“The Labor Party and the union bosses have amassed an unprecedented $100 million war chest to fund their misleading workplace relations scare campaign in the lead up to the next federal election,” Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Joe Hockey says. And keeps on saying. He repeated the claim on ABC Radio in Melbourne this morning.

Joe says he’s got the documents to prove it. Trouble is they’ve been assembled in his office.

Joe’s minions have come up with this chart:

Union’s Projected Donations to the ALP Election War Chest

$9 million

State Government’s Spending in Opposition to WorkChoices (With more yet to be revealed)

$12 million

ALP’s Projected Spending on the Election Campaign

$20 million

Additional Union Finances

$27.15 million

Unions Campaign Fund

$30 million

Total

$98.15 million

Sharan Burrow came on the air to deny it. She would say that, wouldn’t she?

Well, she might have a point.

Here’s a list of the top advertisers for the 2005-06 financial year from Nielsen Media Research, as published in AdNews on 8 September 2006:

Rank

Advertiser/Advertiser Group:

Spend $m

Key brands

1

Coles Myer

205-210

Myer Stores, Coles Supermarkets, Kmart, Target, Officeworks

3

Harvey Holdings

105-110

Harvey Norman, Domayne, Rebel Sports

4

Nestle Australia/L’Oreal

100-105

L’Oreal, Nescafe, Purina, Garnier, Milo

5

Woolworths

90-95

Woolworths/Safeway Supermarkets, Big W, Dan Murphy’s, BWS

6

Telstra

85-90

Telstra Mobile 3G, Telstra Bigpond, Telstra Pre-Paid, Telstra-Shop

7

Toyota Motor Corporation

70-75

Toyota, Lexus

8

Government Victoria

70-75

Commonwealth Games, TAC, Workcover

9

Proctor & Gamble

70-75

Head & Shoulders, Gillette, Pantene Pro V, Duracell

10

Village Time Warner Group

65-70

Village Cinemas, Warner Bros, Radio 2Day, Roadshow

 

You may have noticed that we left out the number two. It’s the Commonwealth Government, who spent between $135 and $140 million on “brands” such as Employment & Work Relations, Defence, Health & Ageing and Medibank.

Have a dekko at what the Sydney Morning Herald has to say today on WorkChoices advertising:

The initial ad campaign to tell us how good it is cost us $55 million. Now that Howard has amended it, he has launched another campaign to tell us that it is going to be even better.

And how much will this second campaign cost us? We don’t know. The minister for WorkChoices, Joe Hockey, has been asked repeatedly, but he refuses to answer. After all, it’s only our money. The rumoured sum is $75 million…

Labor’s accountability spokesperson Penny Wong says the Howard Government has blown $1.7 billion – that’s $1.7 billion – of our money on advertising.

Note that “our money”. Joe and the PM and any other government member might like to talk about union funds and compulsory levies funding their “projected” $100 million, but we have a choice about whether we belong to a union or not.

We either don’t earn an income or we pay tax – only to see $1.7 billion of p-ssed away by Joe and his mates on phoney public information advertising.