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Everything old is new again, or so the saying goes. At the National Library of Australia, a collection of about 40,000 pieces of federal election ephemera both supports and contradicts that way of thinking. "Who is the fellow in the boat?" a Country Party pamphlet from 1928 asks, warning that arrivals from overseas could threaten local jobs. "Labor will tell you," the ad goes on to answer. A Liberal Party advertisement 85 years later, when Tony Abbott won the prime ministership after announcing he would "turn back the boats", has a similar crack, declaring "Labor's illegal boat arrivals" cost taxpayers $12.8 million a pop. While some issues and messaging have remained similar, most of the material in the library's collection, which covers 1901 to 2016, shows how much things have changed. "If you look back at the material from the early years, it's very, very text-heavy and quite often there are no images of politicians," ephemera officer Fiona Spooner said. "Now, it's much more about the personalities." To illustrate her point, she points to a pizza box from the 2016 campaign. Seizing on the opportunity to mock Christopher Pyne, who was campaigning with the slogan "Pyne delivers", senator Nick Xenophon created "Pyne's Pizza" - a pizza box he said he was like the then-Coalition minister and full of hot air. "The material these days is a lot brighter, it's very widely distributed, there's a lot of colour and imagery used and it's much less text-heavy and more headline-grabbing than the material of the early years," Ms Spooner said. "It's a bit more frivolous these days, as well. Things like the Pyne's Pizza box are an example of how campaigners are trying to appeal to our sense of humour." The political ephemera collection shines a light on broad issues including the change in women's social status, changing views on racism with the demise of the White Australia policy, and the shift from town hall-style gatherings and rallies towards pamphlets and other printed media. The library goes to great lengths to ensure the material's survival, storing the 40,000-odd items in enclosures like mylar pockets and polypropelene bags, which are held in a basement stack that is temperature, humidity and pest-controlled. "Ephemera's not designed to last, but when you gather and preserve it, it provides you with a direct and tangible link to the past and a lasting record of policies and promises made in the heat of the moment," Ms Spooner said. "It reflects the vibrancy and the colour and excitement of the election campaigns, but also the slogans, tactics, and stances of those seeking to influence us." Surprisingly, social media is yet to impact heavily on the volume of printed ephemera, but the library is asking the public to help by sending in campaign material they receive in 2019. "We try to collect something from every candidate, every political party and every lobby group."

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