ELECTION ADVERTISING

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:32): Does the Premier support Kevin Rudd's proposition, made in Adelaide on 10 October 2007 with the Premier standing beside him, that the government of the day should not spend taxpayer funding on advertising in the three months leading up to the election without the express agreement of the Leader of the Opposition?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:32): Can I just tell the house that it appears that what the Leader of the Opposition is suggesting is that in the lead-up to an election—and, by the way, we have fixed terms in South Australia, which is a thing he seems to have forgotten even though he was in government at the time—we are somehow to suspend road safety advertisements? Are we also to suspend advertisements warning people of the dangers of bushfires? Let me tell the leader this: I do not support the taxpayers paying for political advertising at all. I think it is wrong, and therefore I agree with Kevin Rudd. However, I do agree that government information advertising is essential, as the leader has acknowledged in the past.