The high-wire act of planning The Age’s election coverage

There is a nervous, busy energy in the newsroom this week as we plan for two major events to unfold. With Cyclone Alfred due to hit the east coast tomorrow morning, Age staff are working with our Brisbane and Sydney colleagues to keep you across the unfolding situation.

For much of this week and weeks before it, we had also been anticipating another big event: a federal election to be called on Sunday or Monday for April 12. The cyclone may upend Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s plan, forcing him to call the election at a later date, although options are narrowing as it must be held by May 17.

Cyclone Alfred may upend Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s plans to call the election this weekend.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

I have covered enough elections to have had my own best-laid plans upended. On one occasion I was an editor working on the political beat when I headed overseas to celebrate a significant birthday. Little did I know Julia Gillard would be visiting the governor-general to mark the start of the 2010 election − it was a particularly unpredictable time in Australian politics.

While my partner and I had envisaged enjoying carefree espressos in the Roman sunshine, he instead had to hear me lament for days all that I was missing back home. This was the 2010 election, however − and I needn’t have worried. With Labor and the Coalition each winning only 72 seats − four short of a majority − the victor was not declared until two-and-a-half weeks after the poll date, when Gillard secured enough crossbench support to form a minority government. I was back in Australia in plenty of time for the dramatic end.

This year, federal bureau chief Michelle Griffin is overseeing the mammoth task of covering a national election for The Age’s subscribers. I’ll hand over to Michelle to explain how she and her team are preparing to bring you the best election coverage in the country.

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Walking the long corridors of the Parliament House press gallery the past few weeks, you only hear one topic of conversation as you pass by the doors of the bureaus of various media outlets: when’s the next federal election going to be called?

This week we have all been working on the assumption the prime minister would call it this Sunday or Monday, going to the polls on April 12. But with Cyclone Alfred bearing down on Queensland, this now seems much less likely. But not impossible. If it’s delayed, the next most likely date is May 3, after the Easter and Anzac Day long weekends.

Only one man knows for sure, and he won’t tell us in advance. Just because Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he wishes there were four-year terms, doesn’t mean he will surrender the prerogative of choosing the timing of this battle for his political future by broadcasting it in advance.

Preparing for an election takes far more than prewriting a story. Election campaigns are a multi-week effort across The Age with our colleagues at The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times and WAtoday. Our Canberra bureau is supported by work from editors, designers, photographers, videographers, podcasters … newsmakers in every discipline and on every platform, from TikTok to the homepage to the print edition.

It’s a high-wire act, planning an enormous project when we don’t know when it will happen, especially in a business motivated by deadlines and rostered across seven days. But we are ready and more than willing, whenever it happens.

We know we need to tell the story with integrity and energy. We want to cover the campaign, not be captured by it. Our seasoned journalists − such as chief political correspondent David Crowe, national affairs editor James Massola and senior economics correspondent Shane Wright − are as excited as our newest recruits covering a federal election for the first time, but they do have tips to share.

The other day we had a team meeting to talk about life on the campaign bus, a catch-all term for following the leaders across this enormous continent in planes and buses. It’s a daunting job.

The main piece of advice from those who have done this before, apart from remembering to eat breakfast, is to keep our eyes open. Beyond the message of the day, Crowe told us all, there is always something else to see, some other story that needs telling.

I don’t want to preview what we have, but we already have plenty prepared to help guide you through the campaign with a keener understanding of the issues, the people and the strategies in play.

This election comes at a time when the politicians are clamping down on tightly rehearsed soundbites, and the algorithms are hijacking the feeds of your social media apps to send you spiralling through misinformation and confusion.

We know our job is to cut through all that and tell it straight, providing the signal in a sea of campaign noise. Believe me, we know it’s our most important job.