By Denis Bright
Future political leaders on all sides of politics will need to distance themselves from this flippant style of news presentation. In the Ryan electorate and probably elsewhere,the LNP has letterboxed a sensationalized version of grocery price increases sourced to research by SEC Newgate and released by Nine News and its associated current affairs programmes.
Public funding of political parties has contributed to the costs of these sensationalized communications which have also been covered in the Murdoch press. The AEC has summarized the public contribution to the election campaigns of both political parties and independent candidates. Taxpayers are helping to pay for these communications.
Even though Labor attained a majority in the House of Representatives elections, the combined LNP Coalition Parties were allocated almost $30 million in public funding to $27.1 million for Labor. Although One Nation (ONP) scored $3 million in public funding. ONP’s vote nationally was 4.96 percent for the House of Representatives and 4.29 percent in the Senate in 2022. Senator Pauline Hanson posed confidently beside the One Nation aircraft in 2017 after attaining four senate spots in the Double Dissolution election of 2016 (ABC News 26 May 2017):
Had the federal election been called in February, Peter Dutton could have won the contest by a landslide. Labor took the risk of delivering a 2025-26 budget. There could be little doubt about the Albanese Government’s public policies for the year ahead. The electorate is still quite confused about what the LNP is offering across the public policy spectrum.
This confusion shows up in The Mood of the Nation Synopsis in The Weekend Australian (26-27 April 2025). Anthony Albanese is now ahead of Peter Dutton in all policy areas including issues such as immigration, national security, coping with the demands of the Trump Administration and a full range of economic issues from trade and investment, cost of living and management of interest rates. These issues are usually the domain of successful LNP leaders.
The Coalition’s usual All the Way with the USA in commitment to neoliberalism and strategic defence policies have been strengthened by even stronger ties with One Nationas summarized by ABC News (23 April 2025):
We know because when pre-poll voting began on Tuesday, the “how to vote” cards issued by the Coalition place Pauline Hanson’s One Nation candidates at number two in the vast majority of lower house seats.
And – after insisting that One Nation would advocate for “parties of freedom” and “conservative independents” over both major parties – leader Pauline Hanson pulped and reprinted her preference suggestions in a number of seats at the very last minute to place Coalition candidates second.
The seats included Dickson, the marginal Queensland electorate held by Liberal leader Peter Dutton. The first version of the One Nation how-to-vote cards had Dutton at number four. The new ones have him at number two.
One Nation chief of staff James Ashby explained to the Daily Telegraph that the last-minute reversal was intended to counteract the effect of Clive Palmer’s preference guidelines, which in some cases urged a vote for “teal” independents.
The sensational hue of the LNP’s appeal to voters is reflected in the populist cards which are letter-boxed by the LNP in its commitment to Wedge Politics with an emphasis on blaming the Albanese Government for higher grocery prices, rents, electricity charges and interest rates (Image: LNP Australia Back on Track):
Attributing the Australian and global economic instability to government waste exposes the populist hue of the LNP’s communications. There is no evidence in the latest budget statements for 2025-26 on any splurge in federal government spending despite commitments to cost of living relief.
Most of the LNP’s attack communications have an out of time flavour as political moods are in a state of flux.
Writing at a time when Peter Dutton seemed to be heading for an election victory in December 2024, Jason Koutsoukis offered this synopsis of the LNP’s preferred advertiser for the Saturday Paper (7-13 December 2024):
The Liberal Party has re-engaged controversial New Zealand-based creative agency Topham Guerin, known for its aggressive use of disinformation tactics and deepfake technology, as it moves to bolster its chances of winning the next federal election.
Credited with playing a pivotal role in Scott Morrison’s surprise 2019 victory, as well as recent campaign successes for the Liberal National Party of Queensland and the New Zealand National Party, Topham Guerin has emerged as a go-to agency for conservative parties seeking to leverage digital media.
A senior Liberal Party source confirmed this week that the company has been hired to work with Peter Dutton as he heads into the campaign.
