Government Advertising

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:42): Given the function of this advertising campaign is to drive hits to the website, is there any other purpose or any other measurable associated with this campaign?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:42): I refer the member to my answer to the earlier question, that is, yes. It is all about engendering or trying to engender confidence in the economy in terms of consumers to get out and spend money in the local economy, whether it be on footy boots, or whether it be on the local hotel for a pub meal, or whether it be to a South Australian location for a visitor economy experience. There are a number of purposes for the campaign.

In terms of the evaluation, there are a number of technical measures with a lot of these campaigns, and we have committed to making that publicly available when it's done. I suspect a lot of these campaigns have some similarity and they would measure the number of hits, which is the question I think the Hon. Mr Pangallo has asked, to the particular website. They would probably do post-campaign research to indicate the responses to the particular campaign.

The evaluation mechanisms, as used under the former government, are pretty consistent and continue to be used by this government. The only major changes we have made, as I said, were to stop shameless promotion of premiers and politicians in campaigns, and, secondly, to significantly reduce the total amount of money we spend on government advertising.