Post by Banker on May 10, 2012 7:17:45 GMT 7
$36m tagged for new advertising campaign
THE Gillard government is defending its new $36 million advertising blitz on compensation for the carbon tax, insisting pensioners and families need to know about the payments that will start flowing in coming weeks.
Over the next six weeks, the government will spend $14 million - or about $270,000 a day - on an information campaign about the household assistance package due to be rolled out this month.
The opposition says the new campaign, which focuses on the $4.2 billion in compensation payments rather than the carbon tax or climate change, will almost double the amount the government is spending to sell the tax, bringing the total to $70 million.
A spokeswoman for the Families and Community Services Minister, Jenny Macklin, said it was normal to have a ''public information process'' when the government was making changes that ''directly impact on the financial circumstances of pensioners and families''.
Tuesday's budget papers revealed the new funding for TV, print and radio ads, as well as the Clean Energy Future website. The papers stated the ads would ''raise awareness and understanding across the Australian community of the nature and timing of the payments, tax cuts and entitlements that will be available under the package''.
A February report by the Australian National Audit Office found that the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency had spent $31.5 million on advertising for the clean energy package. Another $2 million is still to be spent.
The opposition climate action spokesman, Greg Hunt, said the government had ''quietly buried'' the additional $36 million in ad funding in the budget papers.
Read more: www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/36m-tagged-for-new-advertising-campaign-20120509-1yd6w.html#ixzz1uQBgmiRg
THE Gillard government is defending its new $36 million advertising blitz on compensation for the carbon tax, insisting pensioners and families need to know about the payments that will start flowing in coming weeks.
Over the next six weeks, the government will spend $14 million - or about $270,000 a day - on an information campaign about the household assistance package due to be rolled out this month.
The opposition says the new campaign, which focuses on the $4.2 billion in compensation payments rather than the carbon tax or climate change, will almost double the amount the government is spending to sell the tax, bringing the total to $70 million.
A spokeswoman for the Families and Community Services Minister, Jenny Macklin, said it was normal to have a ''public information process'' when the government was making changes that ''directly impact on the financial circumstances of pensioners and families''.
Tuesday's budget papers revealed the new funding for TV, print and radio ads, as well as the Clean Energy Future website. The papers stated the ads would ''raise awareness and understanding across the Australian community of the nature and timing of the payments, tax cuts and entitlements that will be available under the package''.
A February report by the Australian National Audit Office found that the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency had spent $31.5 million on advertising for the clean energy package. Another $2 million is still to be spent.
The opposition climate action spokesman, Greg Hunt, said the government had ''quietly buried'' the additional $36 million in ad funding in the budget papers.
Read more: www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/36m-tagged-for-new-advertising-campaign-20120509-1yd6w.html#ixzz1uQBgmiRg