The agency charged with reshaping the city, the Greater Sydney Commission, is spending more than half a million dollars on social media consultants, drawing heavy criticism from the state opposition.
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The amount of spending on social media was highlighted at a budget estimates hearing on Wednesday, where it also emerged the Lucy Turnbull-chaired commission had cancelled a planned "major event to bring Sydneysiders together to talk about strategic planning".
Labor MLC Daniel Mookhey used the hearing on Wednesday to grill Planning Minister Rob Stokes and Greater Sydney Commission chief executive Sarah Hill about why the agency had not tendered for a contract to provide social media services.
The contract, worth $300,000, was awarded to PR firm Weber Shandwick for work between May and August.
A second $224,000 contract did go to tender and was awarded to J. Walter Thomson for social media work between August and June 2017.
"Half a million dollars for this work is unjustifiable," said Labor's planning spokesman, Michael Daley.
"Minister Stokes is asleep at the wheel. He doesn't have a clue about how hundreds of thousands of dollars his department spends on chasing Facebook likes and Twitter followers."
Rob Stokes deferred to Ms Hill for details about the contracts, and Ms Hill took the questions on notice. But Mr Stokes said the Commission had a legal responsibility to undertake community engagement and encourage involvement in the planning system, while it also had a small budget in relation to comparable agencies.
Details of a third contract, worth $700,000 and also awarded to Weber Shandwick, also emerged at the hearing.
However, Ms Hill said that money had not been spent because a planned major event had not taken place. She said the Commission had received feedback from the community that more direct engagement would be better.
A spokeswoman for the Greater Sydney Commission said: "The evaluation and approval of all contracts has been done in line with the NSW Procurement Guidelines and the relevant prequalification scheme."
The spokeswoman said $472,874 had been spent on the social media contracts to date.
The Commission is set to release plans for six Sydney districts by the end of the year for consultation. Those plans, to be finalised by the end of 2017, are intended to guide council land use and zoning decisions.
