The Morrison government has spent $ 128m on advertising for 2019-20, according to statistics
The Morrison government spent $ 128m on advertising in the last financial year, including $ 5.2m in market research on advertising campaigns, new figures show.
Ministry Of Finance Report
A report published by the finance department states that the major campaigns are for Covid-19 health ($ 47.8m), defense employment ($ 31.3m) and the destructive pandemic’s economic response ($ 17.7m).
It also features Resolve Strategic, a company/agency owned by Jim Reed, a long-time Liberal party pollster researcher Crosby Textor, who received $ 203,000 in a $ 408,000 contract for research related to the Treasury campaign.
In October, Labor raised concerns that $ 1.1m had been spent on two market research projects on Covid-19 by Resolve Strategic.
The opposition suggested this amounted to “thinly disguised political research” being funded by taxpayers rather than by the Liberal party because results were shared with the treasurer and prime minister’s offices.
Other large campaigns included $7.1m to spruik tax changes, $5.5m for the domestic violence “help is here” campaign, $4.2m for childhood immunisation and $3m for the “building our future” campaign promoting the government’s $100bn infrastructure plan.
Campaign Advertising
The use of campaign advertisements was very high in 2018-19 at $ 140m, although the minimum $ 128m spent in this financial year is calculated by the end of 2019 before the government released ads worth $ 96.7m in the first six months of 2020.
The financial report reveals that $ 5.2m was spent on market research contracts with Resolve Strategic, Snapcracker Research and Strategy, Hall & Partners, ChatHouse Research, Kantar Public Australia and JWS Research.
Labor has also criticized the government for advertising the Treasury with the slogan “this is our comeback”, which is not included in the 2019-20 figures.
Government members are increasingly using the phrase “comeback” in question time and other parliamentary debates, leading the opposition to question whether the phrase is the product of focus group testing.
During question time on December 3 and 8, Labor dignitaries Jenny McAllister and Katy Gallagher said the campaign cost taxpayers $ 15m and that the government was “congratulating” itself as families battled unemployment or wage increases.
On 10 December, the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, told parliament the government was spending “millions of dollars telling Australians there was a comeback but at the same time arguing that businesses are in so much trouble because of the pandemic that they should be allowed to cut wages”.
The government has banned the release of Resolve Strategic research under information freedom laws on the grounds that it could “disrupt” government operations.
Treasury officials have confirmed that another market study, costing more than $ 500,000, has informed the $ 15m-funded taxpayer funded advertising campaign about economic recovery.
A similar dispute took place in Queensland, where the Labor government spent $ 520,000 on market research to gain public “insights” into coronavirus but prevented its release.
