Rose Byrne paid $1.2m to appear in Tourism Australia ad as voice of Ruby the Roo

Rose Byrne’s taxpayer-funded deal for appearing in the latest Tourism Australia ad was labelled “cost effective”. Have your say.

Aussie actor Rose Byrne’s animated Ruby the Roo voiceover cost taxpayers $1.2m – but Tourism Australia’s boss has declared her tonsils were worth every cent.

Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison told the Foreign Affairs and Defence Senate committee that 43-year-old Byrne and Canadian actor Will Arnett were each paid $1.2m for their work on the campaign.

Byrne voiced the animated brand ambassador character Ruby the Roo, while Arnett, who won an Emmy for his work in TV sitcom Arrested Development, played Louie the Unicorn.

Tourism Australia's campaign introduces the world to new Brand Ambassador, Ruby, a souvenir kangaroo who is brought to life with CGI animation and is unmistakably Australian.

Up and coming Japanese star Maryjun Takahashi also features as Ruby’s voiceover for the Japanese market.

The full-length $17m 60-second TV advert is the central plank of the $125m global push to entice international visitors back to Australia.

The payday for each was only slightly below the $1.25m Chris Hemsworth was paid in 2016 for his two-year ambassador stint for Tourism Australia.

Ms Harrison told the committee the cost was worth it – not least of all because the contract was for two years, which was “unusual”.

Ruby is voiced by Australian actor and Tourism Australia’s global ambassador Rose Byrne. Picture: Getty Images.

“It includes all the publicity and social media that they do on our behalf, including the behind-the-scenes videos, the case study films, social media posts, Q&A videos. For example, they came to our event in New York, they crossed live to London, they posted on their socials,” she told the committee.

“Rose Byrne went on Jimmy Fallon, and Will Arnett went on James Corden. So we really do lean into celebrity to maximise the impact of our campaigns, and it’s one of the ways that we build our fame for the campaigns without having to pay for it. We find that these contracts are incredibly lucrative for us.”

Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison.

Queensland Labor Senator Nita Green said it was “cheap talent” before clarifying her remarks.

“Very cost effective … I wouldn’t want to call Rose Byrne cheap. It feels like she donated a bit of her time to get this done,” she said.

Ms Harrison responded: “We’re so lucky we have so many talented Australians around the world who want to work with us because they love their country and they want to help us.”

She said the past two years had been the “most challenging in our history as a sector”, while in pre-Covid pandemic days the nation attracted 9.5 million international visitors who spent an estimated $45 billion a year.

The committee heard the industry was only half way back, and the Japanese market was a “must win” to get the industry back in the black.

Originally published as Rose Byrne paid $1.2m to appear in Tourism Australia ad as voice of Ruby the Roo