The Department of Finance reported that the Morrison government spent a total of $145 million during the last year on its advertising campaigns, with the most going towards its promotion of covid vaccines, the recruitment of armed forces and the prevention of violence.
More specifically, according to the report’s findings, out of that $145.3 million, $32 million went towards the defence forces, $21 million on covid vaccine ad campaigns and $13.6 on domestic violence support programs. Other notable campaigns that received high funding were the “stop it at the start” violence prevention program ($9.2 million) and mental health ($7.3 million.)
The government has been heavily scrutinized for its high expenditure on advertising by the Australia Institute, through its latest document. Billy Brown, a researcher at the Institute pointed out: “It’s no wonder voters are cynical about government advertising when they are spending more than these major multinationals.”
The Australia Institute cited research conducted by Nielsen in which it was proven that the amount spent by the Coalition this year on ads was more than major firms such as McDonald’s, Coles, Coca-Cola, Amazon and Qantas.
The opposition’s leader Anthony Albanese has also heavily criticized Prime Minister Scott Morrison for delaying the announcement of the date of the federal elections “…so that he can use taxpayers’ money for ads.”
“This business of not calling the election, so that he can use taxpayers’ money for ads, is just yet the latest example of a Prime Minister who thinks that taxpayers’ money is the same as Liberal Party money,” Albanese claimed.
Browne also expressed his concern about the amounts which will be spent on political campaigns and advertising for the upcoming elections. “Among the minimum $59m of campaign advertising already announced this year are campaigns that have been extensively criticised for being misleading, co-opted by government MPs and timed to end just before the election period,” he said.
