Australian MR Bucks Government Cuts

Australia's government spent a record amount on market research last year - some $AUD 35.25m (US $36.7m or £22.8m). Allowing for inflation there was a slight dip in real-terms spending, but nothing like that for other areas of expenditure.

The Labor government of Julia Gillard used the funds to investigate public views of issues such as the carbon tax, broadband, cigarette packaging and private health insurance. Analysis in The Australian (www.theaustralian.com.au ), based on the annual reports of 38 federal departments of state and agencies, shows they have spent around $126m of public funds over the last four years on opinion polling, focus groups and customer surveys.

The 2011-12 MR total was only $25,000 above the previous year's spend, or down 2.2% in real terms due to inflation, but despite this the paper says spending on market research has not seen the cuts that federal officials have made in the areas of training, travel and printing costs. Even campaign advertising placement, which was up 20 percent last year to $139.7m, is nowhere near the record level of 2007 when John Howard's government spent $254m and more than $150m during its final five months in office.

The largest single project in the analysis was a study of international visitors and domestic travellers by ORC International for Tourism Research Australia, costing some $AUD 54m.