The Wire

Australian government advertising has long been a political issue. In 2007 the then Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd famously called it a “sick cancer within the system” and pledged to rectify it. But the Rudd reforms were undone in 2010, and the recent advertising of the Government’s Papua New Guinea Asylum Seeker policy has drawn strong criticism from the Opposition and Independent Senator Nick Xenophon. But there may be a model Australia can use to cut down on partisan advertising.