The Morrison government spend on advertising in the 2021-22 financial year was the biggest year on record, running ahead of some of the country's biggest advertisers including McDonald’s, Telstra and Coles.
The federal finance department has released its latest report on campaign advertising by Australian government departments, showing $339 million spent on taxpayer-funded advertising campaigns in 2021-22.
Analysis by The Conversation shows this is well above the 25-year average of about $200 million a year.
In the first six months of 2022, the previous government was the biggest advertising spender in the country.
The Conversation: "The Morrison government ran 28 separate advertising campaigns last financial year – the most on record.
"Many were for legitimate purposes, such as an $89 million campaign encouraging take-up of the COVID-19 vaccine, and a $25 million campaign urging people to fill out the Census.
"But sometimes, taxpayer-funded advertising campaigns seek to confer a political advantage. This is often achieved by including party slogans or colours, and/or spruiking government achievements – often in the lead-up to elections."
The new Labor federal government plans to spend significantly less on advertising than the previous regime, according to the latest budget papers.
The cuts are part of an overall plan to cut expenses across advertising, travel and legal -- a total of $642.5 million in the current financial year and $809.2 million next.
Precise numbers for advertising aren‘t available but the government says it will achieve savings of $3.6 billion over four years from by reducing spending on external labour, advertising, travel and legal expenses.
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