Under Treasurer Rick Persse told parliament’s budget and finance committee meeting yesterday that the Malinauskas Government spent  “some $743,865, excluding GST” on its 2022-23 state budget advertising campaign.

This year’s advertising spend was triple the amount incurred by the Marshall Government in 2021-22, with the Government Communications Advisory Committee reporting that year’s state budget campaign cost taxpayers a projected $255,000.

Persse said the cost of state budget advertising campaign was incurred by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, with funding transferred from the Department of Treasury and Finance.

This year’s budget campaign involved traditional and digital media advertising, with the slogan “state budget 2022 is for you”.

It targeted the government’s spending on health and education– two portfolios on which Labor campaigned heavily ahead of the March state election.

Asked yesterday if he thought the advertising campaign was an appropriate use of taxpayers’ money, Education Minister Blair Boyer said it was important for governments to promote budget measures.

“I know as a local member of parliament it feels harder as it ever has before to engage people in politics – whether it’s council politics, state politics or federal politics,” he said.

“The struggle to get news out about what action you’re actually taking is harder than it’s ever been.

“Often really important initiatives will be funded in budgets – they are initiatives often that are responding to direct pleas from members of the community – and you might have a conversation with those same people a few months after the budget and they are completely unaware that it was part of that budget and still think that government hasn’t done anything.

“I do firmly believe there is a role that government has to communicate how it is spending taxpayers’ money.”

Treasurer Stephen Mullighan handed down the Malinauskas Government’s first state budget in June, saying it contained no new taxes, no tax hikes and no cuts to frontline workers in health, education or emergency services.

The budget injected an extra $2.4 billion into health as part of Labor’s major pre-election promise to “help start to fix the ramping crisis” and boost hospital and ambulance services.

But it also cut $714 million across services over four years, beginning with $165 million this financial year and rising to $192 million by 2025-26, with some departments “required to deliver modest efficiencies” to reach savings goals.

A video advertisement released by government as part of its state budget campaign featured a paramedic, small business owner and grandmother praising the government’s spending.

Persse said he was unsure whether government departments paid for their own advertising campaigns in addition to the $743,865 campaign run by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

“I would imagine that agencies certainly did communicate issues pertaining to the state budget and initiatives within their relevant portfolios,” he said.

“Whether or not they were spending that direct with third-party providers or doing it via existing resources or social media channels, I am happy to take on notice.”