Taxpayers funded political advertising, Grattan report concludes

It’s no secret that Australian state and federal governments of all stripes spend big on advertising, but a new Grattan Institute report has found a large number of “public interest” campaigns funded by the taxpayer honeypot to be little more than political ads.

Current regulations stipulate that political advertising seeking to “confer a political advantage” is for parties — not the public — to pay, and yet the report identified that each year a quarter of the federal government’s annual $200 million advertising spend was used for political point-scoring.

Over the past 13 years, two in five of the biggest federal government campaigns came with “strong political overtones”. These included Labor’s $60 million 2010-2013 NBN campaign, and the Coalition’s $39 million 2016-2021 “Building Our Future” and $24 million 2019 “Tax and the Economy” campaigns.