Senate Notice Paper Question Nos 1657 & 1678
Schedule Number: 300173 & 300174		 Publication Date: 18 August 2009
Hansard: Pages 5287-8

Defence: Advertising

 Senator: Minchin

Senator Minchin asked the Minister representing the Minister for Defence upon notice, on 3 June 2009:

Since 1 January 2008, has the department or any of its agencies expended any funds on advertising or sponsored links on a search engine such as www.google.com for any government websites administered within the Minister’s portfolio (i.e. websites with ‘.gov.au’ domain names); if so:

  1. which websites have been or are being advertised/sponsored on each search engine;
  2. what was the cost of establishing the advertisement/sponsorship;
  3. what was/is the daily cost of sponsorship;
  4. what was/is the fee that is charged each time an advertised/sponsored site is selected through the search engine;
  5. which words or phrases have been included in the advertisement/sponsorship (i.e. ‘digital television’);
  6. which additional, subcategories or combinations of words have also been included in the advertisement/sponsorship;
  7. how many variables or combinations were entered into the purchase equation;
  8. for how long has the advertisement/sponsorship been running or is intended to run; and
  9. what is the total cost to the department (or the costs to date if the expense is ongoing) of each website advertisement and/or sponsored link.

Senator Faulkner - The answer to the honourable senator’s question is as follows:

  1. Defence:       www.defencejobs.gov.au and www.dsd.gov.au.
    DHA:            www.invest.dha.gov.au.
  2. Defence:       $420,342 (excl GST).
    DHA:            $57,070 (excl GST).
  3. Defence:       There is no set daily rate for the Defence’s sponsorship/advertisement as it is calculated on a campaign cost.
    DHA:            There is no set daily rate for the DHA’s sponsorship/advertisement as costs are calculated depending on what specific keyword or phrase is typed into the search engine.
  4. Defence:       Sponsorship/advertising was based on a campaign cost and not a ‘cost per click’ arrangement.
    DHA:            A set fee can not be provided as costs vary depending on what specific keyword or phrase is typed into the search engine.
  5. Defence:       A 30 page document containing all of the keywords and phrases used in Defence and DHA’s sponsorship/advertising arrangements has been separately provided to my office. A hardcopy of the list will be provided to the Honourable Senator upon his request.
    DHA:            Please refer to the above answer.
  6. Defence:       Nil.
    DHA:            Nil.
  7. Defence:       2,246 keywords and phrases.
    DHA:            721 keywords and phrases.
  8. Defence:       Defence Force Recruiting sponsorship/advertising ran from 18 January 2009 - 4 July 2009. Defence Signals Directorate’s (DSD) graduate recruitment program ran from March/April 2008 - March/April 2009. DSD’s Cyber Operations recruitment ran from 2 July - 4 August 2008 with an additional recruitment drive run from 16 June 2009 - 10 July 2009.
    DHA:            July 2008 - October 2009.
  9. Defence:       $420,342 (excl GST).
    DHA:            $57,070 (excl GST).

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