What an ad library tells us about the state of Queensland politics

In the days following June’s budget, the Queensland government launched a bulk-buy advertising blitz for its many cost-of-living measures.

One of them, still seen across TV, online and social media to this day, touts the 50¢ public transport initiative due to run “for six months” from August 5.

Except, as of almost two weeks ago, what was meant to be a trial was promised to be made permanent by Labor should it win next month’s election – a pledge also matched by the LNP.

Spruiking health data green shoots and hospital upgrades in high-vis at an Ipswich media conference on Monday, Miles himself was none-the-wiser. “I’ll get them to check those ads,” he said.Credit: Matt Dennien

While the formal campaign won’t begin until Tuesday, it’s a perfect illustration of how quickly things can shift between now October 26.

The ad library for social media giant Meta documents the dozens of post-budget, pre-election taxpayer-funded ads touting the current government’s housing plan, renewables push, cut-price car rego, kids sports vouchers and $1000 power rebates. There are also community cabinet registrations and “digital bulletins” outlining “exciting updates”.

(Some of the latter were pinged by Meta for running without the required disclosure for ads about social issues, elections or politics that it was “paid for by [the] Queensland government”.)

While we don’t have a figure for the cost of these government ads, the 104-day campaign to spruik its “Big Build” earlier in the year cost more than $2 million.

The housing plan in particular is being promoted in multiple languages. These ads, and those in legacy media or places like billboards, can run beyond October 1 when caretaker conventions kick-in, but can’t be purchased after then.

From there it’s left to the parties themselves. And that’s where Meta’s library becomes useful for its ability to catalogue the key messages each are paying to push to broad (or highly targeted) parts of the community.

I’ve trawled through that archive to get a picture of what these messages are, and placed those ads run since mid-June by the major and larger minor parties into categories to gauge the campaign’s post-budget advertising tone.

Queensland Labor has largely gone positive, promoting its cost of living measures, with just one attacking the “extremist views” of the LNP’s Oodgeroo candidate, former federal senator and Sky News host Amanda Stoker, and suggesting she will be placed in a Crisafulli cabinet.

It also ran an ad last week promoting its pledge to “double the funding for Queensland’s LGBTQIA+ alliance and events”, along with ads reminding people voting was compulsory and directing them to an online form to request a postal vote via the Labor-run qldvotes.com.au site.

For the LNP, which has for more than a year now been extending its polling lead over the third-term Labor government, several ads have solely promoted the party’s “Making Queensland Safer Plan”, with others highlighting elements of this plan, or the party’s Capalaba candidate Russell Field, while also attacking Labor on youth crime.

A series of ads also promote the party’s candidate for the not-quite-marginal seat of Cook in the far north, while accusing Labor and their MP Cynthia Lui of abandoning the Mossman sugar mill and warning that, “with Labor, the cane industry will be shut down”.

Others promote the LNP’s candidate for the marginal Labor-held seat of Caloundra, while criticising Labor’s record on congestion, and attack Labor’s Transport Minister and marginal Aspley MP Bart Mellish for promising and failing to deliver an upgrade to Gympie Road through his electorate in Brisbane’s north.

The Greens have a series of ads accusing Labor of variously betraying the community by approving new coal mines, selling-off public assets, or prioritising big businesses, banks and landlords over voters, while pointing to policies for a public housing developer and power company, to stop new coal and gas projects, or simply to “make rents and mortgages cheaper and cut your grocery bill”.

Further north, the Katter’s Australian Party have been largely promoting their policies, with fewer than a dozen ads featuring negative sentiment toward “the government” or “the major Brisbane parties”.

Pages for One Nation and Pauline Hanson, now without a state MP, have not paid for ads on Meta during the post-budget period.

(For those, you have to look at key Keppel candidate James Ashby, who has run ads attacking Labor and the LNP over path to treaty and accused Labor’s MP Brittany Lauga, also in a marginal seat, of focusing on “stolen land and treaty legislation” before “stolen cars and stopping juvenile crime”.)

This is not to mention the regular posts by parties, MPs and candidates, various spin-offs and third-party groups running ads, on Meta and beyond, or contributing cash or other help the parties’ campaign efforts, where the negative attacks things often get much more personal.

But spruiking health data green shoots and hospital upgrades in high-vis at an Ipswich media conference on Monday, Miles himself was none-the-wiser about the outdated 50¢ fare messages.

“I’ll get them to check those ads,” he said. Whether others may also be rendered out-of-date for lacking mention of rent caps reportedly being looked at by Labor, Miles declined to rule things in or out.

“Because then you might just move on to the next thing and the next thing, and before you know it, we wouldn’t have any announcements to make.”

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