Will Howard's grubby tactics finally backfire?

John and Janette's 'little reno'.
Nice to live like that courtesy of the taxpayer!

I usually avoid the opinion columns, but Mike Carlton's piece in this weekend's SMH is a corker. Alan Ramsey also has a nice anecdote on something John Howard had to say prior to the 1996 election:

On September 5, 1995, six months before voters made him Prime Minister, John Howard issued a statement as leader of the opposition. It said, in part: "In a desperate attempt to find an election life raft, the prime minister [Paul Keating] is beginning an unprecedented propaganda blitz using taxpayers' money. This soiled government is to spend a massive $14 million of taxpayers' money over the next two months as part of its pre-election panic. If the full communications barrage runs its course it could reach $50 million …

"This grubby tactic will backfire.

"Taxpayers will see through it. They don't want their money wasted on glossy advertising designed to make the prime minister feel good. Keating is about to boost government promotion to a massive new high. It's time a brake was put on this fraud. There is clearly a difference between necessary government information and blatant government electoral propaganda. Now the government is going to use taxpayers' money on a disgraceful scam.

And what did Howard promise to "fix" this "shameful and disgraceful" state of affairs? In government, he pledged, "we will ask the auditor-general to draw up new guidelines" on "what is an appropriate use of money" on government advertising.

"We" did no such thing.

Instead, after sweeping into power on March 2, 1996, "we" spent $1 billion of taxpayers' money spruiking the Government in the Coalition's first eight years back in office. I'm not kidding. The exact figure: $1.014 billion, between July 1, 1996, and June 30, 2004.

The annual totals: $55 million in 1996-97, $89 million in 1997-98, $92 million in 1998-1999, $240 million in 1999-2000, $170 million in 2000-01, $122 million in 2001-02, $103 million in 2002-03, and $143 million 2003-04. An average of almost $127 million a year for eight years. Shameless humbugs indeed.

Oh, the hypocrisy! The sheer scale, the enormity of it all. And Australia has let him get away with it for over a decade. How stupid are we?

If the Labor Party hasn't dug up footage of that little spiel of Howard's, and aren't busy getting it turned into an ad campaign for the next election then they'll be making the same damn mistake as last time around. Call the bastard on his record. Remind voters every single bloody day, every single hour, every single ad break in their favourite TV program of what they've elected. Remind them for heaven's sake not to make the same mistake again!