Editor’s view: Labor’s social media pile-on just plain sad

These tactics undermine the credibility of the Premier, who has spent the past 10 months trying to prove to voters that he is less another politician and more an everyday suburban dad, writes The Editor.

Queensland Labor has setup an Instagram page called MilesHQ to attack LNP leader David Crisafulli in the lead-up to this years State Election Picture Instagram MilesHQ

• ‘Lies’ to go unpunished

A loophole in our state’s electoral laws means that outside the formal election campaign there are no demands for truth in advertising – and there are no penalties for lying, other than if it is defamatory.

The failure by both sides to deal with this loophole via legislation opens the door to the sort of puerile – and misleading – pre-campaign campaigning that a desperate state Labor Party headquarters is now shamelessly engaging in, all under the cover of online LOLs.

These tactics are not only wrong. They also undermine the personal credibility of Premier Steven Miles, who has spent the past 10 months trying to prove to voters that he is less another ambitious politician and more an everyday suburban dad who loves his kids and wife, and relaxes with me-time at the gym.

The Premier Steven Miles. Picture: Steve Pohlner

In July, the LNP also fell foul of the standards voters would expect by publishing a faked 14-second video of Mr Miles dancing (which, to their credit, they acknowledged was AI-generated). The Premier said his LNP opponent David Crisafulli’s response to that fake video would be a test of character for the would-be premier.

“In a time when misinformation is everywhere, we as politicians have a duty to communicate with our audiences and to voters clearly and honestly,” Mr Miles said of the LNP’s TikTok attack on him.

But fast-forward three months and with his own party caught out creating and distributing on social media the same type of content – posts that include a series of blatant lies and bullying, of Mr Crisafulli –and the Premier (who is of course the leader of the Labor Party) yesterday bizarrely responded by saying that an explanation was not his problem, but a “matter for the Labor Party”.

Queensland Labor has setup an Instagram page called MilesHQ to attack LNP leader David Crisafulli in the lead-up to this years State Election Picture Instagram MilesHQ

The TikToks and Instagram reels created and published by the Labor Party are in themselves ridiculous.

But with the election campaign to kick off formally next week, it was an important matter for Mr Miles to respond to – to set the tone for what should be a hard-fought battle, but one that must not descend into a desperate free-for-all cage-fight.

Surely the voters of Queensland deserve a contest of ideas rather than an ugly race to the bottom?

Sadly, we will not be holding our breath. The same Premier who has made much in recent months boldly warning of the dangers of online bullying did a literal Pontius Pilate yesterday – washing his hands of the matter when the Labor toga was lifted and party operatives were exposed as online liars and bullies.

Among the social media posts that Labor state secretary Kate Flanders proudly defended as “creative, fun and humorous” was one that labelled former premier Campbell Newman as “the devil”.

Queensland Labor has setup an Instagram page called MilesHQ to attack LNP leader David Crisafulli and his connection to Campbell Newman in the lead-up to this years State Election Picture Instagram MilesHQ

Another post pokes fun of vision of Mr Crisafulli relaxing on a lounge to record a podcast – republishing a series of comments from other social media users that taunt him about his height. That post also specifically suggests a link between the way Mr Crisafulli is sitting and online claims that US Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance once attempted to have sex with a couch. Highbrow stuff.

Then there are a series of posts relating to revelations that Mr Crisafulli – who represents a Gold Coast electorate – is renovating a house in inner-suburban Brisbane. One of them purports to show him taking viewers on a tour of the home, but then shows images of a luxurious mansion that is not his. In other words, they published a lie.

Then there is a post that likens Mr Crisafulli to Donald Trump, while another claims he has the equivalent brain to a seal swimming in circles. And it goes on and on.

It is, as we say, puerile stuff. And as we report today, all of this is – technically – totally legal, because the formal election period does not begin until next Tuesday. It is only when that clock starts ticking that it becomes an offence to “knowingly publish a false statement of fact regarding the personal character of conduct of the candidate”. Until then, anything goes. How sad.

Originally published as Editor’s view: Labor’s social media pile-on just plain sad