The days when people got their daily dose of politics from the evening news on the telly are over, writes columnist Stephen Bush in the UK's Financial Times (This election will be the UK's first post-TV vote, May 27, 2024).
Instead, says Bush, politics comes in short grabs from online websites and apps, video reels on TikTok and Instagram, memes on Facebook and X (Twitter). Everything is targeted. People choose content carefully, as tribes, shutting out alternative views. Shared public debate is declining, says Bush, and UK society is fragmenting as a consequence.
I suspect political discourse in Australia is going down the same path. The Hunter is a good case study and the former member for Hunter an excellent yardstick.
When Joel Fitzgibbon first stood as a candidate for the federal seat of Hunter in 1996, we watched his campaign on the local news. Both NBN and Prime had genuine evening news bulletins, local radio stations 2NC (ABC) and 2HD delivered political news by the hour, and this newspaper printed pages of coverage every day. For Fitzgibbon, the novice, local media was the platform where he launched his political career even as nation-wide anti-Labor sentiment swept John Howard's Coalition into power.
Fitzgibbon became a master of the media in his 26 years of office. He was a regular columnist on these pages, his voice was instantly recognised on local radio, he jousted with conservatives (like Barnaby Joyce) on national TV breakfast shows, always engaging - but always political, especially when it came to coal. Fitzgibbon sprinkled coal dust proudly on his expensive suits and spoke defiantly in favour of mining in his electorate, repudiating Labor Party climate change policies as indulgences of inner-city elites who were corroding Labor values from within.
Yet, at the 2019 federal election, Fitzgibbon's supporter base fractured and he scrambled over the finish line, saved by a few hundred misplaced National Party votes that might have delivered One Nation candidate Stuart Bonds a famous victory. The size of Bonds' primary vote astounded those watching his public performance. But not in view was Bond's use of targeted online platforms, his engaging low-tech videos going viral among audiences not normally switched-on to political campaigns.
It was Fitzgibbon's last campaign, although he hand-picked his successor, Dan Repacholi, a minor celebrity occasioned by his unusual physical stature and unlikely sporting prowess. Worst-ever campaigns by One Nation and the Nationals saw Repacholi win Hunter comfortably at the 2022 federal election.
Now, Repacholi is well-placed to win again when a federal poll is held sometime in the next 12 months. Ironically, Repacholi has diminished himself as a political target. Whereas Fitzgibbon loved a brawl and fostered political enemies, Repacholi is a gentle soul.
His social media posts side-step the political issues that Fitzgibbon publicly embraced. Repacholi's weekly newsletters, Facebook and TikTok posts read like old-fashioned parish newsletters, with lots of community notices sprinkled with comic portraits of Dan, his love of burgers, his (failed) Olympics bid, his dad jokes. These are hugely popular among Dan's social media followers.
Yet, Repacholi is quiet about the elephant in his electorate: record coal exports, the race to meet aggressive 2030 emissions targets, invasive investment in renewables, fragility in the grid, rising global temperatures, battles over new mining leases. Unlike Joel, Dan puts the politics of coal on mute, despite being parliamentarian for the world's largest coal-exporting region.
Can Dan's good-bloke strategy steer him to victory at the next election? Falling consumption of mainstream TV, radio and newspapers suggests he might be on a winner with his social media performance. The Australian Communications and Media Authority says only a quarter of Australians now rely on free-to-air television, for example, as their main source of news.
Fitzgibbon must look at the re-election strategy of his successor with a wry smile. But where to for the public coal debate?
