CAMERON MILNER: Political campaign catchphrases reveal plenty about a party’s ambitions

Political campaign slogans tell you a lot about what the party strategists really think voters want to hear. They’re shorts catchphrase to encapsulate the argument for election or re-election.

Slogans can also belie a party’s political fears and paranoias, such as Albanese’s newly minted “Building Australia’s Future”.

You’d think an incumbent might prefer to rely on running on their record. Maybe promising continuity of successful government with a Morris Iemma style “More to do but we’re heading in the right direction”.

None of that would’ve tested well in the private polling or focus groups given the depth of despair and antipathy towards Albanese’s record in office.

Imagine if Albo had the electoral presence that allowed Richard Nixon to secure a landslide re-election with the simple slogans of “Nixon is the one” and “Now, more than ever”.

Imagine if the Labor campaign in 2025 could lead with “Albo is the one” and on Labor’s record of delivery. That they can’t and won’t speaks volumes about where the ALP knows they are really at with voters.

Labor’s slogan is reminiscent of Bill Clinton using Fleetwood Mac’s baby boomer anthem Don’t Stop as the soundtrack to his 1992 presidential campaign. Perhaps Labor’s campaign launch can use D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better a la UK Labour and Tony Blair in 1997.

The difference is that those songs were all used by challengers; opposition candidates taking on failing incumbents.

In 2022, running against a deeply unpopular Scott Morrison, Albanese used the slogan “For a better future”, which neatly summed up the mood of voters.

Having been elected on a small target strategy and delivering even less than they promised, it takes a special level of tone deafness to talk about building anything, but such is the ALP’s desire to run a “nothing to see, move along now please” style of campaign.

Voters are living through the worst cost-of-living crisis in memory. Interest rates show absolutely no sign of easing and incumbent governments around the world are copping it in the neck from angry voters.

Peter Dutton’s slogan is straight out of the research. Pollsters have been asking questions about where Australia is heading under Albanese for some time and the numbers sure aren’t pretty.

Thus, Dutton’s current working title is “Australia: back on track”.

The Liberals have had their own train wreck attempts at campaign slogans, none more infamous than Andrew Peacock’s “The answer is Liberal”. Bob Hawke shot it to pieces with the pithy response: “If the answer is Liberal it must’ve been a stupid question”.

There’s also the self-deprecating variety like that of Queensland Nationals senator Ron Boswell, who was no oil painting, and ran under “Not pretty, but pretty effective”.

Perhaps Albanese could look to the US or UK for campaign slogan inspiration.

He could channel Obama’s single word of “Hope” but no doubt voters would add the “less”.

Obama used an equally simple re-election slogan in 2012. He used the one word “Forward” but maybe that’s too close to voters’ view of life under Albanese as “Backwards”.

Maybe Whitlam’s famous “It’s time” could be reprised if voters didn’t think “Time’s up” for this Government.

He could use UK Labour’s “For the many, not the few” or Bill Clinton’s “For the people, for a change” if he hadn’t taken the Qantas upgrades and all those concert tickets and NRL seats in the VIP lounge while posing for selfies with lobbyists.

Or maybe Ronald Reagan’s original and Donald Trump’s twice successful “Make Australia great again”? Perhaps that’s too reflective on just how bad this one-term Albanese Government has really been and where Australia has gone in the past 1000 days.

The real truth is that no matter how well a slogan tests in a focus group, it needs to reflect the mood of voters and convey simply the political party’s ambition.

The ALP is the Albanese Lazy Party for so many voters doing it tough out there. The party has an out-of-touch leader who is always 48 hours behind the news cycle and runs a political campaign with feet of clay.

Labor had its chance to listen to smart people like Jim Chalmers who mapped out an economic plan early to take the fight to cost of living only to have Albanese dismiss him, undermine him and then finally agree to his vital tax reforms.

Voters are hurting and Albanese’s inaction is seen as down right lazy. Yet he can move like greased lightening to jump to the front of the boarding line, take yet another freebie or buy a $4.3 million retirement villa in the midst of an Australia-wide housing crisis.

Voters know Albanese only acts fast when it come to his own self interest.

The PM announced $7.3b of much needed money for the Bruce Highway on his first day of his faux re-election campaign. But the Bruce has been stuffed since before Albanese was Federal transport minister almost 20 years ago.

He’ll travel to NT and WA with local MPs wishing they could be anywhere else but standing with Albanese making a promise to build something in the future that a better government would’ve already had under construction.

The ALP caucus, having not had the courage to roll Albo despite him having never recovered from the personal vanity project that was the Voice campaign will be in for a rough ride.

Polls say Labor is losing majority government. For every hopeful gain being briefed out by the Albanistas, Labor MP after MP are on track to lose their marginal and once safe seats.

Maybe the ALP lemmings who will leave it to voters to pass judgment on Albanese could instead use the Lyndon Baines Johnson slogan of “All the way with Albo” as the most fitting summation of what the ALP is really offering to the voters of Australia in 2025.