The Morrison government spent a total of $128m on advertising in the past financial year, including $5.2m on market research for the ad campaigns, new figures reveal.
A report published by the finance department reveals the biggest campaigns were for Covid-19 health ($47.8m), defence recruiting ($31.3m) and the pandemic economic response ($17.7m).
It also shows Resolve Strategic, an agency run by Jim Reed, a long-term researcher for the Liberal party pollster Crosby Textor, received $203,000 out of a contract worth $408,000 for research related to the Treasury campaign.
In October, Labor raised concerns that $1.1m has been spent on two market research projects about community attitudes to Covid-19 undertaken 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 ad spending was even greater in 2018-19 at $140m, although the lower $128m spending this financial year is accounted for by a lean end of 2019 before the government unleashed $96.7m worth of ads in the first six months of 2020.
The finance report reveals that $5.2m was spent on market research through contracts with Resolve Strategic, Snapcracker Research and Strategy, Hall & Partners, ChatHouse Research, Kantar Public Australia and JWS Research.
Labor has also criticised the government for Treasury advertising featuring the slogan “this is our comeback”, which is not captured 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.
In question time on 3 and 8 December, Labor shadow ministers Jenny McAllister and Katy Gallagher said the campaign was costing taxpayers $15m and amounted to the government “congratulating itself” while families struggle with unemployment or poor wages growth.
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 blocked the release of Resolve Strategic research under freedom of information laws on the basis it might “prejudice” government operations.
Treasury officials have confirmed that some of the market research, valued at more than $500,000, had informed the $15m taxpayer-funded advertising campaign about economic recovery.
Similar controversies occurred in Queensland, where the Labor government spent $520,000 on market research for community “insights” into coronavirus but blocked its release.
