Your anti Howard bias reveals it's true self in the light of the dollars spent on state advertising.
$75 million dollars spent by Labor in Victoria in the same period. $90 million dollars spent by Labor in NSW in the same period.
Not sure about QLD, but there was a well known desperate attempt from Beattie to buy back confidence in it's health system via a little advertising campaign.
Any side of politics spending for political gain is poor form. The situation though for State Labor is embarrassing when they cant manage their money as it is. How can you cry poor and yet spend a percentage of this amount of money on self interest?