Libs Look To Net To Get Party Restarted
The Sunday Age
Sunday April 6, 2008
THE Liberal Party is preparing to launch an internet blitz to reinvigorate itself amid plunging membership and an ageing support base.
Senior party sources have told The Sunday Age that the Coalition "failed abysmally" to fully recognise the importance of the internet during the 2007 federal election campaign and that John Howard's stilted YouTube policy announcements did more harm than good."There was a complete cultural misunderstanding of the internet at headquarters," a senior insider said. "In lots of respects Howard's YouTube appearances underlined the problem. They are supposed to be spontaneous chats - not sitting in a stuffy study giving a prepared speech."Christopher Pyne, Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey were the only senior former Howard government ministers who ran serious internet-based campaigns in the lead-up to the 2007 election.The Coalition is modelling its approach on the modern campaign strategies being embraced by conservatives around the world, in particular British Tory leader David Cameron, a Facebook fanatic who famously set up a webcam in his home in an attempt to tell his story and show his human side. The Sunday Age has learnt that a Liberal interactive online forum will be unveiled at the Victorian State Council meeting later this month.An effort to engage younger conservatives, the forum would allow members to have a "continuing online conversation" with party elders. Members would be able to access chatrooms to discuss online policy papers and key issues such as housing affordability, the environment, national security and tax.Liberal federal president Alan Stockdale said a similar idea was being explored at the national level."We are in a position now where we need to use every avenue that is available to us to broaden the base of the party, hook into new ideas, (and) develop new fund-raising mechanisms," the former Victorian treasurer said. "There are people who would be inclined to use the internet to participate in politics who would probably not participate through the traditional branch structure." Mr Pyne, now Opposition spokesman for justice and border protection, said the Liberal Party "must invest" in the internet to become a modern political party. "The difference is between grudgingly accepting the internet and embracing it as a real campaign tool - and I'm confident the party is now moving to embrace it," Mr Pyne said.He said there were 1.8 million members of the Australian network on Facebook - equivalent to about 14% of the total voter turnout.Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has also instructed environment and climate change spokesman Greg Hunt to use the internet to convince voters that the Coalition is serious about the environment. "For us it's going to be an important part of the environment strategy over the next year," Mr Hunt said. "We'll be holding online forums and using a range of other online strategies."
© 2008 The Sunday Age
