There is nothing wrong with the ACTU manual and method for identifying and persuading uncommitted voters. It’s just old-fashioned door knocking. What’s more, in 1996 the Liberal Party did something similar.
In Queensland we telephoned thousands of voters in marginal seats asking how they would vote and what issues interested them. Then, when the election was called we sent those who said they were persuadable electoral information targeted at the issues that concerned them.
We did this using Feedback, the Liberal Party’s computerised electoral database. The ALP have their own computerised electoral database, and also use it for targeted campaigning.
The only difference I can see between what the political parties do and the ACTU campaign is that they are proposing to visit, rather than mail, and that they are 10 years behind the times.
What strikes me however is how American the ACTU employment of the tactic is. In the US, where voting is voluntary, an essential component of every campaign is to GOTV. When I first saw these letters I was confused, thinking they had something to do with broadcast. In fact, they stand for “Get out the vote”. What happens in the US is that they have block captains, who are responsible for a city block, and who generally have a pretty good idea where their voters live. These people coordinate volunteers on the day who go around and doorknock to get the voters out.
I don’t think that the similarity is any coincidence. While Greg Combet is reaping the credit for the Your Rights at Work campaign, it was actually conceived by a US Democrat operative imported for the occasion. Reference to him has dropped off the Internet. This is not surprising as the ACTU and Combet are understandably keen to take all the credit.
His existence also undermines the ALP’s frequent argument that the Howard Government is trying to Americanise Australia and that it imports so-called dirty campaign techniques from the US.