The ACT government has spent almost $850,000 of taxpayer funds on an advertising campaign promoting its new Ginninderry joint venture housing development since February.
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A report on the territory government's advertising campaign spending for the first six months of this year was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
It shows the government in February approved spending $849,638 promoting the extensive greenfields housing development, including $821,038 on a "brand launch" and $28,600 on a "master plan video".
The development straddles the Murrumbidgee River and is a joint venture between the government and Riverview Developments, with profits and costs split 60:40 between the government and the company.
The advertising campaign was approved weeks before the initial stage one development application for 356 houses in the new suburb of Strathnairn was lodged in March this year.
That development application was approved in August, with works expected to start this month, while the NSW side of the development is subject to a rezoning decision by that jurisdiction.
It is unclear whether Riverview contributed funds to the advertising campaign.
In December last year, the Land Development Agency paid the Corkhill family $4.5 million for a large block of land in west Belconnen, on which part of the 1600 hectare cross-border development is proposed.
That purchase is one of a series of rural land purchases the now-defunct LDA made since 2012 that the ACT Auditor-General is now investigating.
The report from the independent reviewer of territory advertising campaigns, Professor Dennis Pearce AO, shows the Ginninderry campaign was the most costly in the first half of this year.
While the reviewer examines all such campaigns costing $40,000 or more, to ensure they do not include party political messages and similar content, there are no guidelines limiting campaign expenditure.
The report shows the Ginninderry campaign included funding a "brand launch" and creating "brand stories"; opening the project's sales centre, The Link; promoting the first sales release and making the launch video.
Prof Pearce's report showed it did not raise any issues under the Government Agencies (Campaign Advertising) Act.
The report did note "the minister will be involved in a number of the events that comprise the campaign but public servants will not", and that the minister and other MLAs would not be involved in the video.
The next two most costly campaigns in that period were: $301,642 spent advertising the Throsby housing development; and $121,863 spent on the launch and videos for the "H20K: Keeping Our Waterways Healthy" campaign.
The government also spent $76,399 to promote selling the former Bega Court public housing precinct, which was marketed as "City 7" and sold at auction for $38.5 million to Geocon last month.
The government did not respond to questions about the Ginninderry advertising campaign before deadline on Tuesday.
