SIYUAN YANG
Opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk accused Newman Government of wasting taxpayers’ money on the Strong Choices advertising campaign.
Ms Palaszczuk said LNP spent nearly $20 million on advertisements.
“We are now six months out from the next state election, and this government must be held responsible for breaching their own advertising code of conduct,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“Their own advertising code of conduct states very clearly that there should be no advertising within six months of the scheduled date for an election unless there is an urgent, emerging issue.
“The people of Queensland will know when they go to the polls in six months time that this government wanted to hide from scrutiny, that this government wanted to break long-held democratic conventions in this parliament to get their own way.”
Leader of the House Ray Stevens said this argument is “machinations”.
“We are considering the CLA report, which has no relevance whatsoever to advertising the government is spending its money on,” Mr Stevens said.
Premier Campbell Newman said the House and all honourable members followed the government advertising committee “to the letter”.
“I’ll remind all members that we did make a commitment to reduce spending on advertising by 20 per cent compared to the previous Labor administration,” Mr Newman said.
“In fact, we are spending 37 per cent less on government advertising than the former Bligh government.”