Memo major parties: when you, in government, pull the stunt of making the taxpayer pay millions for your blatantly political advertising, you make it easy for the other side to do the same when they're next in.

So, ALP, you are a bunch of money-squandering irresponsible dickheads for this disgraceful waste of public funds, and have also lost any ability as a future opposition to oppose similar crap from the Liberals. You might not care, but we, the taxpaying public, certainly do. (Or at least, should.) We expect the government to spend our money carefully, not appropriate it from us for its own ends; and we expect the opposition to have some moral authority to condemn a government that does such a thing. Which you have now lost. For the political life of every one of the present government's members. What a waste.

Which brings me to the Liberals. You shamelessly hypocritical gits. No, Brendan, you don't get to pretend after the fact that you oppose the Howard Government (in which you were a Minister) having done the same thing two years ago. What absolute bullshit! You said precisely nothing at the time - in fact, you voted for it. And you don't get out of charges of hypocrisy just by charging the other side with it first:

"After commenting before on our policy position in using public dollars to promote a government position - which I agree we shouldn't have done - they have gone out and done exactly the same thing, and that is hypocritical."

"Which I agree we shouldn't have done"? Oh, how convenient for you to realise that now that you're in opposition. You, and every other member of the Liberal Party who voted for the WorkChoices campaign can SHUT THE HELL UP. You have absolutely no credibility. If the Liberal Party wants to genuinely oppose waste of taxpayer money, then it will have to wait until all you members of the previous government have retired.

And hypocrisy isn't an either-or, mate. Yes, the ALP is being hypocritical. AND SO ARE YOU.

But of course neither of you really care; what you've got here is a cosy little arrangement by which the two major parties each get to stay in government a little longer each time by means of fleecing the public purse; you each benefit, and the only people who don't are (a) the taxpayers (and who gives a shit about them); (b) the people who rely on the public services that don't get funded because the money's been pissed up the wall on political advertising (and who gives a shit about them either); and (c) the minor parties that have never been the government and are excluded from your trough.

We voters should be preferencing a party that does NOT waste our money like this ahead of the two major parties that do, every time. At least they can be an opposition that has some authority to oppose such self-interested theft of public money; and, if we keep voting against parties that have such contempt for us, then eventually they will stop. Or disappear.

Meanwhile -

Auditor-General Ian McPhee has approved the campaign as complying with new guidelines to prevent the use of taxpayer funds on Government advertising that promotes political interests.

How pissweak must those new "guidelines be"? These ads do NOT inform voters about any specifics. They are clearly NOT an information campaign. (They're not even on the Government's own climate change department website.) How can anyone seriously suggest that they aren't solely about promoting the political interests of the Government?