The Australian Labor party has instigated a targeted review of what went wrong during its 2019 election campaign, as its national secretary prepares to vacate the role.
The review, to be headed by the former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill and former Queensland MP Craig Emerson, will focus on the campaign itself, including who knew what, what was shared and who made the decisions.
The new Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, said the intention of the review was not to point fingers but to recalibrate.
“It is important to examine what’s happened in the past,” he said. “You have to know where you’ve been to know where you are going.”
Queensland Labor right senator Anthony Chisholm will assist the review, along with NSW left organiser John Graham, the assistant national secretary of the Australian Services Union, Linda White, and the former Western Australian Labor assistant secretary Lenda Oshalem.
Noah Carroll, who headed Labor’s central campaign office, announced he would be leaving the role he has held since September 2016 but would be available for the review.
Assistant secretary Paul Erickson, favoured as his successor, will act as national secretary until a replacement is formally elected.
The postmortem of just how Labor lost an election it had been tipped to win will delve into polling methods and who performed them, as well as the decision-making process and campaign strategy, with all MPs, candidates and campaign staff invited to take part.
A final decision has not yet been made on whether or not the review will be made public, with a final report to be handed back to the Labor national executive by October, most likely at that month’s meeting on 4 October.
Also under review are fundraising and finances, and the diversity of staff within the central campaign headquarters and the state campaigns. The success of “anti-Labor” campaigns run by the opposing parties and stakeholders will also be examined, as the party attempts to combat future attack from the Coalition well before the 2022 election.
Bill Shorten’s daily campaign is also under review, following questions of just how much information was given to the then leader’s team from campaign headquarters and how decisions were made based off of it.
Labor won just 33.34 % of the primary vote nationally, a 1.4% swing against it from the last election, driven in large part by a dismal showing in Queensland and Tasmania.
The Coalition received 41.4% of the primary vote, winning 77 seats and an increased presence in the Senate, at the expense of a Queensland Labor position.
Immediately after the election, state Labor campaign staff complained of a “closed shop” approach, while others questioned the reliability of polling showing Labor in a winning position.
