Campaigning pays – for voters too!
Performance
The first factor that voters should consider at election time, is past performance of their local MP and their party or group. Hence the monthly rating facility on Voters Network website to aid that process. Bad performance will put many people off. Good performance in the last term of parliament is likely to encourage people to vote for that candidate or party.
The question for all campaign candidates is just how to present the facts of past performance to voters in a way that will win their votes. For voters seeking some action or policy from government, the situation is reversed. The question of how to present to government what is wanted in the right way, is often more important than the fundamentals of what is wanted.
Promises
Promises of what will be done in the future if elected can also make a big difference to elections. In some ways they are more persuasive than facts about past performance. That is because people seem more interested in what might happen in the future, than what has actually happened in the past.
The problem is that past performance is fact. Future promises may never happen. It may be that when elected to government the promise turns out to be very difficult to do. It may be too expansive or not as important as other policies.
Future performance by any individual, political party or group invariably copies past performance. That is because the basic nature of the person or collection of people does not change much in a matter of months.
Sometimes promises are downright lies. There is not the slightest intention of carrying through with what is promised. Many statements that are taken to be promises, are simply expressions of intentions. “We intend to do so and so”. Intentions can change. They are not promises. They may be intentionally misleading statements. So the exact words spoken or written are always important.
Campaigning
Most commentators speaking about the 2025 federal election results before and after they were known, have talked about the “campaigns”. Much commentary indicated that whereas Labor’s campaign was brilliant the Liberal campaign had left a lot to be desired. I have no idea whether that was correct. What is important is that many commentators were speaking as if it was the campaigning that determined the election.
What that tells us voters who, actually did the voting, is that campaigning is important. It is not good enough to simply talk about what has happened in the past or what might happen in future. Nor is it good enough to just state what has been achieve and what might be achieved in future. A brief word about the current situation and how problems might be resolved, often does not really persuade voters or with politicians. Presentation itself is both complex and significant.
The way in which the facts are presented is often more important than the facts themselves. I guess it is fair to say that is often the case in our own lives. When we want our families or work colleagues to do something, the way we present it to them can determine how they react.
Political parties this week seem to be reaping the rewards or losses of the way they presented to voters their suitability to represent the public in parliament.
In exactly the same way many voters and organisations are celebrating having presented their cases in the right way to parliament for government do what was wanted. That may have a hospital bed, school hall or policy. At the same time many Australians be-moan living in parks, seeing daily murders, experiencing domestic or sexual violence many more are unable to pay their.
Influential voters
As with the presentation to voters by politicians, so it is with presentations by voters to parliament. When we have a problem of any kind with government, the best way to have it solved is via parliament. For we voters control the careers of our MPs. It is best to give every Member of Parliament an equal opportunity to help us resolve it. By giving them all and equal chance to help us, we reach those who are interested in our issue. It is the same whether it be personal like an operation in hospital or national like public health care. We also have a chance that way to get a majority of the interested politicians onside. That is the first step to influencing what is done. That is what Votergrams do.
It is not just reaching all the politicians in parliament that matters any more than it was just candidates reaching the voters that mattered. It is the strategies, techniques, psychology and the rewards that can flow that matter. Politicians gain from doing what voters ask. That is the same as voters favouring the party that offers money and facilities in return for votes. The MPs will do what produces the greatest benefit for them, which is often tied to how it will benefit other members of the voting public.
Lessons learned
There is a lesson learned by voters from the recent election campaign. It is not just a case of candidates asking for support from the voters or voters asking for support from government that counts. It is the way we ask and the amount of time effort and money that is devoted to it that counts most. Politicians spent almost $50 million encouraging voters to vote for them, according to News Limited .
Voters wanting to persuade politicians and governments to do what they want, also have to spend some money to make that happen. It is no good relying of free government-funded channels of communication, because they are designed to benefit the government.
To be influential voters need to spend the same sort of money they spend on getting other things that they want. Voter willingness to spend their own money persuading politicians to do something, gives MPs a message. It tells the MPs that the matter is extremely important to that voter or group of voters. That spells out the fact that failure to do so may mean being voted out next election.
Deluded by Democracy
When people ask me what I do, I say “I help people get government doing what they want.” The questioner almost falls about laughing with a common response being “I’ll bet you don’t have much luck at that” or “You can’t get government doing what you want. That ‘ll never happen.” They have ben deluded by democracy or perhaps the media reporting of it.
When I tell them about our constant successes they find it hard to believe. Truth is most of them have probably never asked a politician to do anything! Or they have just asked their poor unfortunate local MP, who is one person out of 150 in the Federal House of Representatives. Half of the MPs can’t stand the other half who they are fighting for power. One local MP has almost no power on their own.
If they have asked at all, those people have probably never asked the right way. In every aspect of life there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. Polite persistent political persuasion in the relative privacy of parliament is a particularly good way of asking politicians. Research, facts, evidence, strategy and psychology also play a critical role. Politicians are very conscientious and they want to be convinced that what is suggested is good fair and reasonable, for the individual or the community. They know they are dealing with the lives and resources of the people who vote and live in Australia. They are open to ideas and suggestions, but they need to be convinced. Parliament controls government and voters control parliament as this election has just shown.
If voters respect their parliamentarians then their parliamentarians will respect them. Mutual respect and cooperation are the foundations of a sound society. Once the election is over we should pack up our party-political prejudices and put them away in the cupboard until the next election. We votes should equally respect and depend on every Member of Parliament for now. Treated that way, most MPs will equally respect the wishes of each voter.
The Essence of Democracy
And so that is in fact the essence of democracy. When voters and parliament work together for the individual and common good they are unstoppable. The old Votergram chant “Don’t complain. Campaign.” Is as true today as it ever was. Campaign to convince the MPs of what you want! The likelihood is that you will get it if you persist.