CORONAVIRUS — PUBLIC HEALTH MESSAGING
903. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the Leader of the House
representing the Premier:
I
refer to the 2021–22 annual report tabled by the Department of the
Premier and Cabinet and the $18.1 million declared in accordance with section
175ZE of the Electoral Act 1907 for expenditure in relation to advertising
agencies, market research organisations, polling organisations, direct mail
organisations and media advertising organisations.
(1) Can the
Premier advise why the department's expenditure across these areas has
increased sixtyfold, from $307 000 in 2016–17 to $18.1 million in 2021–22?
(2) If the
increase is COVID-related, why did expenditure increase threefold, from $6 million
in 2020–21 to $18.1 million in the
last financial year, when similar messaging would have been utilised over both
periods?
(3) Why could
these services not have been provided by the $31.7 million COVID-19
coordination and communications team within the same department?
The PRESIDENT: Before I give
the call to the Leader of the House, I would like to remind the honourable
member about the requirement for questions to be brief.
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the
honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1)–(3) Communications
and public health messaging is a critical area of the COVID-19 pandemic
response, which has been led by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet in
partnership with the Department of Health and the Western Australia Police
Force. The rollout of the vaccination program was a significant element of WA's
pandemic response and successful COVID-19 management, especially given that
cases in the community did not start to spread until early 2022. Therefore, the
public messaging and promotion of the vaccination program and the Roll up for
WA campaign was a crucial tool to drive up WA's vaccination rates and helped WA to achieve world-leading vaccination
levels. The Roll up for WA campaign was first launched in April 2021 and
continued to grow as vaccine supply arrived and eligibility opened up to more Western
Australians. COVID-19 cases in the WA community began to grow in February 2022 and peaked in May 2022. As a result, various
public health messages were adjusted and communicated to the community in a timely manner. This included
changing public health measures and adjustment to border controls. Therefore, in the 2021–22
financial year, pandemic communications scaled up in accordance with the
public health advice and to meet the context at the time. This allowed for
appropriate communication of ongoing public health and safety measures and
emergency response information during outbreaks as well as educating about and
encouraging the uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations. In addition, expenditure also
included communicating WA's safe transition plan, workforce recruitment
campaigns due to WA's strong economy and important safety information
on how to live with and manage COVID-19.
Expenditure
unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic and public health messaging includes work
commissioned by the Leader of the Opposition for work provided by Marketforce.
The company was engaged at a cost of nearly $180 000 to provide market research
and advertising for the Liberal and National alliance. Any further information
regarding this expenditure will need to be disclosed by the Leader of the
Opposition.
The PRESIDENT: A long
question often gets a long answer.