The Coalition camp thought it was on a winner when it began its election campaigning almost nine months before the polling date was declared.
It also thought that it would replicate its past success with fear and smear tactics, forgetting that these rely on the short, sharp shock factor for maximum effectiveness.
Still, all might have been well in the Coalition camp if it hadn't also decided to 'focus the fear' on trade union power and membership.
Lulled by all that talk of declining union membership, it forgot to look at history. Union membership was running at about 1 million in the 1940s, 1.6 million in the 1950s, 2.4 million in the 1970s and 3 million in the early 1990s. This means that there are a great many Australian households where either Mum, Dad, Uncle, Grandad or Great-Grandad are or were at one time union members.
So when the media is saturated with negative anti-union ads this far out from polling day, ordinary Australians have had time to recall that they were actually rather fond of Great-Grandad and that he was an honest, upright man.Then turn baleful eyes on those politicians suggesting otherwise.
I wonder whose stupid idea it was to attack the rellies?
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