1 week Ago By Peter Hartcher
Two weeks into an election campaign, the Liberal Party is still spending money on ads to introduce its leader to the voter. Peter Dutton speaks of his time as a Queensland police officer, as a small business owner, as a minister in the Howard government. The ad has been described as an effort to “humanise” him.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton visits Vibe petrol station in Canning Vale in the seat of Tangney on Friday. Credit: James Brickwood This tells us two things. One, the party’s research has found that Dutton has an image problem.
Second, that they’ve failed to address it adequately. They’ve had three years to prepare. They now have three weeks.
What have they been doing? By contrast, Labor is not spending money or wasting opportunity in introducing its leader. Labor is promoting its policies as a solution and smashing Dutton as the danger. It’s way too late to be trying to assert your candidate’s character or, harder yet, to change it in the electorate’s mind.
And almost impossible to achieve under enemy fire. “They didn’t do enough to define Dutton before the starter’s gun was fired,” says former Labor campaigner and now Redbridge director Kos Samaras . “They should have started a year ago.
They’ve allowed their opponent to define him.” Illustration by Simon Letch This is emblematic of the Coalition’s unreadiness. Its ads could be better if it had more policy to advertise.
But which policy? Last week’s policy against letting public servants work from home or this week’s policy of allowing it? And which policy of cutting government spending? Last year’s one to sack 41,000 public servants immediately, or last week’s one to allow the 41,000 to leave more gradually through natural attrition and redundancies? Or the last hour’s one, which appears to leave room for all three options?.
