Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party has dramatically lifted its ad spend on YouTube, a sign that a federal election is coming.
According to Google, the party outlayed $2,747,100 from the end of May to November 17 with a big spike in the last four weeks. This is a long way ahead of the next largest ad spending party, Labor, which spent just 62,850
Billionaire Palmer, like in the 2019 national election, is getting in early, even before a poll is called. Then he reportedly splashed as much as $60 million, but didn't manage to get a seat in parliament.
Most pundits say the next election is likely to be called in 2022, possibly in March but most likely May, when the federal budget is due.
However, 12 of the 25 United Australia Party commercials breached Google policy and were taken down. It's not known which rules were said to have been breached.
The latest ad that ran for five days to November 15, featuring former Liberal MP Craig Kelly, since August the leader of the United Australia Party, talking about stopping mandatory vaccination:
“You can never trust Labor, the Liberals or the Greens.”
More than $100,000 was spent on that commercial, with a return of 10 million impressions.
Kelly left the Liberal Party after promoting unproven treatments for the coronavirus. Facebook in April closed his page on the grounds of misinformation.
Political ad spend during the election next year, along with the return of big spending categories such as travel, is forecast to help keep ad spend buoyant in 2022.
United Australia Party ad spend, according to the Google Transparency Report:
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