LABOR has been accused of trying to buy its way back into government.
And it has spent more than $5 million a day on policy backflips since November’s disastrous opinion poll.
The EMRS poll on November 12 put the Government’s popularity at just 27 per cent, compared to the Liberal Opposition’s 36 per cent.
Since then the Government has announced a major shake-up of water and sewerage bills, a relief package for businesses affected by land tax and an additional $2.5 million a year for national parks, largely negating the savings from the decision to abolish the entire Environment and Parks Department in May.
“With over 13 significant backflips, the Government is behaving like a prostituting contortionist; ready, willing and able to say or do anything if it believes it can buy votes,” Liberal treasury spokesman Peter Gutwein said.
The total value of the backflips across the three-year forward estimates is in the order of $193 million.
That equates to about $5.4 million a day since Premier David Bartlett acknowledged his party could be in for a thumping at the next election.
Since the June Budget, the Government has made more than $310 million in new spending announcements that is more than half the $543 million pledged during the entire 2006 election campaign.
