The Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) helps to promote compliance with the 2017 laws by publishing guidance for agencies. We support an independent review of the laws to assess whether they provide clear standards. The conflicting legal opinions show the intent and operation of the laws are not sufficiently clear. The agencies state that they were motivated either solely or in part (Department of Education and Training (DET)) by the public interest and believe they complied with their legal obligations. They have their own legal advice, obtained prior to campaign launch and during this audit. The audited agencies interpret the laws differently. Its advice informed our interpretation of the laws, our assessment of the campaigns and our conclusions.
We sought independent legal advice from the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office (VGSO) about the 2017 laws. It is also our opinion that the OFS campaign did not comply with the limits on television advertising. Most OFS advertisements, and a small number of VBB advertisements, included messages that could be easily seen as promoting Victorian Government spending on projects.Most OFS advertisements included statements that could easily be seen as criticising the Commonwealth Government’s funding for schools, health and transport in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election.However, in our opinion, they did not always comply with the Parliament's extra clauses on political advertising: The two campaigns met most of the requirements in the laws, including the public interest requirements. We looked at two phases of the campaign-one from 2018 and part of a later VBB campaign from 2019–20. The VBB campaign, a multi-year campaign about the Victorian Government's major transport projects and related travel disruptions.The 2019 OFS campaign, which advocated for more Commonwealth funding for Victorian schools, health care and transport projects.We audited two government advertising campaigns against the laws:
They require public sector agencies to ensure advertising is not designed or intended to influence public sentiment for or against the current Victorian or Commonwealth governments. The extra clauses were meant to stop other types of political advertising, particularly advertising promoting the government of the day. They also limit government advertising on television to certain purposes, such as promoting public safety or promoting economic development.īefore the Parliament passed the laws, it added extra clauses. The laws aim to ensure government advertising is in the public interest and not party political. In 2017, the Parliament introduced new laws into the Public Administration Act 2004 (PAA) to regulate government advertising and communication. Legal compliance Compliance with the Public Administration Act 2004
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The agencies’ full responses are in Appendix A.
We consulted with the audited agencies and considered their views when reaching our conclusions. Source: VAGO, based on information from the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s Victorian Government Advertising Report 2019–20 and agencies’ annual reports between 2017––21 for Our Fair Share and Victoria’s Big Build campaign costs. Click here to view the dashboard full screen Key facts
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