Unions trade in door-knock days for family weekend poll pitches to parents

Unions are deploying teachers and nurses to sporting grounds, swimming pools and farmers’ markets to oppose Peter Dutton.

Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Luke Hilakari says voters are moving back to Labor. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicki Connolly

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Unions in Victoria are deploying teachers and nurses to sporting grounds, swimming pools and supermarkets at weekends to try to persuade parents to put the Liberals last on May 3.

In a tactical shift from past campaigns, union volunteers are engaging in less door knocking of households in favour of turning up at local sporting events, shopping centres and farmers markets to pitch at parents that Peter Dutton will not ease their cost-of-living pressures but worsen them if the Coalition were to be elected.

Hundreds of union activists were at weekend sporting events and shopping centres in the marginal seat of Aston on Saturday, a seat regarded at this stage by union strategists as the most vulnerable in the cluster of federal Victorian marginals up for grabs at this ­election.

Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Luke Hilakari said the tactical switch followed ACTU research that “identified that one of the key groups of voters that is persuadable at this election are parents”, as they faced extra cost-of-living pressures because of having children.

Union volunteers in Aston handed out hot cross buns and Easter eggs to families, while teachers and nurses, with their “lived experience” of education and health, were deployed to have conversations with voters.

Mr Hilakari said unions were highlighting Peter Dutton’s promise to cut 41,000 public servants, his vow to force government employees working from home to return to the office, and the Coalition’s proposed abolition of the right to disconnect from work after hours.

“On one level, Peter Dutton doesn’t want us working from home but on another level he wants us to be contactable all hours by removing the right to disconnect,” he said.

“Working from home isn’t a privilege that every Australian worker has but those who have it, particularly parents, have worked out how much easier it is to manage their life.

“I think they think that the public doesn’t like people sitting behind a desk in Canberra but that’s not just what they do. These are people who plan our services and when you look at all the agencies, they are all our frontline workers as well.

“I don’t know which 41,000 people he thinks he is cutting but it sounds like it could be a member of your family unless he wants to start specifying who is going to lose their job.”

Mr Hilakari said the government remained vulnerable to voter concern about the cost of living. Union volunteers were not telling people to vote Labor but to “put Dutton last”.

He said he believed the community mood towards Labor in Victorian marginal seats had picked up in recent months, and inflation stabilising, the interest rate cut and the federal budget measures, including a modest tax cut, had improved Labor’s standing.

“People say it’s only $5 a week but when you add it all together, Labor is starting to tell a story. I’m feeling pretty good about holding seats in Victoria. Dutton should be very nervous about Victoria right now. He was never popular here to start with, and I think it’s just getting worse for him.”

Unions are using social media to push comparisons between the federal Coalition and Donald Trump, claiming they both represent unwanted chaos.

They are also accusing Mr Dutton of being captive to big business, highlighting his relationship with Gina Rinehart.

“If you asked me in December or January, what would be the likely outcome, I’d have thought Labor might see a minority government. I feel stronger than that right now. I think after the conversations (in Aston) yesterday, Labor is on track to come back,” Mr Hil­akari said.

“History tells us that’s the most likely outcome. You don’t really see many one-term prime ministers. I think Anthony Albanese’s, Albo’s, on track to come back. I think the Liberal Party are going to find themselves in a world of pain.

“They are too negative, there’s a bit of chaos in the world. I think Albo is talking about the cost of living, which is what people want to talk about, and is producing solutions for it. I think the Liberal Party looks a bit chaotic, lost, and too much like Trump.”