Unions and Clive Palmer lead big-money ad blitz

Campaign advertising spending is rising fast, with Clive Palmer’s spend about to hit $50m.

One of the ACTU ads to be launched today attacking the Coalition government.

Unions will launch a multi-­million-dollar advertising assault on the Coalition in the final three weeks of the election campaign, as Clive Palmer ramps up his advertising spending, which is now tipped to exceed $50 million this year by May 18.

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The ACTU will spend more than $10 million on its biggest-ever anti-Coalition ad blitz, outstripping the resources poured into the Your Rights at Work campaign to defeat John Howard in 2007.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the advertising across television, radio, print and digital media would be the “biggest advertising campaign we have ever run — period”. Union activists are campaigning in 28 seats nationally, and Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Luke Hilakari estimated an extra $1m would be spent in Victoria targeting seven Liberal-held seats.

Mr Palmer’s already dominant advertising spend will be ramped up next week, according to a spokesman for the billionaire’s United Australia Party.

A new round of TV commercials is also going through a final edit and will focus on UAP tax policy, including a proposal to delay payment of provisional tax. The UAP spokesman said more than $50m will have been spent by Mr Palmer on the campaign between January and the election.

The ACTU’s “This is not Australia” ads feature workers who were among hundreds who responded to a casting call to be ­extras in an advertisement.

The ACTU said “some were primarily actors, some were not” but the comments they made were unscripted and related to other work they did. One of the women, Leonie, has worked on TV as an actor but her comments related to her work with Uber. She said the people in the ads ranged in age from 20 to 60 and came from a cross-section of society. “Some were juggling up to five jobs. They were tradies, transport workers, mining workers, bar managers, swim teachers,’’ she said.

“This campaign shows the truth of working life for far too many Australians,’’ Ms McManus said. “This is a truth Scott Morrison does not appear to care about. Under his government, people don’t have jobs they can count on to live and plan good lives.”

The Australian Education Union’s national campaign has been estimated by media buyers to be worth just over $1m, a figure the union refused to confirm.

Its main TV ad — which says Mr Morrison cut $14 billion from public schools, cut funding for disabled students and handed billions extra to independent schools — has been rejected by the government. The Coalition says it has increased school funding by $8.5bn since 2013 and committed a record $21.4bn to state, independent and Catholic school funding for the 2020 school year.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners is spending just over $1m on national TV and radio ads claiming average Australians may soon not be able to afford to go to the doctor.

“Unless a federal government removes the cost caused by the GP Medicare rebate freeze … the cost to see your GP will keep going up,” the ad says. “This election, put your health first.”

Healius, the biggest pathology company in Australia, has joined with three others under the guise of Pathology Providers of Australia to bankroll a multi-million-­dollar campaign claiming access to free blood testing will collapse if the Coalition doesn’t boost funding. No one would confirm to The Australian exactly how much is being spent but the campaign, expected to ramp up over the next three weeks, is being managed by Labor strategist Dee Madigan’s company Campaign Edge.

Master Builders Australia is spending $700,000 on its campaign to retain the Australian Building and Construction Commission, not increase capital gains taxes or restrict negative gearing.

Additional reporting: Alice Workman