Key challenge
The target audience is the vast majority which has become so switched off from politics that it lacks basic awareness of the issues and who’s who.
Trying to break through to this crowd has always been a key challenge come election time and fear is a well-worn tactic.
But Scales, who has more than three decades of experience, says the disconnect now is “much worse than it has ever been”.
This is a product of the instability and infighting which has been the hallmark of federal politics for 10 years, and the broader loss of trust in institutions, driven by the behaviour of the banks and the tax-evading antics of other corporates.
In addition, the rise of social media means people are not as receptive to persuasive arguments as they once were. They are not as well read politically and tend to respond to headlines, especially those which reinforce existing perceptions.
Every week, Scales and his company JWS Research conduct focus group research and polling for clients, gauging the views of uncommitted voters in the marginal seats that will decide the outcome of the election.
Out of a typical focus group, Scales said you would be lucky to find one or two with a grasp of political issues that amounts to any more than a “headline awareness”.
Basic level of knowledge
So basic is the level of knowledge that it is insufficient even to form an opinion assessing the merits of the arguments being played out.
Instead, the “opinion”, if there is one, is more aligned with the person’s “intuitive perception”.
For example, one group of voters in Melbourne was asked this week about Adani.
Two had heard if it. One fellow knew enough to outline the arguments for and against, the other knew little about Adani other than “it was bad”.
Scales says the emoji messaging is starting to penetrate elements of the disengaged.
Older voters are latching on, driven by the hubbub around franking credits and negative gearing, but the youngsters are still tuned out.
The main group aged between about 35 and 54 don’t know what to discern from what. To them, it is a cacophony. There is so much being said, they are looking for what matters to them.
Kitchen table economics
This group is key and it will be most receptive to the kitchen table economics at the heart of Labor’s economic pitch.
Labor can never beat the Coalition in a head-to-head match on economic management, just as the Coalition can never best Labor on health and education.
Asked at the Summit about overcoming Labor’s negative perception on economic management, Shorten chose to ignore the question and instead highlight Labor’s unprecedented stability over the past five-and-a-half years.
“There is a hunger for stability that is as intense as any time as I’ve seen,” he said.
“And whatever one thinks about every policy Labor has, no one can fairly say that we are not the stable proposition in Australian politics.
“And the second point I make is that this government is a desperate government.”
Because Labor is ahead in the polls, it does not need to engage in emoji politics as much as the Coalition, Scales says. Its job is to not stuff it up.
The unlosable election
It can lose it from here. Morrison – repeatedly – reminded us this week of the 1991 recession. But other minds were recalling John Hewson losing the unlosable election two years later.
Scales, who was helping with Liberal Party polling at the time, said Hewson was still ahead on the Wednesday before the 1993 election.
Former Liberal MP Warwick Smith made a similar recollection at the Summit, saying that just days out from that election, he was all ready to assume a senior role in government.
If the election is tight, and polls usually tighten, then the incumbent usually holds on. That’s the theory anyway.
The other theory is Shorten picked the inequality zeitgeist long before the Coalition, and the times might just suit him.
In that vein, Shorten flicked the switch to wages this week, including the contentious proposal to replace the minimum wage with a more generous living wage.
‘End of the old economic orthodoxy’
In doing so, he made a rather bold declaration: “We are witness to the end of the old economic orthodoxy, the notion that supply and demand in the labour market is enough to boost wages.”
He said there would be consultation on changes to the wage and that the Fair Work Commission would set the level.
Small and medium business was alarmed given the current ACTU proposal for a living wage, backed by the Greens, would peg the wage at 60 per cent of the median wage and deliver a pay rise of about $200 a week.
So were audience members at the Summit who would have to find a way to pay for mandated pay rises.
But the speech was a hit with others. Those making the coffee and performing other supporting roles told this column they loved the idea of higher wages and were buoyed by Shorten’s speech.
They got the emoji.
Phillip Coorey is The Australian Financial Review’s political editor
from Just News Viral https://justnewsviral.com/rapists-recessions-and-wages-welcome-to-emoji-politics/
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