The major parties have started ramping up their ad spend now that the election campaign is up and running, but both remain outpaced by Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP) which has spent more than $30 million on ads, according to Nielsen.
Nielsen figures show the UAP spent more than $2 million on ads last week alone, bringing the party’s overall ad spend to more than $30 million since September.
The mining magnate is seeking to plant his party’s members in the federal parliament, vowing to run candidates in all 150 House of Representative seats. So far the UAP has just one member in parliament, senator Brian Burston who sits in the NSW Parliament.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party has jolted its spending to $315,000, up from $10,000 the week prior.
Labor follows with a $250,000 spend over the same period.
Minor party The Greens lags behind with just $5,000 spent during the week, it’s the first time Nielsen has identified any spending from the party since the week ending 24 March.
Spending from political parties is expected to remain strong before dropping to a lull until a final ad blitz is launched in the final days of the election campaign.
Last week Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the election date for 18 May, bringing to an end the government departments’ ability to spend taxpayer money on politically-charged ads.
The Liberal and Labor Party have revealed their first campaign ads, with criticism already levelled at the Liberal’s use of Facebook to launch targeted attack ads around Labors electric car policy.
The figures from this week cover ads across TV, print and radio from the period 8 April - 14 April.
Nielsen's latest election spend estimates:
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