The Australian federal police are investigating a disinformation campaign against Labor’s candidate in the Eden-Monaro byelection after spam emails distributed around the country claimed that Kristy McBain had pulled out of the contest.
The false material was assessed by the Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce and referred for police investigation.
Labor’s national secretary, Paul Erickson, said he was hopeful police could identify the culprit because “the spread of disinformation online is a threat to democracy”.
The AFP on Monday confirmed an investigation was under way but declined to comment further.
As the campaign enters its final week, there is more than one email circulating making false claims about McBain and her family members. The material has been circulated beyond the electorate.
Labor’s candidate said on Monday she “expected some negativity from other people about my role or my choices, but you don’t really expect the family to be dragged into things”.
“I understood that was a potential, but my aunty in Victoria actually received one of these emails and she was quite upset by it,” McBain said. “I think most people are sick of this old-school negative politics with the constant attacks.”
Both the Liberal and Labor television advertising campaigns in the seat have switched from positive to negative in the sprint towards Saturday. Liberal television advertisements focus on portraying Labor as a high-taxing alternative, and on McBain’s period as the Bega mayor.
The Labor advertisements highlight that the government is yet to say what it will do with the income support it rolled out during the Covid-19 crisis, with the jobseeker and jobkeeper payments currently under review.
The Labor advertisements encourage constituents in the marginal seat to use Saturday’s byelection as an opportunity to lodge a protest vote. The Liberal advertisements highlight the benefits of electing a representative who would be a member of the government, rather than the opposition.
Both major parties have invested resources in postal votes, given the pandemic will likely increase the proportion of voters wanting to avoid queueing at booths on Saturday.
The leader of the National party, Michael McCormack, campaigned in the seat on Monday and McBain campaigned with the ACT chief minister, Andrew Barr. The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, is expected to blitz the electorate with McBain in the closing days of the contest.
Scott Morrison told 2GB on Monday he had not been as present on the ground as he normally would be because he needed to focus his attention on managing the Covid-19 crisis.
The prime minister has concentrated his appearances over the past few weeks around the inland areas of the electorate. Campaigning on the coast is considered more risky because of a lingering community backlash over the government’s management of the bushfires during the summer.
The prime minister appeared at Eden last week with the candidate, Fiona Kotvojs, to unveil recovery grants for forestry and apple orchards – two significant industries in the electorate – flanked by the New South Wales transport minister Andrew Constance, who at one point signalled he would run in the seat, only to pull out less than 24 hours later.
Reinforcing the incumbency message central to the Kotvojs campaign, Morrison declared on Monday economic recovery in an electorate battered by drought, bushfires and the pandemic would be assisted by the election of a Liberal member of parliament.
McBain said on Monday voters in the electorate were “crying out for a plan”. She said locals wanted a jobs plan, a plan to fix transport infrastructure and mobile phone blackspots and to understand what the government intended to do with jobseeker and jobkeeper.
“Employees and businesses [are] really uncertain about what the future is going to look like after September,” McBain said. “We know there are industries – forestry, the orchard industry – they are all asking for not just short-term fixes, they want a long-term plan in place.”
