Labor Party’s positive campaign helped offset Liberals’ attacks to win Victorian election

From securing the multicultural vote to spreading a positive message, the Victorian ALP cranked its campaign crusade up a notch with stunning results. This is how the party steamrolled to victory.

The Victorian ALP assembled its biggest team to run a state election campaign, with its “Labor machine” cranking up a notch and steamrollering the Opposition.

Some of the techniques it used to secure victory included tailoring messages and how-to-vote videos to different ethnic communities across Melbourne in a bid to mobilise more voters.

The loss of the federal seat of Chisholm to the Liberals was a wake-up call about the power of Asian social media and phone operations that match the ethnicity of callers to voters.

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Labor supporters celebrate at Labor's election headquarters in Mulgrave. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

More broadly, 120 staff ran the Labor campaign machine, which directed volunteers who reached 500,000 people by phone or in person in target seats.

One Labor strategist said micro-targeting of advertisements was important, and positive campaign material helped offset Opposition attacks.

“It’s the culmination of four years’ work. The field campaign was twice as big,” the strategist said.

Having a long list of completed projects and action helped sell the message, and Labor MPs credited level crossing removals and school building for helping their win.

“People were coming through on the booths saying ‘at least you guys get stuff done’,” one MP said.

Labor figures believe the Liberal Party campaign on socially conservative issues in Melbourne’s southeast did not cut through, and may have hurt it in socially progressive Liberal seats.

Glen Waverley’s multicultural community could have been key to Labor’s win. Picture: Valeriu Campan

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Large ethnic groups, including Africans, Chinese and Indians, were targeted by Labor with material developed by members of those communities.

Some party figures believe Chinese voters deserted the Liberals in Box Hill and Mount Waverley, while a strong African vote may have helped Planning Minister Richard Wynne in Richmond.

Labor also pumped out “how to vote” videos in all major languages, after noticing a high informal vote that could be swung its way.

Another Labor source said Chinese voters objected to the Coalition’s opposition to the Belt and Road deal the Premier signed with Beijing.

Labor exploited that with hard-hitting messages on WeChat — a Chinese-language social media.

Another senior Labor MP said infrastructure projects and the promised suburban rail loop plan were big factors in its eastern suburb rise.

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