The Western Australian Labor Party has spent tens of thousands of dollars on an unbranded campaign that attacks Prime Minister Scott Morrison and has been shown to more than a million people on Facebook and Instagram in the state.
The Facebook page Stand Up For WA, created in August last year, is a vehicle for running advertisements and is completely empty of organic, normal posts.
There is no suggestion that the Stand Up For WA campaign has broken electoral laws around political authorisation. It is clear, however, that WA Labor has made an effort to stop the page being immediately associated with the party.
While the page’s bio and advertisements feature an authorisation by WA Labor state secretary Tim Picton, the page is not in line with the party’s normal branding. Stand Up For WA’s logo uses WA’s state colours — black and gold — and nowhere are the Labor Party or its major figures mentioned.
More than $30,000 has been spent on 83 advertisements on the page since it was created seven months ago, according to data from Meta. The advertisements are entirely negative, with most focusing on Morrison.
A major theme is the prime minister’s criticism of WA’s response to COVID-19. Dozens of ads cite the federal government’s support of the Clive Palmer High Court case that challenges WA’s border closure, Morrison’s criticism of the border closure and his comments comparing WA residents to cave people.
Some advertisements try to subvert traditional negative ad tropes. One promoted post shows blue tomatoes, a puppy with six legs and Scott Morrison’s support for Clive Palmer’s High Court case against the WA government as segments in a series of “things you won’t believe”.
Other advertisements for Stand Up For WA depict Barnaby Joyce calling WA “North Korea” and draw attention to Christian Porter’s mystery legal funders.
Stand Up For WA shows how political parties can use digital tools to run shadow campaigns that aren’t associated with them without falling afoul of any electoral laws.
