1 April 2009

Zed leaps at the throat of Canberra media

| johnboy
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Liberal Leader Zed Seselja has announced plans to cut back on Government propaganda campaigns.

    “Not only do these campaigns create an untenable conflict for the agencies concerned, they are a blatant waste of money that could be used for front-line services,” said Zed. “The costs are significant, millions of dollars are being sidetracked by the government for no genuine public purpose – it’s purely political.”

    “As you might expect, Jon Stanhope scoffed at the idea, and ran a ridiculous line saying we were attacking drink driving ads. Of course we weren’t. In fact, the legislation specifically excludes those sorts of legitimate government campaigns.

    “I have received indications from the Greens that they will support this Bill in principle. I am prepared to adopt any reasonable suggestion from either party as we work through the detail. I call on Mr Stanhope to stop playing games and answer the question as to whether he supports the principle of this Bill,” said Zed.

I hope Zed has calculated on the money of these ads pretty much representing the profit margin of most of Canberra’s major commercial media.

Courageous stuff Zed!

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Furry Jesus said :

Wait a minute. The only way this legislation will get up is if the ACT Libs get the Greens to vote with them. Or if the Libs win a majority at the next election…

The Greens have given in principle support.

There has to be a place for governments to advertise their programs and community initiatives to keep the public informed, particularly if the meeja aren’t picking it up – given that a lot of it would either be entirely yawn-inducing or even worse, good news, that’s not unlikely. The problem is that the political wings of governments have too much influence on the spin, particularly when it’s an election year.

Guidelines which distinguish between campaign ads and public information initiatives would help. But Zed’s only talking about campaign advertising guidelines based on Federal Labor’s. If we end up with only campaign guidelines, there’s no control over misuse of the other.

Wait a minute. The only way this legislation will get up is if the ACT Libs get the Greens to vote with them. Or if the Libs win a majority at the next election…

It’s a year and a half after the federal election, so maybe it’s time to forget Howard look at issues in their own right. Surely people can’t continue to justify everything ALP just because Howard did it too.

Like Jakez, I remember the Libs (and Greens from memory?) putting out pre-election policy on this last year. It was downright annoying to see my increased rates go to ALP advertising thinly dressed up as government information.

I didn’t approve when Keating did it, when Howard did it, when Stanhope did it. Don’t tell me we should now say it’s ok just because it’s a local lib that does something.

it’s about time somebody put a stop to this blatant misuse of taxes.

I always maintain a cynical attitude to the Liberal Party Source, I feel it is my duty as a member. Before the election Zed came out against this type of advertising, if he had’ve gone back on that I would have called him on it. As now, I will congratulate him for taking this step forward. I don’t think that is naivety.

This is a good step forward, and I’ll take any step forward that I can get.

I think general Zed bashing is heading offtopic source.

thesource198011:44 am 01 Apr 09

If the Libs win the next election under Zed can the last person to leave Canberra please turn off the lights?

thesource198011:41 am 01 Apr 09

jakez said :

54-11, your equating of the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party with the ACT Parliamentary Liberal Party greatly hurts my federalist feelings.

It’s not often that people like Zed will actually say that this thing is wrong no matter the Party, so I respect him for his stance.

Jake of course they are different, the federal party actually do some work, these guys are a lazy bunch of no hopers.

I think Zed is the most over-rated politician since Judas Iscariot won the AD31 Best Disciple Competition. Cant throw insults in English so here is one in Croatin for Zed, Dabogda me konj izjebo u guzicu pa mu ti morao pusit kurac nakon toga (Googel it)

thesource198011:01 am 01 Apr 09

C’mon guys, yes it’s a good point but Zeds only standing up because Jeremy Hanson is getting so much attention in the media. You would think Jeremy is the only Liberal working in there. I think that Zeds office is telling him that Jeremy is creaming him and he better start doing some work.

I quote Mr Magoo from http://the-riotact.com/?p=11465 Is Jeremy Hanson the opposition spokesman for EVERYTHING??????? Or does he alone have access to the fax machine to send out Media Statements? Fair dinkum every time there is a opposition comment it comes from him! Makes you wonder what Brendan, Vicki etal are doing.

It amazes me Jake that you are so naive, if the libs had got in October you don’t think that wouldn’t be doing the same thing. Let me tell you they already had a plan to do it.

Of course the Libs are having a go at the Canberra Times, they have never cut them a break. You actually need to say something intelligent first and then they will print it.

We have yet to hear anything positive from Zed etc, you know like some solutions they just seem to resigned to the fact that they can stand back and throw stones. The electorate wants more than that.

54-11, your equating of the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party with the ACT Parliamentary Liberal Party greatly hurts my federalist feelings.

It’s not often that people like Zed will actually say that this thing is wrong no matter the Party, so I respect him for his stance.

Well done, Zed. Just remember that the Libs have had their snout as deep in this particular trough as any Labor government has. Just think about what Howard did, and the use of Barbara Bennett in the Workchoices ad. Totally immoral, from a man who professed Christian values.

Don’t ever think your side is on any motal high ground here.

Still, good on you.

Is this the same bill Zed was trumpeting in December?

Whether it is or isn’t, good on him. His Chiefliness is emulating Howard’s “mirror mirror on the wall” attitude to advertising his wares, and his failure to engage with more effective communication strategies, as noted on RiotACT back in February, is both expensive and wasteful.

Like you suggest, the question is whether Zed can afford to have the Canberra Times offside… because although jakez is right, I doubt the CT have the wherewithal to adopt a different business model.

The devil is in the detail but I have to say good on Zed for this one. This issue has pissed me and from what I can tell a lot of Liberal Party members off for a while. The Howard Government’s use of taxpayer funds for clearly political ads was getting ridiculous, as was the Stanhope Government’s budget propaganda advertising blitz a few years ago.

I’m sure it won’t go far enough for my liking but definitely a step in the right direction.

As for the media, perhaps they should adapt their business model so that they aren’t living off the blood of the ACT taxpayer.

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