From ‘jobs and growth’ to ‘putting people first’, this election campaign has not been short on the slogans. Now you can make your own

While the 2016 Australian election hasn’t had quite the emphasis on three-word slogans that came with former prime minister Tony Abbott’s campaign in 2013, politicians haven’t shied away from deploying a few choice catchphrases.



Indeed, Abbott’s former chief of staff, Peta Credlin, said she was “thrilled” the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, had “discovered the three-word slogan” during this campaign, praising the use of “Billion-dollar Bill” and “Spend-o-meter”.



From the Coalition’s “jobs and growth”, which featured heavily in budget material, to Labor’s “putting people first”, we’ve distilled the key elements of a choice three-word slogan into our slogan generator, so you can produce your own pithy platitude.

In addition to the slogans above, we’ve seen the deployment of other catchphrases over the campaign. Here’s a few of the more notable:

“Stick with the current mob for a while”

This fairly uninspiring call to action comes from the Liberals’ (in)famous “fake” tradie ad, the ad itself the subject of a minor media frenzy, with reporters camping out on the lawn of the man featured in the video.



“Pyne delivers”

Unveiled by South Australian MP Christopher Pyne, the “Pyne delivers” slogan was subsequently mocked by South Australian senator Nick Xenophon by printing out empty pizza boxes adorned with the industry minister’s face.



“Continuity and change”

Turnbull and senior government ministers used this three-word slogan in an attempt to distance their government from that of Abbott. This slogan bears an uncanny resemblance to one used in TV comedy Veep.

“100 positive policies”

Labor has 100 policies, which is a nice round number, and they’re apparently very positive (unlike their Medicare scare campaign, wittily dubbed a “Mediscare” campaign by some). My favourite of the 100 was unearthed by our reporter Paul Karp. It is Labor’s promise to reduce the cost of admission to Canberra’s Questacon science museum. Who doesn’t like Questacon?



“Jobs. Education. Medicare.”

This listicle of a slogan neatly fits the three-word criteria and was used in the Labor campaign launch in Brisbane. This is despite the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, himself taking a dig at three-word slogans on a separate occasion, saying: “Hope is not found in a three-word slogan.”



If you’re interested in more historical political slogans, Prof Sally Young from the University of Melbourne has taken a look at political slogans over the past 70 years here.

“Nerd appeal not sex appeal”

The Greens candidate for Lindsay, Kingsley Liu, has had two of the more amusing slogans of the campaign, firstly with a billboard bearing the slogan above, referencing Abbott’s 2013 “sex appeal” comment about Liberal MP Fiona Scott.

He followed this up with a new slogan, “Asian Greens are good for you”, which may be the first time dietary advice has been combined with a campaign slogan in Australia.