Coalition’s taxpayer-funded ads over played role in state infrastructure projects, auditor finds

Taxpayer-funded ads exaggerated the federal government's role in infrastructure projects, while a plan to include former deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, had to be scrapped for breaching advice, an auditor general's report has revealed.

The Australian National Audit Office made those findings in a report, released on Thursday, identifying "shortcomings" in the Building Our Future campaign, including material that was not always presented in an "objective and fair manner".

The audit examined the framework of government advertising, which is once again ballooning in advance of the 2022 election, and three campaigns conducted since 2019.

Government advertising is subject to strict guidelines against party political material, but is often criticised for boosting messages favourable to the incumbent.

The ANAO found the infrastructure department's handling of the $34.6m Building Our Future campaign was "largely effective" although it showed some "shortcomings" in compliance.

The audit found while advertising materials were free of political content, public relations materials were "not consistent" with advice to the finance department that "activities would not 'be instigated by any political party or politician, or make reference to any political party or politician'".

In fact, the PR campaign included a movie roadshow attended by Coalition MPs and senators, which the department proposed would include a pre-recorded introduction from McCormack, who was the infrastructure minister and deputy prime minister at the time.

The finance department advised that McCormack's inclusion in the material was "problematic" and it could not support the proposal, which resulted in the pre-recorded message being scrapped.

"Campaign materials were not always presented in an objective and fair manner, with some campaign statements not accurately representing the Australian government's level of involvement in some projects featured in advertising materials," the ANAO said.

The ANAO cited advertising materials with "no reference" to a state or territory partner in projects such as the Brisbane Metro, for which the federal government gave just one quarter of the funds, or the Victoria M80 Ring Road and Nowra Bridge, which it contributed half.

The department claimed that acknowledgment of partners was "removed during the refinement stage to allow enough space for campaign messaging/creative elements and to ensure the best possible message cut-through".

The website that press and radio ads pointed to did make clear when projects were funded by partners, it said.

In other instances the ads stated "Australian Government is upgrading" the M80 and M1 Pacific motorway, while partnership with state governments was reduced to one reference under the logo.

The claim the federal government "is building" the North East Link was downgraded to "is investing" in the project.

The ANAO found the department also prepared toolkits for MPs and senators to promote infrastructure projects, the recipients of which were selected through a "political mapping exercise".

"It is unclear how the MPs and senators who were to receive a toolkit were to be selected and infrastructure was unable to provide a list of intended recipients," it said.

The department told the ANAO the toolkits "were not distributed due to the election being called and the caretaker period commencing", although the campaign ended on 13 April 2019, just two days after the election was called on 11 April.

"Infrastructure did not undertake an assessment of whether the wave 1 public relations activities were compliant with the guidelines," it said.

The ANAO also criticised the department for lacking a "long-term communications strategy for the infrastructure investment pipeline or targets for performance against the campaign objectives".

Infrastructure did not set clear targets for awareness of the projects and benefits of transport infrastructure, the ANAO found.

Research in 2020 found there was "limited lasting increases in awareness of the pipeline after the first two waves" with "only slight improvements in awareness over time".

The ANAO recommended the department "assess whether continuing a campaign represents proper use of taxpayer resources and document the reasons for continuing the campaign", which it agreed to do.

In its response infrastructure department acknowledged "that there are learnings to be made from past campaign administration to ensure communications adhere more strongly to the guidelines".

The ANAO also examined Treasury's Economic Recovery Plan campaign, which ran from October to December 2020 and then was scheduled to run again from June to October 2021, but "was paused on 1 July 2021 due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions" during the Delta wave.

The ANAO found this campaign was presented in an "objective, fair and accessible manner" but generated "no increases in overall public or business awareness or understanding" on the economic recovery from Covid.

The domestic violence support Help Is Here campaign met guidelines, but the department of social services "did not clearly document the justification for an additional burst of advertising" in the 2020-21 holiday period, the ANAO said.