Rudd pulls negative pamphlet October 18, 2007 04:58pm Article from: AAP Font size: + - Send this article: Print Email OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd has been forced to pull a negative Labor brochure attacking Liberal South Australian MP David Fawcett.
After days of criticising the Liberals for running a negative campaign, Mr Rudd has been forced to take action over a South Australian Labor Party leaflet portraying Mr Fawcett as a "black-tie Liberal".
Labor has bombarded voters in Mr Fawcett's seat of Wakefield with pamphlets casting him as out of touch with his electorate.
The flyer features a picture of Mr Fawcett in black tie at a local hospital fundraising event and attacks him for living outside the seat, which he holds by a slim 0.7 per cent.
Mr Rudd said he had been briefed on the brochure's contents and had decided to withdraw it from circulation.
"I've asked that the production of that pamphlet cease," he said.
Mr Rudd said it was wrong to focus on the personal characteristics of the Liberal member.
He said he had moved to tighten up processes to prevent a similar incident occurring again.
"When it comes to individual literature, there's a process involving state and national secretaries that should be tightened up to ensure that ... this doesn't happen again. And I've issued that directive this morning," he said.
A second pamphlet was put through letterboxes in Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's seat of Mayo, featuring an infamous photo of Mr Downer wearing fishnets and stilettos.
Mr Downer said he did not care about the pamphlet attacking him, saying it would backfire on Labor.
But he said Mr Rudd was hypocritical for complaining about the Coalition ads yet condoning negative pamphlets targeting Liberal MPs.
"Mr Rudd on the one hand has been complaining about negative advertising,'' Mr Downer said to ABC radio in Adelaide.
"Yet surreptitiously he has his campaign team in South Australia pushing out pamphlets attacking local MPs.
"The attack on David Fawcett using a photograph from a hospital fundraiser in the way it has been used is just pretty gross and I think while Mr Rudd is here in Adelaide, he should apologise for those pamphlets, bearing in mind the position he has taken which is that he thinks there should be no negative advertising.''
