Latest news with #PaulErickson
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Coalition gives a masterclass on the dangers of overreach – and both sides of politics are warned
Towards the end of his at-capacity speech to the National Press Club this week, the architect of Labor's landslide victory, Paul Erickson, delivered a warning to both sides of parliament. Better versed in political history than most, the ALP's national secretary noted that Melbourne University was preparing a new history of Robert Menzies' life and career. Erickson observed that the second volume concludes Menzies had the good fortune of not being subject to a rightwing echo chamber during his nearly 20 years in The Lodge. The clear air helped him become the country's longest-serving prime minister and mostly avoid overreach, with the notable exception of his 1951 referendum on banning the Communist party. The speech was delivered on Wednesday afternoon, the point which might be looked back on as a historic bottoming-out of the political stocks of the Liberal and National parties. Smashed on 3 May by voters, the Nationals blew up the decades-long Coalition in an act of bovine stubbornness on Tuesday. Just 48 hours later, the Nationals awkwardly tried to put the show back together, after Sussan Ley made back-channel approaches to senior party figures. Journalists ran down the hallways of the press gallery as David Littleproud, his deputy, Kevin Hogan, and Senate leader, Bridget McKenzie, announced the course correction. Both parties hit pause on plans to name frontbench line-ups to help the reconciliation along, amid consideration of four policy demands from the junior partner to Ley and her Liberal colleagues. While she had promised a full review of the policies rejected by voters, Littleproud, egged on by internal and media echo chambers, insisted the Coalition stick with the Peter Dutton plan for nuclear power, along with big-stick breakup powers to target supermarkets and other 'big box' retailers. He also wanted a $20bn regional Australia fund maintained and minimum service standards guaranteed for telecommunications in the bush. Liberals objected to the beefed up divestment policy, despite a similar plan being accepted under Dutton in the last parliament. Menzies himself believed it was better to keep the Nationals at the table, even when he didn't need their numbers. 'Better to keep them beside you where you can keep an eye on them,' he told one of his ministers. Luckily for the Nationals, an in-principle agreement was reached on Friday. Liberals had warned it was unprecedented that they would be required to accede to Nationals' demands, especially so soon after the election. In turn, Nationals accused Ley of her own overreach. 'She's not allowed to piss around in our pond,' one told this column. While McKenzie and the New South Wales senator Ross Cadell would have been at risk of losing their seats at the 2028 election because of the split, Littleproud himself could be the biggest loser from the spat. Challenged in a leadership vote by Queenslander Matt Canavan days before, Littleproud's leadership is always under pressure because of the presence of former leader Barnaby Joyce in the party room. Joyce and McKenzie are favourites of Sky News, a forum where nuclear power is right and net zero policy is wrong. Its commentators have advocated for the Coalition to go further to the right in defeat. Michael McCormack, another ex leader still in parliament, told ABC radio he was 'ambitious' for Littleproud after a messy week. Echoing Scott Morrison's hollow support for Malcolm Turnbull at the height of the 2018 leadership drama, the comments were viewed as a kiss of death. Talkback radio has been clearly baffled by Littleproud's timing. Ley's mother died days after she was elected opposition leader and a funeral is planned for 30 May. Instead of being able to grieve with her family, Ley was forced to try to hold off an existential threat to her leadership. Some Nationals privately acknowledge it was insensitive overreach to force the crisis on Ley when they did. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Littleproud might not have lost votes in the mess, but he has lost skin. He is likely to fall back on the fact MPs in the party room voted for a split. He has – unintentionally – managed to bring about a reunion between longtime rivals Joyce and McCormack. McKenzie also played a role in the breakup, demanding the Liberals hand over a senior economic portfolio and egging things along. Calmer heads prevailed once some of her colleagues realised just how unelectable both parties would be apart, with the Nationals relegated to crossbench status and unlikely to have much influence. Sign up to Afternoon Update Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Nationals MPs would take pay cuts and sack staff, and just sit alongside the Greens, likely for at least two more terms as Labor cemented its policy goals and built a long term governing legacy. 'Never get between a National and a white car,' one observer said, a reference to the perks Nationals MPs will enjoy when they eventually make it back to government. The culture of the Nationals has been politically askew since Joyce was the leader, cheered on by the party's equivocation and denial of climate change by the rightwing media echo chamber. Joyce has maintained an outsized media profile and was prepared to fight internal fights in plain view of voters. Malcolm Turnbull viewed the Nationals as being all hat, no cattle during his time as leader, and sensationally split with Joyce over his affair with a ministerial staffer. Labor has watched the drama unfold, unable to believe its political luck. Anthony Albanese spent the week meeting with Pope Leo XIV and the leaders of Canada and the European Union while the Coalition tore itself to pieces. He made preparations for parliament to return on 22 July, the first time the full depth of Labor's dominance will be on show. Some crossbenchers are concerned Albanese could reduce their staffing allocations for the new parliament, potentially letting experienced employees go. Back at the Press Club, Erickson stressed the Coalition would continue to lose elections until it faced up to the lessons of defeat, including overreach. Labor wasn't spared his gentle warning either. Erickson said the party won big under John Curtin in 1943 and Ben Chifley in 1946, but its own overreach on government intervention into the economy let the Liberals back in 1949. Albanese was in the room for the speech, along with some of his most senior cabinet ministers. If the Coalition remained split, the main opposition to Labor's likely 94-seat majority would be the Liberals alone, with fewer than 30 MPs. Labor's dominance might fuel a little hubris in the long term ahead. Tom McIlroy is Guardian Australia's chief political correspondent
Sky News AU
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
‘Paul Erickson's right': Liberal Party needs to learn from its election loss
Menzies Research Centre Senior Fellow Nick Cater says the Liberal Party needs to learn from its election losses. This comes after Labor National Secretary Paul Erickson gave an address at the National Press Club. 'Yes, Paul Erickson's right, we do have to learn the lessons from 2022 and 2025,' Mr Cater told Sky News host Peta Credlin.
