Digital, communications and social media

The following expenses may be claimed against your office budget.

Websites and social media

• Establishing, maintaining and monitoring websites including design services, website construction, hosting, domain renewals and website upgrades.
• Creating and distributing social media content.
• Advertising on social media platforms.
• Social media monitoring and maintenance services for your website where the website allows comments to be posted, or includes a social media or RSS feed.
• Purchasing one-off or ongoing social media subscriptions for enhanced capabilities or services (see Social media subscriptions section below).

Establishment and maintenance of websites

In order to claim expenses from your office expenses budget, the website must be identifiable as your website, comply with your obligations and not contravene any conditions at all times - it is an ongoing requirement. For example, it must not solicit donations or political party memberships or pursue a commercial purpose.

Your website may contain a party emblem or logo, and may link to your party website.

Website hosting may be paid up to 12 months in advance, and domain name registration up to 24 months in advance. However, you should be aware that if you cease to be a parliamentarian or include content that contravenes your obligations or specific conditions during the period of the pre-paid website hosting, you may be required to repay the cost for the hosting which exceeds the length of your parliamentary term as well as any corresponding penalty loading. The 25 per cent penalty loading applies where more than 28 days have elapsed since the original claim date. IPEA has no discretion to waive the penalty loading.

Progressive payments may be made for website development, redevelopment or design.

Social media subscriptions

In order to claim expenses from your office expenses budget, the social media account must be identifiable as your account. In addition, you must make sure that, for the period of an active subscription for which costs are claimed, there is no material on the relevant social media platform (including, but not limited to, profile links and past posts) that contravene the conditions for claiming office expenses.

Should you contravene one or more of these conditions, subscription costs will no longer be claimable and you may be liable to repay the contravening amount, including a 25 per cent penalty loading. Please note that these conditions do not apply to third party content posted outside of your control (such as advertising placed by the relevant platform).

Contacting constituents

• Email distribution services.
• Short messaging service (SMS) broadcasting and survey services including bulk SMS communication to individuals.
• Placement of content in printed and electronic publications produced and distributed by third parties including local and national newspapers.
• Postal services from Australia Post (including credits to postage meters) and other mail distribution services (including letter box drops in the electorate).
  • Note: postage stamps or stamped envelopes, other than those provided by your parliamentary department, are not claimable (see Things that cannot be claimed section).
• Conducting virtual town hall meetings including commercial services that allow you to engage with your constituents via telephone or electronic communication in a town hall style discussion.
• Datasets that would assist you to contact constituents (phone numbers, email addresses etc.) or to tailor communication appropriately to those constituents (demographic information, etc.), and data validation services (services that assist you to build your constituent database and/or maintain the accuracy and currency of its data) for the purposes of communicating with your constituents.
  • Note: constituent is defined under the Parliamentary Business Resources Act 2017 (PBR Act) to mean a person enrolled to vote or resident in your state or territory (if you are a senator), or your electorate (if you are a member of the House of Representatives).
  • The scope of data included in a product should be appropriate to your constituents and the nature of your communication (for example nation-wide data products are unlikely to represent value for money).

Surveying constituents

• Online survey tools (e.g. to gauge the views and opinions of constituents).
• Conducting interactive voice response phone surveys including inbound or outbound communication to fixed or mobile devices.

Radio

• For certain members of the House of Representatives, broadcasting on regional community and open narrowcast radio services.

Auslan interpreting and closed caption services

Auslan interpreting and closed captioning services may be purchased as an office expense for the conduct of your parliamentary business. This is only applicable when existing Government services, such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme or the National Relay Service, cannot reasonably provide the services in the circumstances. For example, for communicating with multiple constituents requiring the services in a group setting.

Livestreaming equipment

Livestreaming equipment may be used to produce, communicate and distribute podcasts and similar streaming services. This includes, but is not limited to, the design, recording and distribution of electronic material. You should be mindful that the use of livestreaming equipment, including any content created, is subject to your overarching PBR obligations. 

Note the office expenses and that material must not include any statements or information that is prohibited. For example, the livestreaming or podcast must not be used for any commercial purpose (such as, promoting or advertising a business or commercial enterprise such as a constituent’s business), must not be used for production or placement of content for broadcasting on television, must not solicit votes or financial or other support and must not provide instruction on how to complete a ballot paper in a referendum or election.