PM promises party faithful he will counter ‘Labor lies’ with social media tactics of his own

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Still smarting over Labor’s 2016 “Mediscare” campaign, Malcolm Turnbull laid out a key strategy for the upcoming election: build a social media army to counter any and all “Labor lies”.

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After his close call in 2016, when Labor came within two seats of staging an upset and winning the election, the prime minister singled out “Mediscare”, as one of the biggest issues of the campaign.

He has spoken of it often in the years since the election, but on Saturday, in front of the Liberal party faithful, he addressed how the government planned on moving forward, as it inched closer to another election.

“How do we deal with their lies? We all know that Labor got away with a lot of lies in the 2016 election,” he said. “They went out there and said the government was going to sell Medicare. A preposterous and absurd allegation.

Even the most outrageous lies will be believed by some people, unless they are corrected. Malcolm Turnbull

“It had some currency, as we know. We now treat every Labor lie, every single one, no matter how absurd, as something that has to be categorically rebutted every single time.

“... Increasingly, people get their news, unmediated, through social media, through Facebook, and other platforms. It isn’t going past an editor, or a producer or a television director. It’s coming to them electronically.

“And we have to recognise that even the most outrageous lies will be believed by some people, unless they are corrected.”

Turnbull called on delegates at the national council, and party members to “respond every single time and say ‘here are the facts. This is the record. Labor is lying’ through their own social media platforms.

“The numbers, the facts, speak for themselves. We will not let them get away with those lies, ever again,” he said.

Turnbull was forced to address Labor’s campaign against the government in 2016, by assuring voters that “Medicare will never, ever, ever be privatised”, after Labor sent out text messages, identified as “Medicare” claiming “time was running out” to save the health system from being sold.

The campaign followed the 2014 Abbott government cuts to the forward funding of health, and a plan to privatise the Medicare payments system.

Bob Hawke was drafted in for television advertisements, and the campaign was considered the most successful of the election, with the government returned with just a one-seat majority.

In his energetic address, Turnbull promised “never again”.

“It’s a bit like whack-a-mole,” he said. “Because it won’t stop them telling another lie, but you just have to keep at it.”

The ABC is already shaping up as one of the key battlegrounds of the election, after council delegates’ overwhelming vote in support of privatising the public broadcaster was immediately picked up by Labor with a promise to “keep it in public hands”.

“Vote Labor, watch us reverse Turnbull’s cuts to the ABC and keep it in public hands, watch repeats of Parks and Recreation on iView,” Bill Shorten tweeted shortly after the non-binding motion was passed.

The opposition leader featured predominately in Turnbull’s speech, where he was mentioned by name at least eight times during the 28-minute address, while Labor received at least 35 mentions.

Turnbull’s speech came at the end of the public sessions, and followed calls for unity from party leadership, including recently re-elected federal president Nick Greiner, and former prime minister John Howard.

Howard acknowledged the “ups and downs” of the last six months, but said he believed the government had turned a corner and voters were returning to the Liberal party.

But all cautioned against expecting any wins against Labor at the upcoming byelections.