Advertising guru Dee Madigan the architect of Labor scare campaign

Queensland Labor has used analysis by a firm linked to ALP advertising guru Dee Madigan to run attack ads on LNP.

Labor adviser Dee Madigan

Queensland Labor has used econo­mic analysis by a Melbourne firm, linked to Labor’s advertising guru Dee Madigan, to run attack ads accusing the Liberal National Party of planning to cut thousands of public servants’ jobs.

A discussion paper, authored by “progressive think tank” Per Capita, alleged the LNP could not meet its campaign promise to ­return the state budget to surplus in four years unless it shed 29,500 jobs in its first year of government.

Ms Madigan is a board member of Per Capita and is overseeing Labor’s advertising in the campaign ahead of Saturday’s election.

The paper, co-authored by Shirley Jackson — who ran this month as a Labor candidate in a Victorian council election — and commissioned by the public sector’s Together Union, was report­ed exclusively by the ABC on October 16.

After the story ran on radio and online, Labor launched attack ads citing the ABC news report, which failed to mention Mr Jackson’s then ALP candidacy in the council elections or the think tank’s connections to Ms Madigan.

One of Labor’s social media posts, released in the following days and backed up by similar television commercials still being aired, carried the headline “Cutting 30,000 jobs’’.

“Report finds public sector job and spending cuts are the LNP’s only option to balance budget in four years,’’ the Labor advertisements said, carrying the ABC logo.

“(Opposition Leader) Deb Frecklington thinks it’s a good idea to rush to surplus in just 4 years cutting 30,000 jobs.’’

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick has also repeatedly echoed­ Labor’s attack ad — and the figure of the 30,000 job losses — on the campaign.

Labor’s re-election campaign follows a similar strategy to that used in 2015 by then opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk, ­focusing on the 14,000 public sector­ job cuts under former premier Campbell Newman, which led to his ousting after just one term.

Ms Frecklington and her Treasury spokesman Tim Mander have repeatedly denied they will need to cut public sector jobs under their plan to return the state to an operating surplus.

Campaigning in north Queensland on Tuesday, the Opposition Leader was asked again about whether an LNP government would need to cut public sector jobs to meet its target to return to an operating surplus within four years. “There will be no forced redundancies, there will be no asset sales,’’ she said.

Ms Frecklington — who faces off against Labor Premier Ms Palaszczuk on Wednesday afternoon on Sky in the first of two debates — said the LNP would detail how it return to budget on Thursday.

“We will be releasing our costings on Thursday and we have the best economic plan to get Queensland working again,’’ she said.

In a statement, Mr Mander said Labor’s claims of mass job public sector cuts under an LNP government was similar to the 2016 “Medi­scare” campaign that claimed the then Coalition federal government was planning to privatise Medicare.

“Labor’s scare campaign about the LNP is as baseless as Mediscare,’’ Mr Mander said.

“It is not surprising, given Cameron Dick’s inability to deliver a budget before the election, that he has it make the numbers up.

“Labor should be hiring real economists, not advertising hacks, to develop policy. ’’

Ms Madigan is a veteran of Labor’s campaigns at state and federal level, and is a regular panel­list on ABC television show Gruen, which looks at the advertising industry.

Releasing Labor’s costings on Monday, Mr Dick said the LNP’s “reckless pursuit” of a budget surplus, and a refusal to borrow more, meant job cuts. “The LNP will need to put 30,000 Queenslanders out of a job to fund their election commitments and to deliver a surplus within four years,’’ he said.

A spokesman for Mr Dick initial­ly cited on Tuesday the “Per Capita report” as informing the claim of 30,000 job cuts.

Later, Mr Dick’s office said the figure — which on Tuesday had been elevated to 32,000 — was calculated by dividing the average cost of a public servant into Labor’s estimate of the LNP cost of its campaign promises.

An LNP spokesman said Labor’s estimate of its campaign promises had been invented.