How would Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee have responded if the boot was on the other foot? Photo: Michelle Kroll.
It’s hard to know what to make of the Canberra Liberals bid for an Andrew Barr lookalike to star in its election campaign ads.
One could say at least they’re not using an AI-generated doppelganger but looking to give a local model/actor a gig.
We don’t know what the ads will look or feel like, whether they will be full-on attack jobs or laced with humour.
Have the Canberra Liberals found in its research, polling or shopping centre chats with punters that the Chief Minister is so on the nose that he may be the government’s weakest link?
Or, to use a cricket analogy, is it the West Indian strategy (when they were at their most fearsome) of targeting the skipper?
Or are they simply copying conservative tactics elsewhere, like in Queensland recently, where the LNP used AI at Premier Stephen Miles’s expense?
Labor says it won’t be returning fire in the same way to go after Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee, who’s keeping quiet and leaving campaign matters to the party machine.
However, one wonders what her response might be if she was given similar treatment and whether she was kept in the loop about the ad strategy.
For Labor, it’s easy meat to counter that the Liberals are simply reverting to stunts instead of talking policy, dismissing them as lacking credibility, but don’t doubt its capacity to go negative as well.
That’s why it is surprising that the Liberals have chosen this path, as well as getting so personal in their attacks on Mr Barr.
The government and Mr Barr have been around for a long time, so there is no shortage of policy attack points, and the Liberals are putting out strategically placed policy positions, hopefully, more frequently, as we edge closer to 19 October.
Ms Lee, despite ongoing internal ructions and tepid support from the old guard, has managed to drag the party towards the centre to give it some chance.
It was important that the party projected competence and vigour to present a menu of solid policies that provided a plausible, positive alternative.
This Barr lookalike attack ad episode seems to have come out of nowhere.
Will undecided voters buy it, or will it just be talking to the rusted-on Libs who already have a certain view of the Chief Minister?
I suspect the latter because this kind of social media-driven negative campaigning does not play that well in an electorate as educated and savvy as the ACT.
Much of the good work that has been done to re-establish the Liberal brand could well be wasted, and surely the party could spend its money elsewhere.
Mr Barr has called it weird and a bit creepy. Unnecessary, undergraduate and juvenile might be other descriptions.
The beneficiaries may be the independents (take your pick), whom disenchanted voters could look to as a safe option.
For some, this episode could be a milestone in the campaign where they mark the Liberals down as improved but still not ready for power.
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