The United Australian Party, which is led by Clive Palmer, has spent over $3 million on its campaign this month alone, an amount that dwarves the investments of its competitors in the election race.
According to data collected by Nielsen Ad Intel, the admittedly impressive amount has been spent on advertising across all digital and physical platforms. That includes online, radio, tv and publications such as newspapers and magazines.
However, the Nielsen data does not include any billboard ads, which the UAP have also invested heavily in.
Comparatively, the Liberals have given just over $100,000, with the Labor party making a heavier investment of about $470,000, which is still nowhere near what Palmer has been forking out.
The UAP ads have been prominently featured on most Australian networks such as Nine, Seven and Ten, while they’ve also been seen on several publications – and their online versions – like The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Investing heavily in pre-election campaigns seems to be a policy for the UAP, as they made a similar approach to the 2019 election, with Palmer’s Mineralogy company donating over $83 million to the cause, which to this day remains a record amount.
Speaking to the National Press Club last Thursday, the Queensland billionaire essentially confirmed that he’ll be gown down the same path, by predicting that he would be spending an extra $40 million on his party’s advertising campaign, bringing the total up to $70 million.
That may be less than what was spent on the previous election, but still an amount seven times larger than what his two major competitors, the Liberal and Labor parties, gave for their respective campaigns (about $10 million each.)
