Nic Hayes: Voters need to prepare for an election campaign frenzy

With a flurry of activity in Canberra in an extraordinary final sitting week of the year the Albanese Government achieved almost all its legislative agenda and cleared the decks for an election early next year.

While many of us will be looking forward to a breather over the festive season, you can guarantee there’ll be little downtime for the major parties whose campaign teams will be preparing to unleash a barrage of political advertising on an unsuspecting Australian electorate.

Think tanks, focus groups and campaign committees across the country will be burning the midnight oil in an attempt to come up with a winning strategy.

It’s likely the next Federal Liberal campaign will borrow heavily from the tried-and-tested strategy of attacking the person (the Prime Minister) and largely avoid policy.

After a brutal year where the cost of living and a never-ending housing crisis dominated the news cycle, there’s a sense that middle Australia is not in the best of moods, which does not bode well for the Federal Government.

There is a sense and even an odour emanating from Canberra that the Government doesn’t have the answers to the most pressing questions people are asking. Cost of Living? Housing? Immigration? Environment? Hello?

Opinion polls, if they are to be believed, indicate support for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has majorly faltered, with Peter Dutton now almost level pegging with voters as preferred prime minister.

Is it possible that Albanese has made previously unelectable Dutton a potential prime minister?

Could Albo be the first Prime Minister since World War II to be rolled from office after serving just one term?

Albanese’s recent purchase of a $4.3 million cliffside mansion during a cost-of-living crisis has been described as his “Scott Morrison Hawaii moment” — which he has refuted — but a four-year communications and PR graduate could have told the PM that the purchase of a beach-side property was not going to be well received by voters.

There will be a few nervous members of the Labor caucus who are feeling the heat. How is it that a first-term Government that should still be experiencing at least the afterglow of a honeymoon period be so on the nose?

The recent State election in Queensland shouldn’t be taken as a true indicator of the dissatisfaction that Australians are feeling towards the Albanese Government.

The Queensland Labor government had just done their time and change was inevitable. That said, the result will have given the Coalition parties an extra spring in their step.

The WA election is set for March 8, 2025, and the Cook Government’s concern about becoming collateral damage from an early Federal election is real. There will be swing against the WA Government — not enough to change the government — but perhaps enough to give embattled Liberal Party leader Libby Mettam a firmer grip on the leadership and a few more seats in Parliament.

Premier Roger Cook has not necessarily done a bad job, but he does not have the same clout or political environment that Mark McGowan enjoyed when he won the 2021 State election in a landslide.

At best the Albanese Government will be looking to form government with help from the Greens.

While Anthony Albanese might be basking in the afterglow of passing 31 pieces of legislation in a frenetic final day of deal making with the Greens, he’s now got a mountain to climb to convince Australian voters he’s done enough in his first term to deserve their vote next year.

Now feels a bit like the calm before the storm, and my advice to all weary Australian voters, enjoy your Christmas and New Year celebrations because it is going to be a hell of a start to 2025.

Nic Hayes is Managing Director of Media Stable