Daniel Andrews defends bomshell Victorian report

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has defended a bombshell report and said despite the controversy, he’d do it all again.

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has defended spending millions of dollars on advertising campaigns that the state auditor today deemed “did not fully comply with the 2017 laws”.

A furious Opposition leader Matthew Guy demanded Labor pay back the taxpayer-funded cash used in two advertising campaigns that the Victorian Auditor-General Office (VAGO) dubbed either fully or partially politically motivated.

The campaigns — parts of the state’s Big Build (VBB) advertising program and the 2019 Our Fair Share campaign (OFS) — cost more than $13 million in total.

The VAGO report claims they were in breach of amended 2017 laws to the Public Administration Act and passed by the Victorian government to stop public sectors publishing politically-based advertisements.

The ads ran across television, radio, print, digital and on “live banners” at football stadiums before and after the 2019 federal election.

The OFS campaign – which ran from April to June 2019 and cost taxpayers $1.7m — advocated for more Commonwealth funding for Victorian schools, health care and transport projects.

The $11.5m VBB campaign, a multi-year campaign, surrounded the Victorian Government’s major transport projects and related travel disruptions.

“The statements about the Victorian government appeared to have a positive tone,” the report reads.

“They referred to billions of dollars or ‘record levels’ of investment. The statements about ‘Canberra’ were negative. They used language such as ‘cuts’ and ‘miss out.”

Premier Daniel Andrews in Melbourne. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

It said members of the public were “likely to find the language in some of the advertisements to be particularly emotive”, noting one TV ad which included the line: ‘don’t let Canberra short-change our kids’.”

“The two campaigns met most of the requirements in the laws, including the public

interest requirements.

“However, in our opinion, they did not always comply with the Parliament’s extra clauses on political advertising.

“Most OFS advertisements included statements that could easily be seen as criticising the Commonwealth Government’s funding for schools, health and transport in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election.

“Most OFS advertisements, and a small number of VBB advertisements, included messages that could be easily seen as promoting Victorian Government spending on projects.

“It is also our opinion that the OFS campaign did not comply with the limits on television advertising.”

Yet Mr Andrews and the state government denied the claims and said they would do it all over it again.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Outside parliament, Mr Andrews said he was “standing up for our state” despite the VAGO report claiming that the ads “could easily be seen to “promote the current Victorian Government” or in the case of OFS, “criticise the current Commonwealth Government”.

“The Auditor General is entitled to their view … We wouldn’t hesitate to run that campaign again,” he said.

“If these issues are important to you, go and have a conversation with Scott Morrison and put it to him that he perhaps should stop ripping off Victoria, and then I won’t have to run ad campaigns calling for a fair share.

“All of this could be avoided – all of it – if we had a federal government that actually knew where Victoria was, cared what Victoria was about and funded Victoria fairly and properly.

“If it weren’t so serious, it would be an absolute joke … no matter who is in power in Canberra, we will never apologise for standing up for our state.”

The agencies behind the OFS campaign – the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Department of Education and Training, Department of Health and Department of Transport said they were targeting a political issue, not the current Commonwealth Government and “used the term ‘Canberra’ in a broad sense”.

The report was tabled in state parliament on Wednesday and made seven recommendations, including a review of the 2017 laws, stronger oversight of government advertising, better evaluation and reporting of advertising cost-effectiveness.

“I don’t see why Victorians should be forced to foot the bill for blatant political advertising that this government palms off as government advertising,” Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said.

Originally published as Daniel Andrews defends bomshell Victorian report