From 1 July 2023, Victorian Government policy requires that departments and agencies must spend at least 15 per cent of their campaign media spend on multicultural media.
This means departments and agencies must work with the government’s contracted media buyer to book 15 per cent of their media buy with multicultural media outlets.
Independent Multicultural Media Australia (IMMA) has welcomed the policy.
“IMMA represents a media ecology that is unique, some of our members have very long legacies, while others represent new and emerging communities,” Fotis Kapetopoulos, the Secretary of IMMA, said.
“It is important that departments focus on communicating with multicultural communities effectively, instead of spending vast amounts on foreign social media companies.”
Mr Kapetopoulos added that IMMA wanted to work with the Victorian government to help departments and agencies “shift old habits.”
The Victorian government’s new policy was implemented after Premier Daniel Andrews made a pre-election commitment last year to increase the department and agency advertising expenditure allocated to multicultural media and communications from 5 percent to 15 percent.
This comes as independent multicultural media outlets in New South Wales remain at risk as they call on the state government to meet their pre-election commitments.
In March this year, the NSW Minister for Multiculturalism Steve Kamper announced NSW Labor would review the state government’s advertising practices to ensure the role of the independent multicultural media is elevated and supported.
With NSW Labor now in government for over 100 days, no such review into advertising practices has been announced as yet.
