On Sunday night, along with my family, I witnessed a barrage of Workplace Authority television advertisements. The federal government has hit a new low in its abuse of power. The first frame of the advertisement enters the debate by stating that the federal government wants to tackle a myth. The advertisement itself essentially admits to the anti-WorkChoices sentiment in the community.
The advertisement says two other things. Firstly, that the federal government has to reduce itself to a political lobby group to get its voice heard, and secondly, it shows the unprecedented politicisation of the public service. Having a senior public servant busting a myth in prime time commercial advertisements is not only despicable but potentially paves the way to a frightening political landscape.
Is it because the federal government has worked out that hardly anyone is listening to it on WorkChoices that it now has to resort to tactics such as using the public service to push its ideological barrow to get some sort of credibility for itself? What a sorry state of affairs.
The federal government should spend our dollars addressing the inequities in the unfair legislation that is WorkChoices, not in trying to hoodwink the electorate that these laws are good for them.