Robocall blunder as SA Liberals apologise for AM, PM mix up
Were you woken in the early hours of the morning by a robocall? Turns out the Liberal Party was behind the embarrassing bungle. Here’s what happened.
Bleary-eyed South Australians have been woken by an embarrassing Liberal Party robocall bungle, which is expected to result in someone getting “a boot” up the backside.
SA Liberal state director Sascha Meldrum has confirmed that automated calls intended to go out on Tuesday night instead went out between 6.15am and 7.15am Wednesday.
Treasurer Rob Lucas on Wednesday morning said he wasn’t certain of the details of the bungle, but believed an AM setting had been wrongly used instead of one for PM.
In a statement, Ms Meldrum apologised for the blunder.
“The SA Liberal Party apologises for some early morning telephone surveys that went out in error this morning,” she said on Wednesday.
“Calls were made across a number of suburbs which were scheduled to go out last night, but due to a technical error went out between 6:15am and 7:15am this morning.
“I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience or annoyance caused by these early morning survey calls to households.”
Shortly before the statement was issued, Mr Lucas held a press conference on water prices.
He said no taxpayer or State Government money was spent on the calls.
“I suspect they have been done by the (Liberal) party organisation,” Mr Lucas said.
“Without knowing, I suspect that someone’s backside is going to get a boot.
“I suspect someone has pressed the button for … 6am instead of 6pm.”
Mr Lucas said the party organisation did polling on a regular basis.
“Obviously it was a blunder, a mistake,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened.
“No sensible person would be commissioning polling or robocalling at 6am in the morning.
“It’s only guaranteed to irritate people.”