Social media battleground in fight for Josh Frydenberg seat of Kooyong

The battle for Josh Frydenberg’s Melbourne seat of Kooyong is emerging as the country’s most expensive election race, with tens of thousands of dollars spent on luring younger voters.

Liberal Party headquarters is funnelling significant resources into Josh Frydenberg’s seat, once considered a conservative heartland. Picture: Brendan Beckett

The battle for Josh Frydenberg’s Melbourne seat of Kooyong is emerging as the country’s most expensive election race, with tens of thousands of dollars poured into social media advertising to lure younger voters.

Liberal Party headquarters is funnelling significant resources into the heartland Liberal seat, once held by former leaders Robert Menzies and Andrew Peacock, where the Treasurer holds a 6.4 per cent margin and faces an insurgency from “teal” independent Monique Ryan.

Since Mr Frydenberg delivered the budget on March 29, almost $60,000 has been spent on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram ads targeting Kooyong voters, according to data drawn from the platforms’ political ad library and analysed by the University of Queensland.

The Liberal Party is leading the digital splurge with $35,000 spent on social ads via Meta, followed by Climate 200-backed candidate Dr Ryan on $20,247 and the Green’s Piers Mitchem with $2409.

Melbourne teacher Kiera Lansdown, 28, said Mr Frydenberg and Dr Ryan had become household names in her Hawthorn home.

“And that is saying something because we do not really follow politics,” she said. “We have been talking about the election a lot more than previously because of the amount of advertising.

“I think for people who are not following the election that closely, it can come down to whose name you recognise.”

A Facebook advertisement for independent Monique Ryan

The three electorates with the top social spends are hotly contested races between Liberal MPs and Climate 200-backed independents. Climate independent Kylea Tink is massively outspending Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman online in the fight for North Sydney – her $20,730 social media spend dwarfs Mr Zimmerman’s $735.

In the affluent electorate of Wentworth, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, independent Allegra Spender has spent $11,299 on Facebook and Instagram ads closely followed by Liberal MP Dave Sharma on $9951.

Across all 151 electorates, Labor is spending the most on digital ads, splashing $464,804 since the budget was handed down, compared with $349,889 combined spending by the Liberals, the Nationals, the Liberal National Party in Queensland and the Country Liberals in the Northern Territory.

Labor’s biggest digital spend in a single seat ($17,746) has been in the Victorian electorate of Maribyrnong, held by former leader Bill Shorten on an 11.3 per cent margin.

Digital ads make up a fraction of overall advertising spend but signal a push to win over younger voters. More than half of Generation Z, born after 1997, now use social media as their main source of news, according to a 2021 University of Canberra report.

Griffith University political analyst Paul Williams said more than a decade’s worth of voters had emerged since social media was first used in the 2007 campaign, many of whom are becoming increasingly disengaged with traditional media.

“They don’t engage with (news) as we understand it and given the selective algorithm, echo chambers and filter bubbles,” Dr Williams said.

“It means that it can be especially hard to break through for young people.”

The cash-splash has carried across to other platforms in recent years. Google’s Transparency report on political advertising spend in Australia found a total of $16.11m had been spent across the search engine’s suite of products, including YouTube, since November 15, 2020.

Most the spending was generated by the United Australia Party, which allocated $14.15m to the platforms over the period.

Independents Ms Spender ($39,900) and Dr Ryan ($40,350) have ranked within the top 15 for ad spending across Google’s suite.