Personal Explanation

Environment, Water and Natural Resources Department

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:22): I seek leave to make a personal explanation to correct the public record.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: In yesterday's estimates hearing I provided an answer to a question that I think was asked by the member for Bright regarding the costs incurred by the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources in relation to videos produced by South Aussie with Cosi. My answer, on advice that I subsequently received, is not entirely correct.

I provided the committee with the total budgeted allocation for the media campaign rather than the actual costs for both the South Aussie with Cosi segments and social media campaigns. The actual total spend was in fact $2,199.50 less than the answer I gave yesterday. The South Aussie with Cosi component totalled $30,937.50, GST inclusive. This expenditure included production costs associated with producing five television segments and the provision of additional footage to be used by the department on social media, including videos that were posted on Facebook.

The social media component for this campaign was $25,300, GST inclusive, bringing the total to $56,237.50. As I said, these Facebook videos had four million impressions; 187,000 people watched the videos in full and more than 1.2 million watched at least part of the clips. I apologise profusely for exaggerating in the answer yesterday and I have now corrected the record.