacuous.
Of course governments have always advertised… I can remember Dollar Bill… but normally only when something of some significance was involved. Now it is just pure brand awareness.
What it really reminds me of is the degree to which popular art and culture in ancient societies was directed towards propaganda. If you go to Egypt and look at the hieroglyphs on the temples, what they really say is “I, Pharaoh XXX, represent good, strong government. I’m the best government you’re going to get. I’m out building stuff and fixing stuff and conquering stuff for you so worship me you miserable f***er.”
Nothing new here then.
Damn you, Zardoz! Now I’ve got that fucking jingle stuck in my head. Bastard.
No no no! You’ve got it all wrong! The Victorian government don’t advertise things they have done, they advertise things they may do, at some point in the future, maybe… Hence all the signs everywhere telling us that the road we’re driving on is going to be upgraded (this is fair within a time frame, but some of these signs have been up for years). Things they’re actually doing, like building a desal plant that will give us no chance of meeting any emissions targets (not to mention putting a carbon cost on freakin’ water) and taking water out of Eildon that doesn’t exist (the levels required for them to pump water haven’t been seen since last century, ie. it’s pointless unless it’s been raining heaps, when it would be, err, pointless).
It’d be nice to have an alternative, but I’m pretty sure the Liberal party have retired to Queensland or something. I haven’t heard anything out of them, not an objection and certainly not a policy, in years.
Clive Hamilton was running in Higgins to build a war chest to run in Prahran next year, hopefully the greens can start making an impact.
Look at the fuss raised over the federal government trying to set and enforce guidelines for the printing allowance!
Unfortunately the tradition is for the Opposition to cry foul but forget as soon as they gain government.
It would be great to have clear guidelines as to what is informative (“If you drink and drive, you’re a bloody idiot”, “Here’s how to use the new ticketing system”, etc) versus advertising (“we’re introducing a new ticketing system and doing other great things” etc); most of us can see the difference, so it shouldn’t be too hard.
I think federally it has been pared back, probably due to the likes of John Faulkner actually carrying out what they said they would. I am definitely disappointed that the Bracks/Brumby governments have continued the “they started it first” tradition.
Previous Bracks, and now Brumby, have extensively utilised government advertising that aspires to no greater message than “we’re doing something, and we spent some time and talked to some people regarding what it is we are going to do”.
The difference between the current Victorian State Government and the previous one run by Kennett is that Kennett’s government was unabashedly entrepreneurial, and the state, it could be well argued, needed a superficial boost to it’s overall mood. The ads nowadays are not even glorified election ads – they are just election ads.
I hope any new government also walks the talk about this – again, something Bracks and Brumby have been spectacular failures at doing.
“Hamilton was running in Higgins to build a war chest to run in Prahran next year”
Interesting if true.
Brett Coster – I wonder if the federal ‘paring back’ of taxpayer-funded political ads is just due to the fact that Rudd hasn’t faced re-election yet. I remember seeing a chart of federal government advertising expenditure which showed massive spikes every election year, so I think we’ll have to wait until next year to see whether Rudd/Faulkner have changed anything.
Howard – get outta town. It’s okay when Kennett did it cause it was pro-business and Victoria was such a Debbie-Downer it ‘needed’ a pick-me-up? Come on, that’s some of the most crappy partisan apologia I’ve ever seen.
Unfortunately advertising propaganda is a weapon used just as readily by both sides of politics, though as noted Rudd seems to have avoided more of it. This said, he probably figures he doesn’t need it.
Oh, but patrickg, the Commonwealth under Howard were spectacularly shameless (that was ’06).
The Victorian Government propaganda supports private enterprise. In fact I think some regional TV stations rely on government advertising for 65% of their revenue.
Incidentally, I’ve read media reports where Labor’s given the same justification for ads about the wonders of Eastlink and the joys of regional Victoria.
It was crap when Kennett pulled it, it was crap two years ago, and it’s still crap.
Bryn: I agree, and will be very disappointed if they relapse. I don’t expect perfection, but I do think that this Labor government has been better at transparency than would be expected. Admitedly, after Howard’s “advertising” we are starting from a low base.
But the printing allowance changes and general (but not sufficient) freeing up of FOI etc are good steps and should be encouraged
The Victorian govt hates civil liberties: http://www.theage.com.au/national/overland-backtracks-in-files-row-20091210-km8z.html
The Victorian govt hates publicly accountable decision-making: http://www.theage.com.au/national/privatisation-fears-over-planning-20091210-km96.html
NSW ALP may be chock full of factional thugs – but the VIC ALP is just plain corrupt and quasi-authoritarian.
“It was crap when Kennett pulled it, it was crap two years ago, and it’s still crap.”
Hear! Hear! Robert.
A major problem, in addition to the public waste attached to advertising when scarce funds could go to more useful purposes, is that it facilitates the managerialism type of government glossing over public accountability. Haven’t checked out Lefty E’s links yet, but I’d have to say that this style lays the groundwork for the risk of corruption, especially with the ‘insider trading’ type of deals that get done in public-private partnerships.
The very conspicuous failures with the water pipeline, the desalinisation plant and public transport would have occurred (er… perhaps have been less likely) with a more publicly accountable approach.
It shouldn’t be enough that the opposition is even worse.
I wasn’t making the “it’s not crap” argument, I was making the “the current mob are huge hypocrites” argument. We all think there are better things to spend taxpayer’s money on (even if we don’t agree on what the better things are”. But the Kennett Government apologised for nothing, and pretty much never tried to explain it.
You can at least admire Kennett for his “grand” brand of “evilness”. He didn’t snivel.
