The Turnbull government has revealed it has earmarked $28m to advertise its innovation agenda, after confirmation it is planning an $18m campaign to promote its infrastructure spending.

Innovation minister Christopher Pyne disclosed the cost of the taxpayer-funded “public information and community engagement campaign” aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship.

“It will be designed to help change the culture around innovation and science in our businesses, engage young people to help inspire the entrepreneurs of the future and provide the key information to any Australian wanting to take a risk on a new business venture,” he said.

Pyne’s department published contract records last month showing it was paying Orima Research $455,290 for market research.

On Wednesday, Pyne said the research showed there was a clear need for a “cultural shift” about the “importance of risk-taking, embracing new ideas and perceptions of business failure”.

He said the research showed only one in 20 people thought Australia was a global leader in innovation, but two-thirds of people believed there was a need to “take more risks to get innovative”.

It is understood the campaign – comprising television, digital, social media and print advertising – will focus on the “steps we collectively need to take to secure our future”. The government is planning “on-the-ground community engagement” in metropolitan, regional and rural areas.

Labor’s innovation spokesman, Kim Carr, said the Abbott and Turnbull governments had “created a taxpayer-funded advertising boom”. Carr said Australians understood the importance of innovation, science and research but they also knew “the difference between spin and substance”.

The details emerged as the government took a step towards launching a separate taxpayer-funded advertising campaign to promote its involvement in transport projects.

A federal election is due this year.

Contract records published this week reveal the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development awarded a $305,910 contract to the Wallis Consulting Group for what it described as “Market Research – Building Our Future”.

The office of Warren Truss, the deputy prime minister, confirmed the research could pave the way for an advertising campaign with a budget of up to $18m.

A spokesman for Truss, who is also infrastructure minister, said previous research, commissioned seven months ago at a cost of $214,720, found “significant knowledge gaps” and suggested that people “were interested in knowing more about the Australian government’s investment in transport infrastructure”.

Anthony Albanese, Labor’s infrastructure spokesman, accused the government of using Orwellian language and manufacturing “a propaganda campaign” to conceal its failures on transport projects.

In other, less contentious, market research disclosures, the Department of Social Services has awarded KPMG a $112,090 research contract to provide updated analysis on the economic cost of family and domestic violence. The results are expected to feed into policy but not linked to an advertising campaign.

The Department of Health has awarded GFK Australia a $220,000 research contract. A spokeswoman said it was part of “ongoing consumer behaviour research and campaigns” linked to the government’s $100m strategy to increase participation in sport.