Sunshine Coast mayor candidate Michael Burgess backs social media strategy
A Sunshine Coast mayoral candidate has defended his use of social media community pages to promote his election campaign and the election watchdog has its say on the practice.
Sunshine Coast
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A Sunshine Coast mayoral candidate who has been labelled a keyboard warrior has defended his use of social media community pages he owns to promote his election campaign.
Parrearra resident Michael Burgess is one of six candidates vying to become mayor of the Sunshine Coast Council in the election to be held on March 16.
Mr Burgess is the only candidate who has previously run for the top job, collecting just more than 10 per cent of the vote in the 2020 local government election.
He has largely ran his campaign online on social media, referring to himself as a “nonpolluting candidate” for his decision to avoid the use of billboards and corflute signs.
“I’ve been called a keyboard warrior or social media critic,” Mr Burgess said.
“If you don’t have a great deal of access to traditional media, social media gives you the exposure to some degree that you need as a citizen to put your case forward as to what is happening in your community.
“I’ve done that for about eight years and as I say I’ve been pretty active.”
As part of his social media strategy to communicate to the masses, Mr Burgess has used several community-based pages that he manages on Facebook to promote his mayoral campaign including Sunshine Coast Buy, Swap, and Sell, Caloundra Community Board, Marketplace Sunshine Coast, and Sunshine Coast Oversight.
On the Caloundra Community Board page that he is an administrator of, which boasts more than 28,000 members, Mr Burgess has received criticism for changing the banner photo of the group to promote his mayoral campaign, as well as tagging everyone in the group in comments he has made in posts within the group.
“This is way, way, way too pushy, give us a break with all of this. You go way too hard. It’s off putting,” Mell B-Margetts commented.
“You sound like Trump stop sending me s--t,” Jason Kenesey said.
While he has received criticism for the banner strategy, an Electoral Commission of Queensland spokesman said this type of advertising was not prohibited.
“There are no provisions in the Local Government Electoral Act 2011 which prohibit this type of advertising,” the spokesman said.
“The ECQ’s remit only extends to ensuring the advertisements are authorised, which these advertisements appear to be.”
Mr Burgess is not the first candidate to come under fire for their social media strategy this election, with Cr Jason O’Pray criticised for re-purposing a community events page on Facebook that he started in 2013 called ‘Sunshine Coast Events’ to promote his mayoral candidacy, before quickly deleting the page and using his existing councillor page for his election campaign.
Mr Burgess defended his use of Facebook community groups he founded for purposes to serve the community to advertise his election campaign.
“All the pages that I have used for my media, I’ve put all the work into it, thousands of hours into developing those pages,” he said.
“I don’t see using them as my advertising is any worse than any media such as the Daily using their media to advertise something they might be promoting.
“I don’t think anyone can say that, we haven’t earned the right to put our banner on the top of the pages.”
Mr Burgess also justified responding to comment sections on social media posts during the campaign.
“I just think it’s an open forum that we should appreciate, rather than saying, people are keyboard warriors, because if you’re offered no other option, what’s wrong with being a keyboard warrior?” he said.
“I’ve never restricted anyone from coming back and having their say about what I say.
“If you can’t criticise elsewhere, why not be a social media critic?”
Mr Burgess said he was at a disadvantage to candidates who had spent and received donations during the campaign.
“It’s been difficult because there has been a lot of money put into it,” he said.
“There has been a lot of money put into it and, which puts me at a great disadvantage, but that’s just how politics and freedom works.”
The 2024 local government election will take place on Saturday, March 16.
Everything you need to know about the election can be found here.
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