‘’Sorry Morrie, I’ve already voted,’’ was the response of one hardhead in Voterland to the promise contained in Scott Morrison’s Coalition campaign launch on Sunday.
No matter, ScoMo might respond. It’s not your vote we need, it’s your money. We as in the Coalition parties, you as in the taxpayer.
In other words, what might matter to the Coalition at this election is the juicy public funding that applies to the parties’ campaigns until their official campaign launches.
A launch on the fifth weekend of a six-week campaign is, by any measure except financial, ridiculous. But if the Coalition campaign always was about keeping the lights on in head office as well as saving the furniture, it makes sense.
By the time Morrison launched the Coalition’s election campaign on Sunday, 1.3 million people had attended a prepoll station, and 900,000 had lodged a postal vote. Those voters might be chary of crowded places during a pandemic. They might be holidaymakers. But they also might be people who made up their minds a very long time ago, like Morrie’s mate mentioned above.
It’s a different mindset in the ALP. After the shock of the unlosable election defeat in 2019, Labor wasn’t taking any chances and held its big launch in Perth on May 1, three weeks in.
The canny Greens are launching even later than the Coalition. Perhaps that’s apt for a party that relies on strong branding more than any particular policy. By the time leader Adam Bandt makes his pitch in Brisbane, where the Greens are dreaming of a second House seat, there will remain just over 100 hours before polling booths open on Saturday.
Mark Sawyer is a journalist with extensive experience in print and digital media in Sydney, Melbourne and rural Australia.