Labor must remain grounded following its election triumph to avoid “myth-making” and deliver on key issues, the party’s campaign architect says.
National secretary Paul Erickson outlined the secret ingredients behind the campaign that produced one of the largest majorities in Australian history while ousting two rival party leaders.
“We need to stay focused on the voters who elected us and on delivering the agenda that we ran on,” he told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
“I’m quite confident that that’s where the party’s focus will be.”
Mr Erickson said the party needed to be honest about what worked and what didn’t during the five-week campaign.
He also had free advice for the Liberal Party, encouraging members to “escape the echo chambers on your own side”.
“The coalition needs to accept the lessons from the last two federal elections and their last two defeats if they want to be competitive again,” he said.
“If they continue on the path that they’re on of delay and denial, then they’ll continue getting the sorts of outcomes that we saw.”
Mr Erickson said the opposition should start by dumping its nuclear power policy, and facing up to the reality of climate change and opportunities presented by the transition to renewables.
He praised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who he said had been in “the form of a lifetime”.
First-term delivery and second-term ambition, placing Medicare at the heart of the campaign, Labor’s ascendancy on the economic front in a cost-of-living crisis and the risk Opposition Leader Peter Dutton represented were critical to the eventual victory, he added.
The coalition’s strategy was wrapped up in a rhetoric of “fear and myopia” and was held together only by a hostility to Labor, Mr Erickson said.
He also took a swipe at the Greens, whose leader Adam Bandt lost his seat to Labor in one of the election’s biggest upsets.
The minor party’s success was a sore point from the 2022 election and Labor responded by confronting the challenge posed by them, Mr Erickson said.
Mr Albanese attended the speech after arriving back in Canberra from his first overseas visit since being re-elected.
“One of the issues during the campaign was our optimistic, positive vision, versus a coalition, at that time, that was talking Australia down,” he told reporters after the address.
“I’m really optimistic about Australia’s position.”
The prime minister’s trip included stops in Singapore, Indonesia and the Vatican City, where he met with the Pope and other world leaders including Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy.
Nationals leader David Littleproud credited Labor with having “out-campaigned” the coalition.
“We made mistakes, but, as well, you just can’t say they did it all,” he said.
“We helped them.”
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