Labor says big-spending govt 'hypocrites'

The opposition has taken Tony Abbott to task over reports government departments are spending millions of dollars to monitor public opinion and the media.

Labor has accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott of "breathtaking hypocrisy" over reports government departments are paying to know what voters are thinking and what the media is saying about them.

The Department of Defence is spending more than $500,000 a year on pay TV and, between July and October 2014, splashed $454,125 - or about $5000 a day - on newspapers, magazines and other publications, a Fairfax Media analysis claims.

Another department also spent nearly $90,000 on books over four months.

The analysis also shows seven departments splashed a combined $1.2 million on "market research" - in many cases focus groups and polling - in just four months.

Labor says the coalition in opposition claimed too much money was being spent on media monitoring.

"But now they are spending vastly more themselves," said Labor's waste watch committee chair Pat Conroy.

"It's this kind of breathtaking hypocrisy from Tony Abbott and his ministers that is disgusting the Australian public."

No amount of spin sessions, communications courses or media monitoring mega-spends would change how fed up Australians were with this unfair government, Mr Conroy said.