The Canberra Liberals have queried a $25 million contract for ‘media placement and advice’ in Chief Minister Andrew Barr’s directorate, claiming that it is a “re-election war chest” for the Labor and Greens parties, with the power to collect data about Canberrans and target them with messaging.

A senior ACT public servant responded that the Liberals had misunderstood the contracts, and that political parties would not be able to use the information to target voters.

The Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate (CMTEDD) signed the $25 million five-year contract with Universal McCann, a global media and advertising agency, a division of the global media network IPG Mediabrands. The contract begins on 1 March, and expires in February 2026.

Opposition leader Elizabeth Lee noted that the contract comes 18 months out from the 2024 election, and includes such capabilities as “optimisation and reporting of digital campaign and data collection, for on-going and insightful audience optimisation and campaign reporting” and “to use, interpret and maximise use of digital data”.

“It is very concerning that this contract, worth a significant amount of taxpayer money, includes capabilities that will allow the Labor-Greens government to not only micro target Canberrans with specific information but find out more about them through ‘data collection’,” Ms Lee said.

“This substantial contract is effectively using $25 million of taxpayer funds to not only specifically micro target Canberrans with messaging, but to collect data and ‘encourage behaviour change’.

“The previous contract of this nature with a local Canberra company was worth just over $8 million, and did not include the capabilities to use social media to execute deep dive analytics and microtargeting.

“While it is important for the ACT Government to ensure messaging around specific government services reaches those who need it, a $25 million contract for fairly specific purposes of microtargeting and collecting data from residents will no doubt be very concerning for many Canberrans.

“This contract includes a number of subcontractors listed that specialise in analytics and data gathering. Make no mistake. This is a $25 million re-election war chest for the Chief Minister and the Labor and Greens parties leading up to the 2024 election.

“These capabilities will allow Labor and the Greens to use millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to know a lot more about individual Canberrans right down to name, age, suburb, and what they engage with online, and there seems to be little transparency as to how this information will be stored and used,” Ms Lee said.

ACT Government response

Trish Johnston, executive group manager, CMTEDD Communications and Engagement, said: “There is a misunderstanding of exactly how these contracts work, and what’s notified on ACT tenders and what isn’t. At the heart of this situation, there is a misunderstanding of the process.”

The contract was a whole of government arrangement for all directorates to effectively and efficiently access advertising services to ensure the community is well informed, Ms Johnston said.

“The ACT government has an obligation to communicate with the community on important issues, such as health services, transport, land sales, tourism, events, community safety, and recruitment activities.”

No personally identified information will be collected under the contract, Ms Johnston said. This complies with the Australian Privacy Act 1988.

“The data that is collected is made up of anonymous information, such as how many people saw an ad, what media platform they saw it on, and what actions they took as a result of seeing that ad,” she said. “This helps the government better understand specific audiences and create more effective campaigns that reach the right people and ultimately ensure the best use of taxpayer money.”

For instance, making sure that 20-year-olds do not get ads targeted at people over 60, or that Belconnen residents do not get unnecessary information about closed roads in Woden.

“This arrangement is for the ACT public service,” Ms Johnston said. “It is not available to the government and political parties – so, no, it won’t be used to target for any election purposes.”

Ms Johnston said that the $25 million in the contract was estimated total value, not a guarantee of expenditure. That figure was based on a span of approximately $5 million per year.

The existing contracts (which expire on 28 February) had an estimated value of $30 million over six years: $5 million per year.

The process to appoint Mediabrands began in April 2022 via a full tender process. This included a two-stage review by the government procurement board, and was conducted in line with procurement guidelines, Ms Johnston said.

Mediabrands Australia had “a strong experience in service in government and a strong commitment to the ACT”, she said: a local office of 19 people, and partnered with local universities and charities.

The main difference to the previous contract, Ms Johnston said, was that previously there were two providers, whereas now there is only one provider.

“But for all intents and purposes, they’re contracts for the same thing, which is buying media spaces for ACT government directorates to access at the most efficient price,” she said.

The ACT government’s Communication and Engagement Snapshot provides an overview of communications priorities for each year. This will be updated in line with the 2023–24 Budget.