A report from The Age on government advertising to educate the public about climate change:
There is $52.8 million ready to spend on a climate-change advertising blitz if and when the Government chooses to introduce one, [the Prime Minister] admitted yesterday.
But no such campaign had yet been approved, although it was likely that money had been spent on preparatory work, [they] said.
A Government climate-change ad campaign … dominated federal politics yesterday, with [the opposition] trying to censure the Prime Minister for misleading Parliament. [The Prime Minister] has denied 11 times that any advertising campaign has been approved …
But according to [the Opposition leader], the campaign is well developed …
… A Senate estimates committee was told that $176,000 had already been spent on market research for the campaign.
But [the Prime Minister] was resolute yesterday, saying the Government had not approved any climate-change advertising blitz, although, for the first time, [they said] that $52.8 million from this month’s budget had been set aside “to increase community understanding of climate change”.
“Of course the Government has set aside money for an information campaign in relation to climate change,” [the Prime Minister] told Parliament.
… [the Opposition leader] said there was an ad campaign and it was an abuse of taxpayers’ money.
The prime minister? John Howard. The opposition leader? Kevin Rudd. The publication date? May 30, 2007.
The more things change …
Breaking news:
Leaked Transcript of Julia Gillard’s Speech to the National Press Club, to be delivered on 15th August 2011:
“Australians have had a long and difficult conversation about pricing carbon. I believe this conversation was necessary if Australians are to move forward to a clean, green energy future and prevent dangerous climate change. I understand that many Australians have been worried and anxious about how this great reform will affect their lives. But we can now move forward because the Government has put in place generous compensation to protect Australian famlies while making big polluters pay. Australians now know that they will be better off with a carbon price. My government is all about jobs for Australians. Australia must transition from dirty polluting industry to the industry of the future, creating thousands of clean, green jobs. I was in the great state of South Australia recently, visiting the great steel city of Whyalla. I can announce today that my government will spend $16 billion to build the world’s largest windfarm at Whyalla. This will power Whyalla’s steel plant with clean renewable energy. I also visited a coal mine in the great state of Queensland. I told those Queensland famlies their jobs were safe, that my government was all about jobs. I told them that the coal industry had a fantastic future.
Australians can now move forward to address the second great moral challenge of our time- a challenge which threatens the health and happiness of all Australians, a challenge which fills the beds of our great hospitals, a challenge which causes many diseases and premature death. This great challenge is obesity. My government will immediately introduce legislation to put a price on fat. In three years this will be replaced with a Fat Trading Scheme. The FTS will enable the market to determine fat prices. Fat credits may be purchased overseas to offset the fat emissions of our great dairy industry and other fat-intensive industries. Foods with no fat content will be exempt from tax. There will be a sliding scale of $1 per gram for low fat content foods, rising to $10 per gram for foods with the highest fat content. Ice-cream, now known as Frozen Fat, will attract a price of $12 per gram of dangerous fat.
My government is all about jobs, and we will take steps moving forward to protect fat-intensive industries. Polls show 97% of Australians want to reduce their weight. Australia cannot wait while the rest of the world takes action on the dangerous fat epidemic. Australians are being left behind. Australians are a confident people. We are not afraid of the future. Oh, I know the Opposition will deny Australians the right to be free from fat. Negativity is Mr. Abbott’s middle name. And I know the big fat producers will campaign for fat, just like big tobacco companies did. But Australians know that the dangerous fat epidemic must be addressed.
I know some Australians will be worried and anxious about their jobs as we move forward to put a price on fat. But pricing fat will create thousands of jobs in new fat-free industries. Just yesterday I visited the largest carrot farm in the Southern Hemisphere. They are planning to double production, with the assistance of my Government’s Vegetable Expansion Scheme.
I will be visiting with Australians every day, wearing out my shoe leather, to have the conversation we need about creating the lean, healthy Australia of the future.”
Surely, this money, would be better value spent on medical research, than enhancing DULLARDS ego