Despite the Prime Minister promising that there will not be a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign, it is apparent that the Federal Liberal MPs will be bombarding Tasmanian letterboxes with their budget propaganda. Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, the Greens Senator for Tasmania, offers the following suggestions on how Tasmanians can best make use of these taxpayer funded leaflets.

1. Use it as a teaching aide for an economics class. Try to get Year 10 Economics students to work out how removing billions in government revenue by scrapping the mining and carbon tax helps to solve a ‘budget emergency.” Clue: it doesn’t.

2. Make a paper plane. After all, with all the cuts to sciences and the CSIRO this might be the only science or engineering your children may get to do in their lives.

3. Use it as kindling for a fire. With the cuts to concessions any ways to contribute to heating your home is sure to come in handy.

4. Teaching aide for politics class. Discuss the electoral ramifications of politicians breaking election promises like “no cuts to health and education, no changes to pensions.”

5. Use it to create compost. Shred the leaflet and add it to your compost bin. No need to add any other animal manures because there is already enough of that sort of fertiliser included in the leaflet.

6. Use for scrap paper to take notes at a University lecture. Given that the government is causing university fees to skyrocket any savings on stationery for students is greatly appreciated.

7. Shred and use to create Papier Mache mask. With cuts to education it’s great that taxpayer-funded political propaganda can contribute to primary school art supplies.

8. Teaching aide for marketing class. Discuss, if you were a Liberal politician, how you would sell your way out of this budget mess?

9. Create an origami paper crane. With cuts to environment spending, it will be far easier to create paper versions of endangered species than to find the real thing in the wild.

10. Store it away until 2016. Keep it on file until 2016 so we can all remember the cruel, ideological and inequitable budget and broken promises and vote accordingly when the time comes.

Senator Whish-Wilson will be seeking feedback from his constituents about the best uses for the Liberal election propaganda.
Greens Senator for Tasmania Peter Whish-Wilson