The literature on the Liberal party and its engagement with the media or campaigning is similarly
elati el sli . “tephe Mills la d a k studies i to the p ofessio alisatio of political campaigning in Australia, most notably The New Machine Men, do u e ts the LPA s e a e of di e t ail a d new marketing techniques in the mid-1980s, but demonstrates that it campaigning technology was ultimately inferior to the ALP.221 In The Professionals, Mills t a ed the LPA s p e-eminence in polling under both Textor and Crosby leading to its dominance in the mid-1990s and 2000s, only to see its position come under threat by new campaign techniques adopted by the ALP.222
In the 1980s, academics were increasingly discussing the impact of television on political
communication and parties. Rodney Tiffen and Keith Windschuttle both argued that the media had become increasingly focused on leaders.223 Tiffen also argued that parties were using less policy in their election campaigns.224Though he a k o ledged Ho a d s atte pts at poli diffe e tiatio i 1987 and was writing before the LPA launched Fightback!,Tiffe s a gu e ts suggest the Li e als
were often out-pe fo ed La o s politi al o u i atio s st ategies hi h o fe ed politi al advantage.
The personalisation (sometimes presidentialisation) of politics is a world-wide trend.225 Leaders are increasingly important as the connecting bridge between voters and parties at election times. Instead of choosing between parties, voters instead choose between party leaders. In the Australian context, the increasing focus on leaders was initially noted in the Australian campaign literature at the beginning of the 1980s. 226 By the 2000s, the emphasis on leaders was discussed explicitly as
221
Stephen Mills, The New Machine Men: Polls and Persuasion in Australian Politics (Ringwood, Victoria; Penguin Books, 1986).
222
Mills, The Professionals.
223
Keith Windschuttle, The Media: A New Analysis of the Press, Television, Radio and Advertising in Australia
(Ringwood, Vic: Penguin, 1988), 312–17; Rodney Tiffen, News and Power (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1989), 140– 44.
224
Tiffen, News and Power, 140–43.
225
Paul Webb and Thomas Poguntke, The Presidentialization of Politics: A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005); Lauri Karvonen, The Personalisation of Politics: A Study of Parliamentary Democracies (ECPR Press, 2010).
226Fo ea l dis ussio of the i easi g do i a e of leade s i politi al a paig s see Mu a Goot, The
Media a d the Ca paig , i Australia at the Polls: The National Elections of 1980 and 1983, ed. Howard Penniman (Sydney: George Allen and Unwin, 1983), 183– ; Coli Hughes, A Close ‘u Thi g , i Australia at
58
personalisation.227This stud ill shed e light o ho the Li e al pa t s elatio ship ith its leaders and demonstrate how leaders (to the cost of ministers) increasingly became the focus of
pa t s politi al o u i atio st ategies fi st as s oli a ata s of the pa t s poli ideas a d
eventually, as the corporate voice of the party.
Television was also impacting political parties. In 1974, the LPA began its two-decade project to develop effective national campaigning. As Jim Jupp argued as early as 1982, television was
contributing to the erosion of parties as mass political organisations.228 Ian Ward argued that parties were organs of mass political communication, funnelling messages from party elites to its branch members and through them to the wider public and vice versa. Television, Ward argued, undercut these links by rendering this human mediated form of communication cumbersome and
inefficient.229The elatio ship et ee the pa t o ga isatio s apa it to suppo t a paig s a d the growing weakness of its organisation will be explored in this study.
The Liberal party itself has also made some limited commentary on its political communication capacity. In government, the party emphasised the advantages of incumbency such as party
leadership and policy rather than its political communication strategies.230 Unsurprisingly, when the party is in opposition, there is a greater tendency for the party to focus on political communications innovations, such as research, information management after its victory in 1996 and its embrace of new communications technologies in 2010 and 2013.231
There are also some academic studies of LPA and campaign innovations. In the early 1980s,
‘a li so a d Hughes outli ed the F ase go e e t s a paig i f ast u tu e du i g the a d a paig , de o st ati g the pa t s e a e of politi al esea h, ele t o i edia
the Polls: The National Elections of 1980 and 1983, ed. Howard Penniman (Sydney: George Allen and Unwin, 1983), 298–99.
227Ma ia “i s, The Leade s a d the P ess ,
Australian Cultural History 28, no. 1 (1 April 2010): 23–30; Ian
M Alliste , The Pe so alizatio of Politi s i Aust alia , Party Politics, 2013, 337–45.
228
James Jupp, Party Politics, Australia 1966-1981 (Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1982), 174.
229
Ian Ward, Politics of the Media (South Melbourne: Macmillan, 1995), 217–19.
230
L to C os , The Li e al Pa t , i Ho ard s Age da: The Australia Ele tio , ed. John Warhurst and Marian Simms (St Lucia, Qld: University of Quee sla d P ess, ; B ia Lough a e, The Li e al
Ca paig , i Mortgage Nation: The 2004 Australian Election, ed. Marian Simms, John Warhurst, and Richard Nile (Perth, W.A: Australia Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology, 2005).
231
And e ‘o , The Li e al Pa t Ca paig , i The Politics of Retribution: The 1996 Australian Federal Election, ed. Clive Bean (St. Leonards, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1997), 35– ; B ia Lough a e, The
Fede al Ele tio : The Li e al Pa t , i Julia 2010: The Caretaker Election, ed. Marian Simms and John Wanna (ANU E-P ess, ; B ia Lough a e, The Li e al Ca paig i the Fede al Ele tio , i A ott s
Gambit: The 2013 Australian Federal Election, ed. John Wanna and Carol Johnson (Canberra: ANU E-Press, 2015).
59
monitoring and attempts for national co-ordination via the telex service.232 The Van Onselens demonstrated how the Coalition used secure websites to co-ordinate and passively discipline media messages.233 Errington and van Onselen also explored how the Coalition deployed their resources and exploited the additional firepower of its larger Senate team to support Coalition campaigns in marginal seats.234 They have also argued that by 2004, the Howard government had perfected the
pe a e t a paig i Aust alia, th ough a use of parliamentary mailing entitlements and the resources available to Senators, along with government advertising and the co-ordination of the government members secretariat with the extra-parliamentary wing of the Liberal party.235 The effect of permanent campaigning was to deliver a substantial advantage to the government over the opposition.236Else he e, the ha e a gued that Ho a d s pe so al dis ipli e a d atte tio to detail gave him a natural advantage in the age of intensive modern campaigning.237 However, how did LPA actors view the use of media during their opposition years pre-dating the Howard governments, and what lessons and skills did they take from the Howard government into opposition?