SA Health ranked in nation’s biggest govt Facebook ad spenders
In the past month, the state government’s health department was the 11th highest spender in the country on Meta advertising, outranking all other states and territories’ public health organisations. See the charts.
SA Health spent about $40,000 on Meta advertising in the period October 16 to November 14, according to Meta’s advertising spend tracker.
It outspent equivalent health organisations from all other states and territories as well as organisations like Service Victoria, which spent about $30,000 and the Queensland Government, which spent about $30,500.
SA Health’s spend advertised 45 active posts in this period across Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram, including the “Building a Bigger Health System” and “Abuse shouldn’t be part of the job” campaigns, according to the platform’s ad library.
The Building a Bigger Health System campaign was allocated a budget of $1.9 million from July 6, 2025, until February 2, 2026, and is run by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, according to the Government Communications Advisory Committee’s June report.
The proposed budget was not specific to Meta, but included running the campaign across TV, radio, print, digital and social media.
Liberal government accountability spokesperson Ben Hood said the Building a Bigger Health System campaign is an example of “trying to convince South Australians that a bad government is a good one”.
“South Australians don’t need a government trying to convince them the health system isn’t a basket case under their watch,” Hood told InDaily.
“If that’s not using public funds for political advertising, I don’t know what is.”
Promotional materials from the SA Health and SA Government Meta pages were funded by the taxpayer, but the state government said it does not spend public funds on political advertising.
The SA Liberal Party proposed halving government advertising spend if elected in March 2026.
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“If elected, a Liberal government would ensure that every taxpayer dollar spent on government advertising informs and benefits South Australians,” Hood said.
“Health, safety and other important information needed to be communicated to the public would of course still be delivered under our policy.”
It followed the state Auditor-General’s Report released last week finding more than half of the total funding in the past four State Government budgets for new expenditure initiatives related to SA Health. Health spending amounted to $7.7bn over the past four state government budgets.
“SA Health will face challenges in achieving its expenditure forecasts in the 2025-2026 budget, given that public hospital activity continues to grow,” the report found.
Treasurer Tom Koutstantonis told InDaily that the SA Health and SA Government social media channels were used to promote important community messages.
“State Governments have always budgeted for important community messages, and slashing these from TV, print and online resources including InDaily as the Liberals are proposing, would ultimately see our road toll rise, our hospitals get busier and fewer police recruited under a Tarzia Liberal Government,” Koutsantonis said.
“Meta is a proven media channel to inform South Australians about critical issues that affect their lives, including health messaging – for example, recently regarding the algal bloom.
“So that as many South Australians as possible are informed on important issues, messages are translated into different languages, including Vietnamese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Italian and Greek.
“To ensure effectiveness and transparency, government advertising campaigns are evaluated, with outcomes and expenditure published on the Department of Premier and Cabinet website.”
Along with landing the 11th spot in national rankings, SA Health was the number one Meta advertising spender in South Australia in the same period.
It was followed by the pages for UNICEF Australia, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, the SA Government and SA anti-abortion activist Dr Joanna Howe. (Howe’s spend in SA added to her spend interstate state puts her in the third spot nationally.)
Federal MPs Matt Burnell – member for SA’s Northern Suburbs electorate of Spence – and Federal Health Minister Mark Butler also made the top ten SA spenders on Meta.
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These advertised posts can be claimed in their electorate office budgets, which are taxpayer-funded and publicly reported on quarterly by the federal government’s finance department.
A spokesperson for Butler’s office told InDaily the Minister’s office uses a printing and communications allowance in accordance with rules set by the department to reach people in his western suburbs electorate of Hindmarsh.
SA Health spent about $192,700 on Meta advertising from August 2020 to November 2025, according to the platform’s tracker.
Meta tracked a total spend of $162,738 for the SA Government page in the period August 2020 to November 2025.
SA Treasurer Koutsantonis said other community messages promoted recently across SA Health and SA Government pages included free mental health supports for drought-impacted communities and emergency department alternatives like Healthdirect.
“The period August 2020 to November 2025 includes significant public messaging around the state’s COVID pandemic response with important public health information to help South Australians stay safe,” Koutsantonis said.
In the period under the former Liberal Marshall Government, Meta showed three advertisements posted by SA Health, all of which were removed by Meta because the content did not follow the platform’s advertising standards.
Meta cash splash to stop abuse in hospitals
About 44 posts with material from SA Health’s Respectful Behaviour 2025 were prioritised on the SA Health Meta page in October as the department launched a new round of its “Abuse shouldn’t be part of the job” ads.
The respectful behaviour campaign across all mediums, including TV, radio, print, digital and social media, had a total proposed budget of $350,000 for the period October 12 to November 9, according to a Government Communications Advisory Committee report for September.
Health Minister Chris Picton announced the advertising campaign would return on October 24 after more than 7000 incidents – called Code Blacks – were recorded across SA’s public hospitals from January to mid-July 2025.
The campaign started in 2024, and Picton said in October that 73 per cent of surveyed South Australians reported they saw at least one ad and would be more mindful when interacting with healthcare workers.
“We’re running this ad campaign again to remind people to treat our hard-working health workers with the respect they deserve while they care for South Australians in need,” Picton said.
The ad campaign would run until November 23, Picton said.
As of Monday morning, November 17, SA Health had no active “abuse shouldn’t be part of the job” ads on the platform, with the promoted period ending on November 17, according to Meta.
Editor’s Note: InDaily, like all major media outlets in South Australia, receives advertising funds from the South Australian government and this advertising content is clearly marked.
