The federal government is paying a public relations firm $2.9m to help with its vaccine rollout for five months, including by copying vaccine data from its website and putting it in an email for journalists.
The health department has previously refused to say how much it was paying Cox Inall Change, a public relations company, for the simple task of attaching a pdf copy of its vaccine data to an email to media outlets every day.
The department’s contract with Cox Inall Change, published last week, shows the firm is receiving $2.9m as a “public relations agency to support Covid vaccine communication work” between August and the end of December.
The money is not just paying for the daily emails to media. The firm is performing other communications work for government with a focus on reducing vaccine hesitancy.
But the department has previously refused to answer questions about how much the daily email service is costing it or whether outsourcing it offers taxpayers value-for-money, particularly given the size of its own communications team.
“Cox Inall has been contracted as part of the broader communications campaign,” the department said earlier this month.
“They are undertaking a range of tasks including information booths at shopping centres to support people who wish to book a vaccination appointment to broader communications to support the vaccination program.”
It said the daily data published by the Operation Covid Shield taskforce on the department’s website, and shared by Cox Inall in the daily emails, was an “accurate and up to date picture of the actual state of play with the rollout”.
The firm sends the data in the same form, a pdf, as it is published on the website and adds no additional detail or context. It does not provide the data in more easily accessible formats for data analysts.
“I am reaching out on behalf of the Australian government (department of health) to provide you with the latest data on total vaccine doses,” Cox Inall says in the daily email. “Our team will be sending an updated deck through to your newsroom each day to ensure you are up to date with the latest data for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.”
Cox Inall declined to comment.
The health department said Cox Inall was conducting a range of communications activities for the government, including holding information booths at major sporting events.
“A key role is to provide content for social media including videos such as those who have survived Covid and encouraging others to be vaccinated,” a spokesperson said.
“Cox Inall’s role in providing information directly to newsrooms is important in ensuring the Australian public has accurate vaccine rollout information and such activities are standard practise for PR companies to undertake as part of the support role they are playing for the Department.”
