Facebook, Fortnite and FREE TAFE: nowhere to hide for voters in the Australian election campaign

The Guardian

05-04-2025

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.'
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 Dutton'.
Another ad boosted with $1,500 says: 'Did you know Peter was voted worst Health Minister in the history of Medicare by Australia's doctors?', also featuring an unflattering image of the Liberal leader. (The vote was a survey run by Australian Doctor magazine in 2015.)
But more of Labor's ads are promoting more positive messages, sandbagging marginal MPs in seats targeted by the Coalition. Gordon Reid in Robertson, Shayne Neumann in Blair and Anne Urquhart in Braddon feature in several, talking up health and GP funding. Labor candidates in seats such as Leichhardt, Bass, Griffith and Brisbane are also given the positive ad treatment.
Clive Palmer's latest cash-burning election venture, the Trumpet of Patriots, is running true to form compared with the mining magnate's other political ventures. On Google's ad transparency library (which takes in ads on YouTube as well as banner ads on other websites) the Trumpet has spent more than $2.08m in the past 30 days.
The total spend across all political ads captured by the Google library was $4.93m, meaning Palmer's ads are accounting for more than 42% of Google ads in the past month.
The ads are a hodgepodge of 'we need Trump-style policies', calls to abolish and forgive student debt, criticism of what Palmer calls the Labor and Liberal 'uniparty', and clips of lead candidate Suellen Wrightson talking to the camera.
On the all-time stats, $50.64m has been spent on political ads in Australia on Google and YouTube. The United Australia party, Palmer's former venture, accounts for nearly $24m of that. Trumpet of Patriots is already at No 5 on the all-time spending list, and at this rate will eclipse both the Labor and Liberal parties in about a fortnight.
This week Anthony Albanese sat down at the pub with the popular content creator Ozzy Man for a 45-minute interview spanning conflict in the Middle East, Contiki tours and his three months of sobriety.
The Western Australian YouTuber, who has more than six million subscribers, reviews 'wildlife, sport, WTF vids, and the odd TV show or movie'. Ozzy Man said he secured the interview by putting in a request via Albanese's Instagram account.
The insights were not exactly startling, but it's the potential audience that matters.
Asked what it was like being prime minister, Albanese replied 'pretty good'.
'It's an incredible honour ... the fact that you can make a difference to people's lives.'
Albanese also pointed to 'increased polarisation and anger' in the United States, which he said was bad for democracy.
'One of the things you have to have the strength to do is to have the moral fortitude ... not just appeal to division, get out and look for easy answers, but to explain things, to have the courage of your convictions.'
The Greens are already deep into some unconventional campaign tactics (DJ nights with Abbie Chatfield, big toothbrush stunts) and the Tasmanian senator Nick McKim has been tapping into a different audience, livestreaming himself playing the popular video game Fortnite as he answers questions.
We tuned in for just over an hour as McKim engaged in a surreal but ultimately down-to-earth discussion about federal politics with young Australians, with a heavy dose of gamer vernacular thrown in.
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McKim suggested he would 'end' Peter Dutton in a 1v1, described the plight of Tasmania's Maugean skate as 'not skibidi' and ranged over preferential voting, foreign policy and Donald Trump. The lingo felt respectful and genuine – not surprising considering McKim's Fortnite level was 91, indicating a hefty amount of game time for the senator behind the scenes.
One of parliament's biggest units is also one of its biggest characters online. The Hunter MP Dan Repacholi, also in a seat the Liberals would love to pinch, has produced some of the weirder social media ads of the campaign so far.
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Last week he was rapping (sort of) Eminem to spruik his corflutes to supporters. This week it's a plug for Labor's free Tafe policy but jazzed up in the style of a used car salesman or a late-night ad on regional TV for a bathrooms showroom – alongside the skills minister Andrew Giles.
'It's free Tafe,' they take turns yelling at increasingly louder volumes.
'FREE,' Repacholi bellows, as Giles calls back 'TAFE'.
It's bizarre, but you can't get it out of your head.