Monique Ryan says paid influencer posts must be disclosed after awkward on-air moment

Independent MP Monique Ryan now says she believes social media content paid for by politicians should be disclosed, after earlier saying she didn’t have an opinion.

On Sunday, when Ms Ryan was asked on ABC Insiders about revelations fellow “teal” Allegra Spender had paid for content creators to post on social media, she said didn’t have an opinion.

The ABC revealed last week independent MP Allegra Spender and Climate 200 paid mental health advocate and content creator Milly Rose Bannister to create content which were authorised but not marked as ‘paid’, raising transparency concerns.

Asked whether influencer content that has been paid for by politicians should be clearly marked as such, Ms Ryan said she did not do it herself, but hadn’t given the issue “great thought”.

“I don’t have an opinion on it,” she said.

“I have to give it thought. It’s not something I have given great thought. I haven’t engaged in anything in it.”

The independent Member for Kooyong has now clarified her position, stating she was “unaware of the issue with Allegra Spender” when she appeared on Insiders. 

“Having now had an opportunity to look at this issue, I fully support the AEC’s position statement from last Friday that influencer content paid for by politicians should be clearly labelled as such,” she told the ABC.

There are no electoral laws that prevent content creators being paid by politicians to put out messages on their behalf, but the posts must be clearly authorised. 

Liberal Party writes to AEC over Spender content

The Liberal Party on Monday wrote to the Australian Electoral Commissioner questioning one of Ms Bannister’s videos, which has now been deleted.

The mental health advocate posted several videos on Instagram over the past few weeks which included a disclosure that they were “made in collaboration” with Ms Spender and Climate200, but didn’t explicitly reveal they were paid for. 

In one video, Ms Bannister shadowed Ms Spender in parliament for a day and in another, she advises her viewers of an online tool to look up MPs’ voting histories.

The video captions on Instagram were edited on Monday to clarify that they were “made as part of a paid partnership,” with Ms Bannister adding “all opinions are my own.” 

Ms Bannister also posted the same video of her shadowing Ms Spender in parliament to her TikTok in March, but the TikTok version did not carry that same “made in collaboration” statement or mention that it was paid for in the caption.

Liberal campaign spokesman James Paterson has requested the AEC investigate the now-deleted post on TikTok.

A spokesman for Ms Spender previously said that creators were “compensated for their time, to cover things like production costs,” but “the final editorial decisions of the content are completely up to the content creators”.

In an earlier statement to the ABC, Ms Bannister defended the content and partnership, saying she strongly believed in Ms Spender’s approach to politics and delivering information to young Australians. 

“The content I create is entirely based on my own views, voice and research, and I stand by them,” she said. 

“Digital advocates like me, who follow the publishing guidelines of the AEC, are entitled to be remunerated for their time and quality of work, just as traditional media workers are.”

Tiktok creator Luke Gallagher also posted a video over the weekend “made in collaboration” with Ms Spender that praised the politician, but it has since been deleted.

Mr Gallagher reposted the same video on Instagram on Monday, disclosing it was made “as part of a paid partnership with Allegra Spender”.

The ABC revealed the partnerships with influencers is being quietly facilitated by Sentiment Agency, which was founded by musician and progressive activist Holly Rankin, also known as Jack River.

Independents weigh-in on paying influencers

After revelations that Ms Spender paid a third-party agency to commission posts from social media creators, the ABC reached out to other parties and independents.

The Greens said they did not pay for content creators to post.

“Paid content should be authorised and disclosed. People deserve to know if someone is being paid to post,” a spokesperson said.

A Coalition spokesperson also said they had “not engaged any influencer agencies or influencers to make unauthorised content on our behalf.”

Bradfield candidate Nicolette Boele, Warringah MP Zali Stegall, Mackellar MP Sophie Scamps, Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel, Curtin MP Kate Chaney and Indi MP Helen Haines told the ABC that they had not paid influencers to make political content for them. 

Independent Senator David Pocock told the ABC he believed the social media posts should have been clearly marked as paid content.

“This is all new,” he said on Afternoon Briefing.

“[It’s] certainly not something I have done or plan to do – paying influencers.

“I think that it should have been clear that they were paid, even if they had creative control.

“I think people expect that sort of transparency and knowing Allegra, she very much has that school prefect energy, she wants to do the right thing all the time and I’m sure this is something she is grappling with. I have a huge amount of respect for her.

“As politicians, we need to be holding ourselves to a higher standard.”

Silence from Labor Party on influencer posts 

The Labor Party’s collaboration with influencers and content creators drew attention during the Federal Budget last month. 

A group of creators, including Ms Bannister, were invited into the government’s budget lock-up, with the party paying for some of the influencers’ travel and accommodation costs. 

Labor insists there was no requirement for the attendees to post, let alone share something positive. 

Over the past week, as attention grew over Ms Spender’s collaborations with social media creators, Labor has declined to comment on whether they have paid for social media content through third-party agencies or content creators. 

Labor is continuing to look for opportunities to engage with content creators as part of its on-the-road campaign, but so far none have joined them.

Last week a campaign spokesperson said that Labor wants to make sure it’s sharing its plan with Australians “where they are and in the form they want to consume it.”

“If Australians are accessing news and engaging with politics online then we’re making sure we’re meeting them there, as well as communicating through well-established traditional media channels.”