Govt stands by $25m IR ad campaign Prime Minister John Howard has defended the Government's advertising campaign promoting its planned changes to industrial relations (IR) law.
Labor says the Government's decision to spend $25 million on the campaign is a misuse of taxpayers money, because the ads are promoting Government policy that has not yet been passed by the Parliament.
But Mr Howard says the ads are telling the community what the changes will mean, and are therefore a legitimate use of public money.
"The convention and the practice is that it's quite legitimate to explain that policy in advance of the legislation being introduced," he said.
"While it's in the Parliament it's not, and then after it becomes law it again becomes reasonable to explain what the new law is."
Labor's spokesman for public accountability, Kelvin Thompson, says the campaign does not fall within parliamentary convention.
"It was not the normal practice prior to the Howard Government for government programs which had not received parliamentary approval, this practice has not received support from the Auditor-General," he said.
