Tasmanian government faces questions over Pulse advertising spend after it asked for an election
The Tasmanian Liberals are being questioned over taxpayer-funded payments to Pulse Tasmania. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)
In short:
The Tasmanian premier's department authorised more than $13,000 of taxpayer money to be spent promoting the budget after the government asked for an election to be held, documents show.
A second payment was made on June 11, the day the Governor Barbara Baker granted Premier Jeremy Rockliff's request for an early election.
What's next?
Mr Rockliff has defended the payments, but Labor and the Greens say the government has "serious questions" to answer.
The Tasmanian government spent more than $13,000 on media advertising spruiking its budget after a motion of-no confidence in Premier Jeremy Rockliff passed state parliament, new documents show.
The documents, released under right to information laws and obtained by the Tasmanian Times, show the Department of Premier and Cabinet purchased two separate "full digital takeovers" with media organisation Pulse Tasmania to advertise the budget after the no-confidence motion passed.
The first spend, of $8,954, is dated June 6, a day after a majority of parliamentarians supported the no-confidence motion, and after Mr Rockliff had asked Governor Barbara Baker to call an early election.
It was approved for payment by Department of Premier and Cabinet office manager Carol Jones, on June 10.
A further spend of $4,477 with Pulse was made on June 11, the same day Governor Baker agreed to dissolve parliament and call the election.
The no-confidence motion meant the May budget never passed parliament, and it has since been scrubbed from the Department of Treasury website.
The deal consisted of an advertorial on Pulse's social media pages to promote the budget, plus a "full digital takeover" giving the government a "100 per cent share of voice" on Pulse's website. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)
Both Labor and the Greens have raised concerns about the taxpayer-funded advertising, which were both extensions of an almost $39,000 advertising spend with Pulse.
That spend, dated May 27, consisted of an advertorial on Pulse's Facebook and Instagram to promote the budget, plus a full digital takeover, giving the government a "100 per cent share of voice" on Pulse's website.
Asked how he justified the spend given he had already asked for an election to be called, Mr Rockliff said it was the "government's responsibility to inform the community after a budget" about what was contained in it, including its measures to ease the cost of living.
"The governor made the decision to allow an election on June 11th, and that's when the advertising stopped,"he said.
"The government went into caretaker on June 12th."
But Shadow Attorney-General Ella Haddad said Mr Rockliff had serious questions to answer about the two later advertising spends, particularly the June 11 payment, claiming the premier and his office knew Tasmanians were heading to an election when it was authorised.
"It is extraordinarily questionable for a government to be pouring tens of thousands of dollars of public money into political-style advertising when it knows an election is imminent," Ms Haddad said.
"Tasmanians rightly expect government advertising to be used to convey essential information, not crowd out debate from a digital space at the very moment an election campaign begins."
Ella Haddad describes the payments to Pulse as "extraordinarily questionable". (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)
Greens MP Vica Bayley said the payments looked "pretty smelly".
"At face value, this is a misuse of taxpayer funds; it is utterly inappropriate to be taking out advertorials when it comes to promoting the government at a time where it was collapsing or where we were in an election campaign," he said.
"This was funding, it seemed, was pitched to promote the budget, irrespective of the fact the budget was clearly destined to fail, and then clearly parliament was prorogued and an election was held.
"This is taxpayer money. We all know the budget is tight — every single dollar counts. That [total Pulse spend of] $50,000 could have been used in myriad other ways."
Mr Bayley said it was "clear the premier has questions to answer here".