Labor’s Epic Campaign in Longman: Social Market Solutions for the Future?

By Denis Bright

Australia needs a government with a clear plan for the future. Malcolm Turnbull has such a plan and he deserves another term to get on with the business of tackling debt and making Australia an economic powerhouse (from The Brisbane Sunday Mail Editorial 26 June 2016).

With similar endorsement from every major Australian newspaper, the federal LNP expected a huge mandate on 2 July 2016 at last Saturday’s double dissolution election. Such rhetoric is a return to the old market agenda as espoused by every centre-right political leader.

Far from addressing the concerns of individuals, families and communities, the mainstream print media seeks to become a political player in the formation of a more conservative Australian public opinion.

Even without the electoral mandate on 2 July, senior LNP figures still hope to achieve a slender majority in the House of Representatives by staying with Malcolm Turnbull’s Plan for Jobs and Growth through the drift of pre-poll and postal votes.

However, the projected two party national count slightly favoured the Labor Party in the last overall tally from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on election night with a 3.17 percent swing to the ALP on 50.03 per cent of the overall vote.

This result surpassed expectations of the swing to Labor in even the most favourable election eve polls by a 1-2 percent margin. In the potential new Labor heartland electorate of Longman, the final result more than surpasses these expectations.

1 The epic of Longman

At polling booths in marginal seats like Longman which straddles outer northern suburbs of Brisbane as well as bayside and rural areas near Caboolture, voters braved a field of eleven candidates for the House of Representatives.

Confusion might have triumphed without the calming leadership of Susan Lamb’s campaign team.

The last results from the AEC on election night offered the following tentative outcomes:

This 8.4 per cent swing to Labor after election night estimates of preference distributions, demonstrated the capacity of the local ALP campaign to revive its dormant support base after two terms of LNP representation since 2010.

Susan Lamb offered a textbook model of successful political renewal. Challenges came from both sides of the political spectrum.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party achieved almost 9 percent of the primary vote and the Family First Candidate could muster 3.4 per cent.

From the Centre-left, The Greens could mobilise 4.3 percent and the Drug Law Reform Party achieved almost 3 per cent.

Labor’s Susan Lamb could interact with the well funded campaign of the sitting member and assistant minister for technology Wyatt Roy with a well focused and existential appeal to the issues of concern across the electorate.

Such micro political communication agendas in Longman blended with Bill Shorten’s wider campaign focus.

Labor offered a more compassionate variety of social market capitalism that was highly relevant to the growing income divide in Australian society.

These positive political agendas contained no hint of the fear strategies which Malcolm Turnbull claimed to be the hallmark of Labor’s successful national campaign.

Voters in Longman were well aware of the financial pressures placed on local GPs to abandon bulk-billing due to the LNP’s freeze payments to both local clinics and specialists alike.

Private psychiatric clinics with an emphasis on stress related conditions have a very limited distribution in the Longman electorate with its current population of 105,000 voters. Financial incentives may be necessary to improve this situation in Longman where public hospital services strive to cope with demand from this community.

The tensions of both financial and health pressures in Longman were quite apparent when Bill Shorten came along to a town hall meeting at the Caboolture RSL Club on Saturday 25 June, just one week prior to polling.

Bill Shorten was quite empathetic towards the representatives of the Veterans’ Party (Queensland Senate Spot AJ) who attended this event. His responses offered a commitment to more mental health support for post-traumatic shock conditions but these specific initiatives were not just for veterans of Australia’s recent military engagements.

2 Bill Shorten’s strategic responses in Longman

In a very strategic response, Bill Shorten also noted that Labor was committed to more mental health initiatives for both veterans and for the wider population.

In a remarkable show of hands at the meeting, 70-75 per cent of attendees reported that suicide had been a health concern in their wider family and friends’ networks.

Responding to an inquiry from a constituent, a member of Susan Lamb’s campaign team spoke of an alleged threat by one job referral agency to cut off Centrelink benefits to a younger person who had experienced both physical and emotional trauma at a local workplace.

The campaign team member had offered advice about an essential psychiatric assessment to meet the demands being made by the job referral agency.

Ironically in the Longman campaign, advice was first sought from a major trade union to ease the pressure on a younger worker who lost a job after a workplace injury in order to prevent further trauma from the curtailment of Centrelink benefits.

Treasurer Scott Morrison noted in the LNP’s final costing estimates that a further two billion in social security cuts was in the pipeline.

This double dissolution election was called to achieve a mandate for LNP perceptions about excessive trade union power. No mention was made of the fear strategies being promoted in the mainstream press and from within the LNP itself.

In the weeks of political instability ahead, the Longman campaign model will become part of the positive folklore of the contemporary Labor movement.