ABSTRACT
In this concluding chapter, the book’s arguments and results of the analysis are summarised. The chapter begins with an argument that the communication efforts of the major parties at the 2022 Australian federal election cannot be properly termed strategic. Both were seriously tactical. They relied heavily on the tactical performance communication that goes with set-piece campaign launches and coverage of leaders’ staged daily media events, coupled with a significant amount of negative advertising. When examined through the lens of the traditional strategic communication framework, neither campaign showed that it had been planned to do much more than meet the daily demands of the news media. There was no indication that political communication advisers had done anything more than just plan for this approach. This is the real issue with political communication. It is obsessed with the news media.
Neither Scott Morrison nor his advisers appear to have understood how issue dynamics were changing the minds of voters and leading them to support more positive alternatives who promised action on important national issues. The Government’s obsession with the news media and tactical performance communication in place of effective strategic communication was a dysfunctional way to deal with mid- to long-term and immediate campaign issues. Labor was correct to stick to the issue agenda Albanese set out at his election announcement media conference. However, because it won the election on preferences, Albanese’s government is on notice that not listening to voters and not dealing with issues that concern them will likely consign them to Opposition in 2025.
