Federal government departments and agencies are spending more than $10.3 million a year checking what is said about them in the media.
The hefty monitoring bill from external companies would pay for more than 100 full-time staff each earning $100,000 a year.
An analysis by The Australian revealed the Department of Health and Ageing ploughs more than any other department or agency into monitoring -- with a bill of $940,000 for press clippings and transcripts in 2011-12.
Defence, which faces major budget cuts and has offered staff redundancies, was next, with $872,000 spent on media monitoring services last year. The department also employs 175 full-time media and communications staff.
The Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education clocked up an $850,000 taxpayer bill on media monitoring in 2011-12.
A spokeswoman for Julia Gillard defended the hefty price tag, which includes monitoring of print and broadcast media and the preparation of press conference transcripts. "Media monitoring is an important tool to help government departments and agencies stay across media coverage," she said yesterday.
"The government's efficiency dividend imposes a strong discipline on the expenses of federal departments and agencies.
"We have achieved over $13 billion in public-sector savings since coming to government and we are always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of government operations."
But opposition Senate leader Eric Abetz said there was room for further savings. "Most Australians would ask whether substantial savings could be made at a time when we're borrowing $100m a day and whether we do need such a huge sum spent on media monitoring," he said.
Analysis of the figures, provided in response to questions asked at Senate estimates, comes after The Australian revealed federal departments and agencies employ an army of about 1600 media, communications, marketing and public relations staff to sell the Gillard government's policies to voters. The total taxpayer bill for government spin doctors is more than $150m a year.
The figures do not include spending by the Finance, Infrastructure or Environment Departments, because they have not yet provided responses to Senate estimates, which were due last month.
The highest-spending agency was Tourism Australia, which splurged $487,000 on media monitoring in 2011-12 but has vowed to slash that to $287,000 this year. The Australian Taxation Office, next, spent almost $300,000 on external media monitoring services. This was despite the ATO employing 271 staff in media and communications roles, more than any other department or agency.
The biggest contractors for the work were Media Monitors, which was rebranded as Sentia Media earlier this year, and Australian Associated Press.
An analysis of contracts on AusTender, the government's procurement website, reveals Media Monitors signed contracts worth $8.2m since August 1 last year.
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