Unfortunately, proposing to get rid of tax payer funded propaganda is the equivalent of unilateral disarmament. Indeed it’s worse, because only governments get to do it at any point in time. Why would a rational government deny itself the resources to help get re-elected? And why should the government do a deal with the opposition to never do it again, when the opposition could rescind the deal when next they are in government? (And, as we’ve seen recently, the Liberal Party can’t be trusted to keep their word on deals.)
Howard, read your comment again; that’s not what you said.
“the state, it could be well argued, needed a superficial boost to it’s overall mood.
It cannot be well argued.
So clearly taxpayers and citizens shouldn’t be told how or where their money is being spent. The “Unchain Your Hearts GST campaign” & the “don’t be alarmed be alert” campaign were overtly political campaigns as were most of the FedLib Government campaigns. I think the VicLab Government adds fall within acceptable guidelines though clearly there is a subtext. This is politics, and as Gough said,’Only the impotent are pure’ – which is why you Greens are bleating.
At least the GST campaign was informing people of a change in how much things would cost. It was bad, but not indefensible. Same with the terrorism campaign, although that one was probably not needed.
But the stuff being shown in Victoria right now is ridiculous. Advertising for government schools actually costs the government two ways; firstly through the cost of the advertising, and then costing the government more money to educate a child through state-operated schools than it does through independently operated schools. And I already know I need to go to the hospital if I get cancer.
“At least the GST campaign was informing people of a change in how much things would cost. It was bad, but not indefensible. Same with the terrorism campaign, although that one was probably not needed.”
Howard, I think your memory is failing.
Steve 1′s right, Howard. It cannot be justified by either side, as Robert says. And I’d avoid mentioning the “Unchain My Heart” GST campaign or the “Medicare is Now Better” one. They had the additional strikes against them that they were deceitful.
Sam is right, of course. How do you get them to stop? Maybe the only thing might be a hung Senate depending on the minor parties and independents. A condition of support might be that that be dropped by legislation. The independents were able to screw a few concessions out of the minority Bracks Government in the early days.
I loathed Howard’s government as much as the next person but it’s only fair to point out who started this game of using taxpayer’s funds for political advertising – Paul Keating.
He put a lot of pressure on departmental Secretaries to approve blatantly partisan ads (they have to sign a document that declares the ads are not in fact partisan). Keating’s goveremnt did a lot of good things, but he set the dreadful precedent here.
You’re right Deridda. Partisanship crept in then to fudge the employment figures, especially, as I recall. Though govt advertising goes back to Gough, it was at that point mostly informative. It changed significantly at the time you mention.
derrida derrida point about ‘blatantly partisan ads’ is right. While it is in the eye of the beholder, I think the VicLab adds fall within the community information ball park. There is a legitimate question to ask, but I think there are people who are disappointed the Vic Gov’t appear to be running things fairly well, they are reasonably popular and they are out there doing things.
Robert:
“Armagny, just because John Howard did it doesn’t make it any more acceptable. ”
Not at all. However if ‘the others’ can and will do it, that is until you fix the problem, then a party that doesn’t do it may shoot itself in the foot.
“This is a solvable problem. Just”
It might be solvable but the use of ‘just’ here in my view grossly underloads the following suggestions in terms of their difficulty.
“create a set of guidelines that says “advertising will be used to inform the public of things they need to actually do something about” ”
Not bad. So if the elected government states that information is needed on these topics (for example to encourage transport use, or to encourage movement into the rural areas) you subject them to unelected judges on this quite subjective question? I suppose you could, but it’s highly litigable. Give me $2K and I’ll write you 15 pages on why the rural ad for example might be something the polity need to know about.
” and “government advertising will be conducted in a manner that avoids, as far as is possible, creating partisan advantage for the incumbent government” ”
I think this would be incompatible with good government because if they were doing their job well, then any discussion of their programs would inevitably reflect well on them.
“and a Commissioner for Government Advertising to screen government ads to ensure they comply.”
Appointed by the government? This one might be the strongest suggestion, although I think you could only justify giving them the power to criticise, like a specialist variant of the auditor-general or the ombudsman. Fixed 5 year non-renewable terms might give them some independence.
It’s food for thought but I think the answer would prove very complex to implement (and potentially constitutionally invalid if not done right).
When you want the government to do just about everything why are you now surprised that they will spend *your* money trying to convince you what a great job they are doing. Expect more of the same.
Not to make a tired point, but there is a difference between deceit, and just having a difference of opinion. I think there are people on here who would think any defence of any initiative of the Howard Government would be deceitful. Sorry, but they just don’t agree with you.
Armagny, fair points, and yes, I was overstating how easy it would be to solve the problem, and yes guidelines dreamed up over at least two minutes of deep consideration have holes in them
That said, while the Provincial Victoria ad might just scrape through the “need to do something” test, and possibly even the schools ad, I fail to see how the cancer ad could possibly be justified on that basis.
“This is what every single government does without exception or variation… it’s not great, but Vic aren’t doing anything out of whack.”
I hate that excuse. “They do it too”. But if YOU do it, then you can’t complain when THEY do it, so you’re in effect reinforcing THEIR waste of our money, too. Every ALP ad costs twice as much because it’s justification for the Liberals doing it next time they’re in power.
Fortunately we don’t have to vote for one of the major parties that insists on wasting our money with this sort of shameless propaganda – and this is one very good reason why we shouldn’t. I won’t be voting 1 for either of them.
The ALP in Victoria got in early,afte all some opposition types had a a seeming interested in a building with a casino in it,and its owners.Scratching my repository of accumulated Alzhiemer’s cells.. the owner’s father was a Kerry Packer.
“I hate that excuse. ”
Whatevs. I hate genocide, rock spiders, and Silvio Berlusconi. I dislike hypocritical one-upmanship. I get slightly annoyed by Bob Dylan fans.