Governments diverted $630 million into politicised advertising campaigns over last 13 years: Grattan Institute

Federal and state governments have engaged in “institutional corruption” by using taxpayer funds for politicised messaging in the guise of government advertising campaigns, a new report from the Grattan Institute warns

Danielle Wood.

Around $630m of taxpayer-­funded advertising spent by ­successive federal governments since 2008 has been used to spruik their own achievements in a practice described as “institutional corruption”.

The abuse of taxpayer-funded advertising for political purposes is rife in Australia, with both sides of federal politics equally culpable and state governments readily engaging in the practice, a new study warns.

The report by public policy think tank the Grattan Institute, “New politics: Depoliticising taxpayer-funded advertising”, finds of the nearly $200m spent annually by the federal government on advertising, around $50m is siphoned into politicised campaigns, with spending spiking in the lead up to elections.

Of the 10 most egregious examples of politicised campaigns since 2008, half were under Labor governments and half the Coalition, it says.

The most expensive was the $60m campaign to explain the National Broadband Network from 2010-2013, followed by a $40m advertising spend on explaining the Household Assistance Package at the same time, both under Labor.

But it also calls out the ­Coalition for its $29m “Powering Forward” campaign in 2019.

“(Its) stated purpose … was to raise awareness of the federal ­government’s efforts to reduce power costs and provide information about how people could lower energy bills,” the report says.

“But this campaign … contained overtly political statements, spending on the campaign spiked in the lead up to the 2019 election, and government achievements dominated the messaging with little useful information for people on how to reduce their own power bills.”

The report also notes that in the 2019 federal election, the Coalition government spent about $85m of taxpayers’ money on politicised advertising campaigns – on par with the combined spend by political parties on TV, print and radio advertising.

“Opposition parties and independent candidates have no such opportunity to use taxpayer money to achieve saturation coverage,” it says.

The states were not blameless, the report finds.

“In 2022 the Victorian Auditor-General found that most of the ads in the Labor state government’s Our Fair Share campaign were political,” it says. “The campaign advocated for more commonwealth funding for Victoria and the ads used emotive, politicised language criticising the then federal government, such as ‘don’t let Canberra short-change our kids’.”

In its analysis, the Grattan Institute characterises advertising campaigns as “politicised” if they promote a party, spruik the government’s policies or the spending is heavily concentrated ahead of an election.

A number of programs had more than one element. Sometimes it was subtle, such as using colours associated with a political party within ads.

“Weaponising taxpayer-funded advertising for political advantage wastes public money, undermines trust in politicians and democracy, and creates an uneven playing field in elections,” said Grattan Institute chief executive Danielle Wood, the report’s lead author.

“Sadly, our report shows that Australians cannot rely on the good will of ministers to prevent misuse of public money on politicised advertising,” Ms Wood said.

Public law professor Joo-Cheong Tham.

The report quotes public law professor Joo-Cheong Tham as saying “Government advertising to reinforce positive impressions of the incumbent party is a form of institutional corruption – it is the use of public funds for the illegitimate purpose of electioneering.”

It recommends tougher rules and tighter processes at federal and state level to prevent governments from exploiting taxpayer-funded advertising, including the creation of an independent expert panel to assess all government advertising campaigns before they are launched.

If an advertising campaign is approved by a minister without certification from the independent panel, or the government changes the campaign after certification, the governing party should be liable to pay back the entire cost, the paper proposes.