Campaigning in the 2004 federal election

Campaigning in the 2004 federal election: innovations and traditions
Research Note no. 30 2004–05

Dr Sarah Miskin
Politics and Public Administration Section
8 February 2005

Australia’s political parties proved they were not too set in their ways to learn a few new tricks—or at least a few new campaign techniques—for the 2004 federal election on 9 October 2004. With opinion polls predicting a tight race and political commentators alleging that there were large numbers of undecided voters who were open to persuasion, the parties could not afford to be complacent about their strategies to attract voters. In response to the challenge, they added several innovative measures to their traditional voter-wooing methods. As a result, voters accustomed to facing a barrage of political messages delivered via the mainstream media and the letterbox found they had to deflect a new onslaught delivered via the telephone and the Internet.

This Research Note reviews some of the innovative techniques of the 2004 election, including tele-marketing, e-mail spam and Internet campaigning, as well as some of the traditional techniques, including mass-media advertising and direct mail.

[ I think I've seen a PDF version somewhere on the site ]