A taxpayer-funded advertising campaign on climate change is a wasteful "propaganda piece", says Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce.
The Rudd government has launched a multi-million dollar campaign on television, radio and print to sell its plan for emissions trading.
Senator Joyce accused the government of hypocrisy, because it had strongly criticised the previous Howard government's Work Choices ad campaign.
"I've seen the ads and the ads are basically a little piece of Labor propaganda," he told AAP.
"There's a sense of (the government) being quite hypocritical in this after the tirade ... they had about the coalition's ads trying to promote Work Choices."
Opinion polls show most people do not understand emissions trading.
The government says the advertisements are part of a public information campaign.
To date, the ads illustrate the dangers of climate change, using images of chimneys and parched earth, but do not appear to explain emissions trading.
Senator Joyce said the ads contained no hard information about how emissions trading worked, and what it would cost households.
"When I've finished the ad I don't know exactly what my power bill's going to go up by," he said.
"If they believe in their policy they should first of all clearly describe it ... but clearly describing it does not require me to see it on prime time television.
"It's a propaganda piece."
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has declined to say how much the ad campaign will cost, although media reports estimate the government will spend $9 million on it this year.
Commonwealth Auditor-General Ian McPhee approved the ad campaign on Friday, deciding it complied with new rules cracking down on government advertising which promotes political interests.
According to his review, the ads will stretch into October, with a fresh round of TV advertising planned for September.
