Labor adopts ‘Craig Thomson’ fiscal standard.

Cartoon: By Pickering.

There has been considerable outrage in the public arena over the way Labor has clung to Craig Thomson in order to cling to power. Thomson has been accused of rorting his Health Services union credit card. Some $100,000 is alleged to be in cash withdrawals, $6,000 on prostitutes, and around $270,000 to campaign for the federal seat of Dobell.

Now t has come to light that Gillard and her party have adopted the same standards with taxpayer funds for their own purposes in trying to spin the carbon tax in a better light in the hope of being reelected. While spending $36 million of our money promoting the compensatory payments to soften the slug, they have now given a $5,500 per day contract to a firm of spin-doctors to sooth the public when the bills arrive:

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency awarded the $400,000 taxpayer-funded contract to Edelman Public Relations Worldwide Pty Ltd for April 19 to June 30. In a move that has infuriated the Opposition, the awarding of the 11th-hour contract was published on Thursday -- after the Senate estimates hearings where it would have pursued the matter.

The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency media unit refused to discuss the contract, instead requesting questions to be sent via email "as per departmental policy". It later confirmed Edelman would be helping to promote the Government's Clean Energy Future package.

"The strategy will build partnerships among federal, state and local governments, community and business leaders to ensure communities are accurately informed about the carbon price, the government's Clean Energy Future Plan and how these will deliver a prosperous and sustainable future for all Australians," the spokesperson said.

"Activities will include development of information products, community engagement and the scoping and establishment of regular communication channels with regional communities.” …

So, we can look forward to more ‘eco enviro tea salons', with candle making and calligraphy.

Cynics have suggested that Gillard has chained herself to Thomson because he disproves the Liberal allegation that Labor is so disorganized that it ‘couldn’t arrange getting a bang in a brothel’ another factor could be in play here; he appears to have set the benchmark for Labor’s financial accountability standards.