Labor’s attack ad expert opens fire again

Advertising expert Dee Madigan is working on the campaign to elect Anthony Albanese, suggesting the strategy will be heavily based on negatives as well as ongoing polishing of his image.

Advertising expert Dee Madigan is working on the campaign to elect Anthony Albanese.

A federal Labor election expert is under fire over her role in the South Australian ALP’s bid for power, engineering attack ads on ambulance resourcing in an exercise closely mirroring the strategy that helped Daniel Andrews win in Victoria in 2014.

Advertising expert Dee Madigan is working on the campaign to elect Anthony Albanese, suggesting the strategy will be heavily based on negatives as well as ongoing polishing of his image.

She has been an adviser to South Australia’s Ambulance ­Employees Association, which is working in tandem with the Labor Party to highlight chronic issues with ramping, personnel shortages and inadequate infrastructure.

Ms Madigan’s company, Campaign Edge, has advised several unions on advertising campaigns, including the militant United Firefighters Union in Victoria and the shop assistants’ union.

Ms Madigan was engaged to advise the AEA ahead of the March 19 state election on commercials, social media content and a website with one advertisement so confronting that radio listeners called in to complain.

“My take is that it is a hot issue,” Ms Madigan said when asked about her role in the ambulance issue in South Australia.

A frequent contributor on the ABC, she would not talk about the SA campaign details until the election was over.

Part of the ambulance campaign had been to write on its vehicles in liquid chalk, protesting the state of the industry.

This tactic was first used to great effect in Victoria several years ago, although the South Australian government has tried to block the move.

Victorian Labor believes that the ambulance campaign was crucial to undermining the then Liberal government in Victoria in 2014, with ambulances across Melbourne carrying slogans for more pay and more resources.

Ramping is when patients are brought to emergency departments by ambulance and face ­delays in admission and treatment. The issue has been central to the debate over health in the South Australian election campaign.

Labor has promised to provide 350 extra paramedics and ambulance officers, to build a major new building for the service and to pay for dozens of more ambulances.

Ms Madigan has a high profile in the media, especially via the ABC program Gruen, which ­examines the advertising industry among other things. She also acts as an industry expert on commercial media.

South Australian Treasurer Rob Lucas said Ms Madigan had been a driving force behind the AEA attack campaign.

“The campaign just seems to be a mirror image of what goes on in Victoria,” he said. “There is no doubt she (Ms Madigan) is in it up to her neck.”

He also said t some of the claims by the union had been false or misleading. This had included claims of an $11m cut to the budget when, in fact, it had increased when viewed across the forward estimates.