‘Madness’: Federal government spends almost $5 million dollars just on market research

TAXPAYERS have been billed $4.8m for market research so the federal government can find out what you think about the job its doing.

Business documents, senior executives, boardroom, business meeting

TAXPAYERS have been billed a whopping $4.8 million for a flurry of market research projects so the federal government can find out what people think about the job it is doing.

Despite declarations of a budget emergency, information published by the Senate and the Austender website reveals federal government departments and agencies spent almost $5 million on market research and focus groups since the middle of last year.

The money has been used to sound out the public on controversial issues including the sale of Medibank, the effectiveness of campaigns to stop asylum seeker vessels from coming to Australia, and whether welfare recipients are getting good customer service at Centrelink shopfronts.

The massive market research spend, unearthed by News Corp Australia, has been criticised by senior Labor frontbencher Joe Ludwig as a flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars.

“The Abbott Government continues to tell working Australians that they need to tighten their belts, yet here is an offensive display of taxpayer money being spent on improving the government’s image that can only be described as market research madness,” Senator Ludwig said.

Almost $1 million has spent by the Department of Finance on market research to advise the government on issues surrounding the sale of Medibank Private.

Another $560,000 was spent to determine whether Department of Human Services clients, including welfare recipients, are satisfied with the customer service they receive.

The Department of Education, responsible for implementing the Coalition government’s stalled university sector reforms, spent more than $160,000 on focus groups and market research to gauge the public’s understanding of the higher education system.

About $640,000 was spent to determine the success of the Department of Immigration’s “No Way” campaign to deter asylum seekers from travelling to Australia by boat, including market research conducted in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While the Department of Health have already commissioned an ongoing market research campaign for its Health Star Rating system, costing taxpayers almost $280,000, despite the rating system itself being stalled.

Taxpayers have been even forced to fund a $44,000 market research project to sound out demand for events in Canberra, and the list goes on.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann defended the investment in market research, but said all departmental expenditure would be monitored and further cuts imposed where appropriate.

He said the Coalition had already eliminated “wasteful and necessary spending on advertising and public affairs including a $43 million reduction across agencies”.

Senator Cormann said proper research for the Medibank Private sale was “essential” and the share offer was “highly successful”, returning more than $5.6 billion to the Budget.

But Senator Ludwig said it was clear the money was not being well spent, given some members of the Coalition were now even admitting the government was not doing a good enough job.

“Given the latest speculation about the Prime Minister’s demise, it’s clear that taxpayers aren’t getting bang for our buck,” he said.

Originally published as ‘Madness’: Federal government spends almost $5 million dollars just on market research