Constitution (Government Advertising) Amendment Bill
15/09/2010
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (17:50): I place on the record Dignity for Disability’s support for this bill. There should be rules around publicly-funded advertising campaigns to ensure that any publicly-funded advertising campaigns are for the benefit of the public, not simply for the benefit of the government. Let’s face it, the government does have a tendency to be somewhat mean with its money, as my fellow members all know, so why should it be allowed to sing its own praises when there is no real perceived benefit to the community?
That is not to say that the government should be banned from spending money on advertising—it just should be subjected to rules, and that is what this bill does. It provides boundaries and limits to the circumstances in which the government can use our money. This bill allows government to spend money on advertising in a number of circumstances, which the Hon. Mr Parnell has already stated, so I will not waste the time of this place repeating them. I will say only that the categories are fair and well thought out.
For those of us here who think these categories are too limited, I note that the parliament still may approve advertising. So, it appears that this bill still allows the government to state its case to the parliament, which can then scrutinise such requests. I thank the Hon. Mr Parnell for introducing this bill.
