Facebook’s $250k cost

BUMBLING bureaucrats spent $250,000 of taxpayers’ money on consultants to design a government Facebook page that took four months to go live.

PR firm Porter Novelli Australia was paid $246,839 in November to play a “coordinating role” in creating a single social media page for six Industry Growth Centres.

The site came online only the morning after public servants were grilled over its existence in Senate Estimates. It was revealed commercial consultants were paid to work with six marketing managers already employed by the growth centres to “make sure that they all agree on the content”.