Labor desperately resorting to negativity, fear and lies

From the Coalition’s campaign headquarters comes a catalogue of the ways Labor can be expected to desperately hit the electorate with negativity, fear and lies today. And from Melbourne, comes an example of how the ABC plays along.

In just one doorstop interview in Gosford this morning, the Coalition noted Julia Gillard using the following scripted, negative lines:

“Work Choices” – 30 times
“risk” – 20 times
“grocery tax” – 12 times

In a media release, the Coalition says other tried and true techniques practised by Labor that we can expect to see more of over the remainder of the campaign are:

• Lies: simply assert something about your opponent’s policies, or costings, without any basis in fact;
• Fake polling: Release “secret internal polling” in an effort to drive the media agenda;
• “Friday dumps”: Untrue “news” stories dropped into marginal seats on the day before the poll;
• Endless negativity: Claim you’re being positive but all you do is attack your opponent;
• Scare campaigns: Make up things about your opponent and his policies;
• Personal attacks: Relentlessly repeat that your opponent is a “risk”.

Melbourne ABC radio news was happy to run Labor’s lines this morning.

The 11.00 am 774 ABC Melbourne news bulletin reported that “the latest opinion poll had prompted Julia Gillard to repeat her warning about the consequences of electing a Coalition government”. Not that Labor was panicking. Not that Labor was stepping up its fear campaign. Nor did the news report make clear, as a balanced report would have done, that the PM’s “warning” was about alleged consequences.

Voters dislike hubris in a politician and any idea that their vote is being taken for granted. The same ABC bulletin reported:

Tony Abbott says he’s feeling increasingly confident about the Coalition’s chances tomorrow. He’s told Macquarie radio that he understands why voters in areas like western Sydney are cynical about Labor.

To support its assertion about Abbott’s supposed brimming confidence, the ABC ran this grab from his interview in Sydney this morning with Alan Jones on Macquarie’s 2GB:

I’m saying that they’ve been conned by the Labor Party. They’ve been conned by State Labor. They’ve been conned by Federal Labor and the only way to send a clear message to Labor is to change the Government and that means you’ve got to change your local Labor member of parliament.

Australian Conservative checked the transcript of the Jones-Abbott interview. If Tony Abbott was expressing “increasing confidence” this morning, he didn’t do it in his intertview with Alan Jones. The transcript contained no suggestion by the Opposition Leader that he is “feeling increasingly confident” as the ABC implied.

The grab from the Jones interview that the ABC used in conjunction with its assertion was a comment Abbott made in relation to Labor infrastructure promises for western Sydney. Here’s the quote in context:

ALAN JONES:

I had an email yesterday which said this. ‘The NBN, wow. I’ll be able to download movies in seconds. But I’m still driving in bumper to bumper traffic for nearly two hours each way to and from work. It’s not rocket science where the money is best spent.’ This person was from western Sydney. Now, on two occasions successive Premiers in this state went to Canberra, Morris Iemma went to Canberra when he wanted to privatise, partially privatise electricity, about $15 billion it was worth then. He wanted to use that money to provide infrastructure for western Sydney. He couldn’t get anyone to take his calls and in the end the people that knifed Kevin Rudd knifed him. We then had Nathan Rees, sat where you’re sitting now to tell me that he had a 500 page infrastructure submission that he was taking to Canberra to address the infrastructure issues in western Sydney. He got to Canberra, he couldn’t even get access, couldn’t even get through the door. Now, these same people, the same Party, the same Government who denied Morris Iemma and denied Nathan Rees are now appealing for votes tomorrow in western Sydney. What are you saying to those people out there in western Sydney?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I’m saying that they’ve been conned by the Labor Party. They’ve been conned by State Labor. They’ve been conned by Federal Labor and the only way to send a clear message to Labor is to change the Government and that means you’ve got to change your local Labor member of parliament. Now, you’re dead right, Alan. I don’t know whether there was a problem with the submission. I don’t know whether there was some issue between the Federal Labor Party and the State Labor Party. But one way or another New South Wales does seem to have been dudded in Canberra’s allocation of infrastructure money. Then, of course, in an absolute flat panic a couple of weeks ago the Federal Government suddenly allocates $2.1 billion to a railway line that 10 days ago hadn’t even been on the 10 year horizon of the State Government’s plans. This was a railway line that the federal Department of Infrastructure didn’t know anything about, Infrastructure Australia didn’t know anything about. But in panic the Government says we’re going to spend this money. Well, this is no way to run a government. It’s no way to treat the country and one of the things that we will do is empower Infrastructure Australia to have a 15 year rolling infrastructure plan. All of the projects that are assessed by Infrastructure Australia and priorities by Infrastructure Australia will have a clear public cost benefit analysis so we will all know which projects most stack up and maybe from time to time the government might say well for national interest reasons we’re going to pick project x, but at least at any one time there will be a clear priority list of our infrastructure spending.

The Coalition points out that in contrast to Julia Gillard’s increasing desperation and negativity, for the remaining hours of the campaign Tony Abbott will spread his positive message:

“We will end the waste, pay back the debt, stop the new taxes, stop the boats, and help families.”