The federal government’s public works department will not provide statistics on the number of occasions that federal advertisements break rules on partisan promotions.
In a briefing note, the government said the number was not relevant. Advertising is also not regulated by any act of Parliament, although Ad Standards reviews government advertising and whether it is objective and factual, free from political party slogans and identifiers, and free from political party bias and affiliation, among other criteria.
“How many times has the review process flagged ads that are partisan?” was the question asked at a hearing of the Commons public accounts committee, according to Blacklock’s Reporter on June 19….