Australian taxpayers funding $59m in government ads in run-up to 2022 election
Taxpayers are paying at least $59m for major government advertising campaigns to run in the lead-up to the 2022 election.
The campaigns span the topics of cybercrime and online safety, the jobtrainer program, domestic violence, recruiting a carer workforce and, most controversially, climate change, as the government seeks to explain its road to Damascus conversion on the net zero by 2050 target.
According to AusTender contracts and evidence to Senate estimates, the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources spent a total of $12.9m excluding GST on the Positive Energy campaign, which ran from September in the lead-up to the Glasgow Cop26 climate talks.
That spending included $488,000 on market research, $10.7m on ad buys, $1.8m on creative work, $1m on public relations, $138,000 on a website and $190,000 on evaluation.
The education department spent $6.7m on a campaign promoting the $2bn jobtrainer program, including a $5.17m contract for ad spots that span from October 2021 to June 2022, $1m on creative, and $543,000 on PR, communications and market research.
The Department of Social Services spent $13.3m on its A Life Changing Life campaign, seeking to increase the disability support, aged care and veterans’ support workforce. The campaign runs from August 2021 to June 2022.
DSS is also responsible for the Stop it at the Start campaign against domestic violence, including $4.3m for ad spots to run from November to February, the third tranche of ads in the campaign.
The treasury has spent $1.55m on creative services in a contract running to June 2022 and $13.2m for ad spots in a contract ending in October 2021.
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The treasury department said the former related to a campaign to inform Australians about the Your Super Your Future superannuation measures, and disclosed a further $1.9m of contracts for PR, market research and evaluation of that campaign.
The Australian Tax Office has paid $203,500 for the “tax and super basics” advertising campaign, to run until October.
The home affairs department is spending $3.4m on ad spots for its “beat cybercrime in your downtime” public information campaign, which encourages Australians to take control of their personal cyber security. It was launched in October and runs until June.
Further contracts for PR, creative and evaluation add $600,000 to the cost of the campaign.
The communications department has spent a total of $767,000 on three contracts for campaigns promoting online safety, while infrastructure has also spent $470,000 since August on advertising and market research.
The shadow special minister of state, Don Farrell, said: “There’s a place for government funded advertising. But Scott Morrison has turned it into a publicly funded marketing exercise for himself and the Liberal party.”
At Senate estimates in October, Labor senator Nita Green accused the government of spending $13m on climate advertising when, at the time, Australia “didn’t have a policy to take to Cop” because the Nationals were yet to agree to the net zero target.
The Liberal senator Zed Seselja defended the campaign, arguing it “counters some of the lies” about Australia’s record, including promoting awareness of its “high take-up of solar … a great international story”.
In the lead-up to the 2019 election, Morrison defended spending on government advertising campaigns as “entirely appropriate for Australians to understand what their government is doing”.
Taxpayers will also fork out $187m for global media for Tourism Australia, as Australia seeks to lure tourists back after reopening its borders in November, and a further $2.25m for search engine optimisation in China.
As 2021 was a census year, the Australian Bureau of Statistics also racked up $28m on advertising for the census.