The taxpayers are yet again the losers after the Government commissioned four design agencies, at a cost of almost $300,000, to design a website that is fronted by a $10 stock image.
The Enterprise Connect website, which is under the management of Minister for Small Business Senator Nick Sherry, features a generic blue graph placed front and centre. It is a graph that can be purchased for $10 from Getty Images and is not under exclusive use.
This is despite the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research forking out $74,183 to Designemergency, a Canberra-based graphic design studio that has its own “stunning graphs team” specialising in creating graphs, charts and images.
“This is yet another example of the taxpayer being taken for a ride,” Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Senator Scott Ryan said.
A total of $296,258 was spent by the department on the website and other Enterprise Connect branded goods, but there is little evidence of value for more than a quarter of a million dollars of expenditure.
“It is time that this Government comes back to the real world and spends taxpayers’ money wisely. Apart from some letterhead and a website, it is hard to see where all this money has gone.”
“While small business owners struggle in this challenging business climate, the Government continues to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars,” Senator Ryan said.