Victoria’s annual $100 million plus advertising spend has been found political when it should be devoid of party chest beating and trying to inluence public opinioon about the state Labor government.
The state auditor general found some state government campaigns could be in breach of regulations which require advertising to be in the public interest.
The auditor general: “In our opinion, the campaigns did not fully comply with the 2017 laws.” These laws were designed to ensure advertising is not party political.
The campaigns noted were the 2019 Our Fair Share which advocated for more Commonwealth funding for Victoria and Victoria's Big Build, a multi-year campaign about major transport projects.
They ran on television, radio, print, outdoor and digital during the 2019 federal election.
Details for Our Fair Share:
The auditor found that most of the Our Fair Share and a small number of the Big Build advertisements were political.
They could easily be seen to promote the current Victorian government and in the case of the Our Fair Share campaign criticise the federal government.
The auditor's report: "At the time the advertisements were published, Victorian Government ministers were involved in public disputes with Commonwealth Government ministers about school funding, national health reform funding and funding for major road projects.
"In this context, in our opinion, members of the public could likely understand the criticisms of 'Canberra' as including criticisms of the current Commonwealth Government."
The departments told the auditor that they used the term "Canberra'"in a broad sense.
The auditor general: "They noted that Commonwealth funding depends on laws passed by the Commonwealth Parliament and intergovernmental arrangements, as well as decisions by Commonwealth Government ministers.
"In our assessment, the agencies did not design the advertisements to make this clear."
The auditor says the state departments responsible also could not show that the campaigns were cost-effective with clear objectives.
The government agencies did “not evaluate systematically and objectively whether the campaigns met their objectives.
“Inadequate reporting on campaign costs limits accountability and transparency around these issues. Public reporting is often incorrect, incomplete, inconsistent and hard to access.”
Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters: “No matter who’s in power in Canberra, we will never apologise for standing up for our state."
And the state "government believes we complied with all relevant matters and we wouldn’t hesitate to run that campaign again".
The media agency for Victoria is OMD, which won the account from MediaCom in 2021.
Campaigns:
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