AU Financial Review
21-05-2025
- Politics
- AU Financial Review
Labor's campaign mastermind reveals how he beat the Liberals
The mastermind of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's thumping re-election victory says Labor's next challenge is to develop campaign strategies to combat teal independents, after candidates backed by the Climate 200 funding juggernaut almost defeated government MPs in two safe seats. Labor national secretary Paul Erickson downplayed concerns over the party achieving just 35.6 per cent of the primary vote, suggesting this figure was artificially low because Labor supporters engaged in tactical voting to help defeat Coalition candidates in contests against the teals. He justified this claim by pointing to some teal seats where Labor's Senate vote was ten percentage points higher than for the House of Representatives.
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Architect of Labor's crushing win flags Dutton's fatal flaw and outlines what PM must do next
The architect of Labor's election victory says Anthony Albanese's government must methodically deliver on its agenda, despite a larger than expected majority and political upheaval within the Coalition and Greens. Paul Erickson, Labor's national secretary and campaign director, told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday the government had the communications and political skills to sell major reform ideas to voters, but should focus first on its 'ambitious' agenda endorsed at the ballot box, including on health, energy and economic growth. Speaking on the third anniversary of Albanese's 2022 election victory, and nearly three weeks out from his landslide 3 May reelection, Erickson said the Liberals and Nationals would continue to lose unless they learned the lessons delivered by voters, including on climate change. Labor is on track to hold more than 90 seats in the House of Representatives, despite predictions Albanese would slip into minority at the poll. The government's political stocks have also been bolstered by the split in the Coalition, and the Greens going backwards, including its former leader Adam Bandt losing his own seat. But Erickson, the 41-year-old campaign chief credited with crafting the historic landslide, said Labor must not exceed its mandate from voters. 'I think that there was a lot of ambition in the plan for the next three years that the prime minister and the Labor team put forward in the campaign,' he said. 'The best approach is for Labor to stay focused on the agenda that we campaigned on, what we sought a mandate for, and now we need to deliver. And I think that's what will drive the government's work and the legislative agenda in the parliament over the next three years.' Erickson said the former opposition leader Peter Dutton had been stuck in a conservative media 'echo chamber' and was too quick to fight culture wars and import Donald Trump-style political tactics. He said Dutton and his colleagues badly misread the mood of the electorate, giving Labor the ability to successfully campaign around the Liberal leader's personality and outlook. 'His aggression and intolerance unsettled people,' Erickson said. 'Was he focused on Australians who were looking for the party with the best plan to make them better off over the next three years? Or was his priority winning over voters who were looking for an Australian variation on MAGA?' First appointed to the role in 2019, Erickson said Labor's campaign strategy was superior because it focused close on cost-of-living pressures and essential services like Medicare and education. He chided the Liberals for mishandling policy announcements, including on work-from-home rules for public servants and on housing affordability, singling out housing spokesman Michael Sukkar who lost his seat. 'With less than two weeks to go, on Insiders with David [Speers], Michael Sukkar said that the Coalition was saving up their policies so that they could, 'Connect with Australians when they're going to switch on.' 'I remember watching that interview and thinking — you haven't got long now, brother!' Erickson said the opposition needed to learn the lessons of its recent losses, including on the issue of climate change. 'I think if they continue on the path they're on, of delay and denial, then they will continue getting the sorts of outcomes that we saw.' He committed Labor to a full review of its campaign strategy and said he would decide whether to seek another term leading the party's administrative wing before the end of 2025.
The Advertiser
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Labor election guru urges party against 'myth-making'
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." 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." 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." 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."
