NSW: Ad campaign a sign Iemma's in trouble: Debnam

AAP General News (Australia)
04-03-2006
NSW: Ad campaign a sign Iemma's in trouble: Debnam

SYDNEY, April 3 AAP - When NSW Premier Morris Iemma took over the reins of government
last August, so little was known about him that his self-promotional advertisements explained
how to pronounce his name.

Now they trumpet his government's political achievements.

Almost a year before the next election, NSW residents were today subjected to the first
electioneering salvos in a $200,000 Labor Party ad campaign, when they switched on to
breakfast commercial radio.

The ads said Mr Iemma abolished vendor duty for property investors, reached an agreement
to reduce proposed taxes on poker machines in clubs, made school report cards simpler
to understand, and outlined his plans to hire an extra 750 police.

Opposition Leader Peter Debnam today said Labor's latest ad campaign, so far from the
election, showed it was in big trouble.

"When the government's in such difficulties that they have to throw $200,000 at an
advertising campaign, I think it speaks for itself," he told reporters.

Mr Iemma defended the ads.

"(It's) a very short message outlining some of the achievements of the last eight months,"

he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Mr Debnam appeared to backtrack on comments he made that suggested he might
try to form a minority government if he failed to win a majority of seats at the election.

Asked on ABC radio if he could work with the state's seven lower-house independent
MPs if the election result was inconclusive, Mr Debnam said: "I can work with anybody."

But he later said the coalition was focused on winning the 16 seats it needed to form
a majority government.

"We need to win 16 seats and I'm focused on winning 16 seats," he told reporters.

AAP pj/was/jm/sd

KEYWORD: ELECTION NSW NIGHTLEAD

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