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“Illegitimate” Weatherill had eight-goal headstart: Lib campaign director

The man who ran the Liberals’ ill-fated 2014 campaign says a radical redraw of the state’s electoral map is a vindication of the party’s much-maligned strategy, arguing the Weatherill Government has remained in power “illegitimately”.

Dec 09, 2016, updated Dec 09, 2016
Weatherill's 2014 victory was "illegitimate". Photo: David Mariuz / AAP

Weatherill's 2014 victory was "illegitimate". Photo: David Mariuz / AAP

Former Liberal state director Geoffrey Greene, who spearheaded the party’s strategic direction for three years until his resignation last year, told InDaily today the Liberals ran a “good campaign” that was cruelled by what amounted to an “eight-goal headstart” to Labor.

He helped engineer a statewide vote of around 53 per cent – the Liberals’ highest since 1993 – but the party failed to garner a parliamentary majority, mired on only 22 seats in the 47-seat lower house.

But in the wake of yesterday’s landmark report by the Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission, Greene says: “Really, the last election result was a landslide victory to the Liberal Party – and the Weatherill Government has illegitimately been in that role based on an eight-seat handicap.”

The Liberal campaign has been much-maligned since the election, based on then-fledgling leader Steven Marshall’s much-publicised own-goals and claims by Labor that the Opposition spent more than 50 times as much as ALP candidates in unnecessary safe seat campaigns.

But the commission’s report largely debunks this claim, and pointedly so.

In its draft report, the panel reiterated the views of previous commissions that “poor placement of resources during an election campaign can elevate a party’s two-party preferred vote without increasing the number of seats won”.

In yesterday’s final report, however, it added a previously-omitted disclaimer: “While intuitively such an argument has appeal, there is no evidence before the commission that this occurred at the last election.”

Queensland Coalition campaign director Geoff Greene delivers a white ostrich feather to the ALP State Headquarters, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006. The feather destined for ALP Campaign director Milton Dick was meant as a sign of cowardice for refusing to confirm a health debate between Health Minister Stephen Robertson and Liberals' leader and Opposition health spokesman Dr Bruce Flegg as soon as possible. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt) NO ARCHIVING

Former Liberal state director Geoffrey Greene. Photo: Dave Hunt / AAP

“I was comfortable with the campaign,” Greene said today.

“I’m not saying it was perfect – every campaign has its issues, every single one – but overall I thought we ran a winning campaign.”

He argued Isobel Redmond’s similarly aligned 2010 campaign – which also favoured a small-target strategy under the directorship of nationally-respected powerbroker Julian Sheezel – was also effective, but cruelled by Labor’s electoral headstart.

He concedes “there’s always things we could have done better” but insists the campaign’s deficiencies only prevented the party getting to a 55 per cent statewide margin, whereas “the objective in an election campaign is to get ‘50 plus one’ and form a government”.

“And on that basis, the last election campaign definitely achieved this,” he said.

“And the Boundaries Commission report has confirmed the Liberals won.”

While the commission noted there was no evidence of Liberal overspending in safe seats, it did hear a verbal submission from political academic Clem Macintyre in February, who told the hearing: “I thought that Labor’s strategy and tactics were superior, that they allocated resources in the critical seats that they had to win, and that the Liberals… allocated resources in a way that made it harder for them to win those critical marginal seats.”

“We would be foolish to deny that there is some bias in the system because the results consistently across many years suggest that is the case, but we should also recognise that in many elections Labor, for different reasons, has been able to outcampaign and outperform, and won – just – some critical seats that have delivered it government,” Macintyre said.

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