Founded in 2016 by former New Zealand Nationals operatives Sean Topham and Ben Guerin, the agency quickly established itself as a disruptive force in political communication, blending rapid content production with emotionally charged messaging aimed at unlocking voters’ “arousal emotions”, such as anger, excitement, pride and fear.
“I think they have really morphed and changed into a slicker outfit than they perhaps ever were,” says Andrew Hughes, a lecturer in marketing at the Australian National University.
“They’ve had a few hits and misses for sure, but they’ve refined their approach … which is all about behaviour change, not political change, which is a completely different kettle of fish. That is, what do you have to do to get people to vote for your candidate? And how they do that is mainly through emotion, by getting people really upset about something, because then they’re much less likely to switch to another candidate or party.”
This old style of electoral populism seems to have been drowned out this time by fears about the consequences of the Trump Tariffs on the economic stability of our best and most profitable Asian trading partners. The reciprocal tariffs have hit friend and potential foe alike and are particularly savage to the economies of underdeveloped countries like Vietnam and Sri Lanka which are hit by tariff levels above 40 percent. Bangladesh has achieved a reciprocal tariff of 37 percent. China Indonesia and Taiwan have tariff levels of 32-34 percent through the application of the formula:
The hard-working people of these underdeveloped countriesare particularly important in the supply of low-cost clothing and shoes to both the US and Australia.
Trade wars should forge unity between major political partiesbut the LNP mailouts use these problems for partisan gains. This time, The Wedge Politics from the LNP do not seem to be producing the usual polling outcomes. Labor and the Greens are a notch above their 2022 national election result as measured by the latest YouGov poll (Image: Wikipedia):
For a major political party that is obsessed by the need to cut wasteful government spending, the LNP’s style of political advertising needs to be more tolerant of the social diversity across the electorate. Let’s hope that the election result will promote this commitment in the future.
Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback from readers advances the cause of citizens’ journalism. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Replies Button.
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Wealthy, egoswollen, selfcentred uncaring people dominate in conservative areas, corporations, parties, lobbyist groups, and they crush us while blaming “others.” Once we had Anus Abbott, Shiner Dud Turnbull, Maggot Morrison, and, now Slime Time with Peter Duckwit-Futton, the brilliant bumkicker and overinflated Dunce. Behind these brown sty droppings are agencies, corporations, media, profiteers, professional lying fictioneers of all rotten types, uncivilised, unfair, unrestrained, a huge POX.
The polls must be really bad.
Sky News host Rita Panahi has slammed Peter Dutton’s “weak” election campaign. “I don’t know who is advising the opposition leader, but I wish they would resign,” Ms Panahi said.
She fails to realise that with that statement she admitted that Dutton has no spine, and no brain.
There is a problem for the LNP if its own political communications are not inspiring. Voters do not take to second-rate and sensational prompts. This is an educated society and it looks like that the LNP’s preferred advertising agencies are not aware of the value of promoting needs based policies to inspire everyone to support Peter Dutton’s narrow agendas. Advertising of a similar genre brought a whole decade of LNP Governments after 2013 with cuts to hospitals and Medicare.
Mickey Mouse and Minnie showed some empathy for people in difficult times: Perhaps the LNP’s campaign insiders should check out these gems:
“Mickey’s Good Deed” (1932): This short film directly addressed the poverty of the time. Mickey, a destitute street performer, sells his beloved dog Pluto to provide a poor family with a Christmas dinner, highlighting themes of charity and helping those worse off than oneself. This resonated with audiences facing similar struggles and emphasized the importance of compassion during hard times.
The Whoopee Party” (1932): In contrast, this cartoon showed Mickey and Minnie throwing a lively party with food and entertainment at a time when many could barely afford basic necessities. This offered a sense of escapism and a reminder of joy and community spirit even during bleak times.
“Building a Building” (1933): Mickey quits his job to protect Minnie from an abusive foreman, Peg-Leg Pete. This showcased the importance of honor and respect, even when jobs were scarce, a sentiment that likely resonated with those facing difficult choices during the Depression.