Election 2025: Empty your pockets to avoid 2019 repeat, ALP president tells party faithful

Wayne Swan has urged Labor faithful to chip in to help avoid a repeat of 2019’s election defeat, warning that ‘conservatives’ were using the same ‘playbook’ that thwarted Bill Shorten.

ALP national president Wayne Swan at an April party event in Brisbane. Picture: Jason Edwards/NewsWire

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ALP national president Wayne Swan has urged the Labor faithful to chip in what they could “afford” to help avoid a repeat of 2019’s shock election defeat, warning party members that “conservatives” were “rolling out the same deadly playbook” that thwarted Bill Shorten.

It comes after consistent national polls pointed to Labor’s two-party preferred share hovering around 52 per cent, suggesting a likely re-elected Albanese government, either in minority or with a small majority.

Amid a solid campaign from Anthony Albanese and a host of policy U-turns by Peter Dutton, Labor strategists told The Australian earlier this month that a small majority could be on the cards, but the Coalition believe that – although perhaps not paving a route to power – it will likely snare some suburban seats on strong preference flows, meaning the eventual result could be closer than that suggested by recent polling.

In a Wednesday fundraising call sent by the party to members, Mr Swan reiterated how the ALP’s 2019 campaign stumbled at the final hurdle, pointing also to the ultimately doomed campaigns of the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget what I felt like on election night in 2019,” Mr Swan wrote to members.

“As the results rolled in around Australia, it was like getting punched in the gut.

“The polling was wrong. All the pundits were wrong. And then Scott Morrison was up on stage, smirking about miracles.”

In 2019, Mr Morrison and the Coalition defied consistent national polls pointing to a Labor victory to claim a one-seat majority after a surprise two-party-preferred swing toward it of about 1 per cent.

Mr Swan said he “never wanted to feel like that ever again”, adding that the “most dangerous period” for Labor would be in the final few days before Saturday’s poll.

“This is where scare campaigns thrive,” he said.

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten. Picture: Martin Ollman

Former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison. Picture: AAP

“And just like 2019, conservatives and the far right are rolling out the same deadly playbook.”

Urging members to donate between $5 and $150 to “push back” against the “far-right disinformation campaign”, Mr Swan said the last few days had echoed the tactics and “lies” used by the Coalition against then-Labor leader Mr Shorten.

“And it worked… They’re doing the same thing now,” he said, pointing the finger at Peter Dutton, Clive Palmer and political group Advance Australia.

“We thought Hillary was going to win in 2016. We were wrong.

“None of us will be able to forgive ourselves if we lose this election because we got complacent. If we wake up feeling sick again, staring down three years of Peter Dutton.”

The most recent Newspoll, published on Sunday in The Australian, recorded no shift in the two major parties’ primary vote, compared with its previous poll, and Labor’s 52 per cent two-party preferred besting the Coalition’s 48 per cent.

The Prime Minister’s campaign has avoided a host of policy reversals and gaffes that have blighted the Opposition Leader and Labor’s camp is cautiously confident of not only a re-election but also that a route exists to a small majority on May 3.

Mr Albanese, however, has drawn criticism over the government’s handling of possible Russian jets being based in Indonesia and, on Wednesday, Labor rushed to quash reports it would look to resurrect a “secret” voice to parliament after Penny Wong on Tuesday declared it “inevitable”.

The Coalition this week have ramped up campaigning in teal-held inner-city seats, but also Labor-held suburban electorates it hopes to flip, like a flying visit to the seat of Whitlam in NSW’s south.

Mr Albanese campaigned in Fowler on Tuesday looking to dislodge independent incumbent Dai Le in one of the few southwest Sydney seats the party doesn’t hold with neighbouring Werriwa the most at-risk ALP division of that geographical area amid a Liberal onslaught.