2 weeks Ago
Peter Dutton has been noisy in recent weeks in calling out Labor's "dirt unit", a "sledge-a-thon" and "industrial-scale" personal attacks from the government as the campaign heats up. But he might want to have a word with his campaign headquarters, given his criticism of Labor's "nasty negative ads". On the Liberal party's main Facebook page, as of Friday, nearly every one of the 300-odd versions of ads currently running is negative, anti-Labor content.
They are promoting party websites such as "labor.fail", accusing Labor of "BROKEN PROMISES", and boosting personal attacks on the Labor MP Anne Stanley ("a member of the CFMEU"). The party's national page has shot up to be the biggest advertiser on Meta platforms, spending $121,500 in the week to 31 March (the most recent stats on the Meta ad library).
That's $30,000 more than Climate 200's page, and more than double the ALP's main page ($54,500). Nearly all their ads scream about families being "$19,208 worse off per year under Labor", with ads targeted at key seats (Hawke, Parramatta, Blair, Boothby, Paterson, McEwen), featuring unflattering black-and-white photos of the local Labor MP. "We can't afford three more years of Labor," one string of ads reads.
"The Greens are too extreme for Australia," runs another. It's true there are ads for Liberal policies, including investing in defence and fighting crime, and building the Melbourne airport rail link. But many more highlight themes such as Labor's "broken promise" on cheaper bills.
One ad simply quotes a Guardian Australia headline reading "CFMEU in 'cycle of lawlessness' after bikie and organised crime infiltration, probe finds", including a headshot of Stanley, the Labor MP for marginal Werriwa. The caption reads simply: "Fact: Labor's Anne Stanley is a member of the CFMEU." And in return Of course, it would be remiss not to note that a number of Labor's ads are negative too.
One new ad features a graphic reading "press the button to stop...
Josh Butler , Caitlin Cassidy , Mike Hohnen.
