Ideas@TheCentre
Stimulus advertising only supports MPs’ jobs
Tripe isn’t most people’s idea of an appealing breakfast, certainly not mine. But readers of recent Sydney’s Sunday papers have had it with their toast and coffee – whether they wanted it or not.
The verbal tripe included ‘investing in a better future … $62.9 billion … stimulate the economy … 160,000 jobs … blah blah.’ This was not a news report but one of those NSW government advertisements, complete with the obligatory picture of hard hats, telling us about the recently announced public works (aka ‘infrastructure’) budget.
Other state governments are up to the same thing. The Victorian government is running slick television ads featuring cheerful working families in sunny suburbia, presumably ecstatic that they have been favoured by the infrastructure gods.
Government advertising can serve a legitimate purpose. Ordinary citizens need to know about matters of direct and immediate relevance to their everyday lives – a change in train timetables or bus routes, new road rules, and the fact that their next electricity bills will be up by 20% (I bet you won’t see that prominently advertised). Even persuasive advertising such as a road safety campaign can be justified in some cases.
This kind of advertising is of no assistance to politicians wanting to win the next election, but some government (taxpayer funded) advertising is, and that’s when it crosses the line.
Whether this advertising campaign costs $100,000 or $1,000,000, it is a misuse of our (taxpayers’) money to tell us how much of our money the government is spending on something else. If the government wants to make us feel good about its achievements, it should do so with party funds.
The statement that infrastructure spending will ‘support up to 160,000 jobs’ is an unsourced, unsubstantiated assertion. It is stated as a scientifically verifiable fact but is impossible to substantiate. Ask 10 economists how many jobs will be ‘supported’ by this spending and you will get 10 different answers, including ‘zero’ and ‘impossible to say.’
A lot of economists would even tell you that if any government can stimulate the economy, it’s the federal government, not state governments. But that’s another story.
For my part, I am willing to concede that the infrastructure spending and associated tripe will help support 70 jobs – those of the Labor members of the NSW Parliament.
Robert Carling is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies.
