The architect of Labor’s election victory says Anthony Albanese’s government must methodically work on its agenda, despite a larger than expected majority and political upheaval within the now former Coalition and the Greens.
Labor’s national secretary and campaign director, Paul Erickson, 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 on from his landslide 3 May re-election, Erickson said the Liberals and Nationals would continue to lose unless they learned the lessons given by voters, including on climate.
Labor is on track to hold more than 90 seats in the House of Representatives, despite predictions Albanese would slip into minority. 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.
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He chided the Liberals for mishandling policy announcements, including on work-from-home rules for public servants and on housing affordability, singling out housing spokesperson, 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 reflect on their loss, including it’s stance on 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.