Labor campaign director and national secretary Paul Erickson reveals strategy behind landslide election win

The mastermind behind Labor’s historic election victory has said Anthony Albanese being in the “form of a lifetime”, a hyper-targeted strategy across states, and Peter Dutton “missing every opportunity” were among his recipe for success in a long-term plan.

Outlining the behind-the-scenes strategy that delivered at least 93 lower house seats, ALP national secretary Paul Erickson was scathing of the Coalition’s campaign, accusing it of being consumed by culture wars and guided by flawed readings of Tony Abbott’s 2013 landslide and the failed Voice to Parliament referendum.

He said his team etched a stark contrast between Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton, portraying the PM as “steady, authentic, and measured”, while describing the turfed former Opposition Leader as “gloomy”, “downcast”, and most animated when “magnifying Australia’s problems”.

“From the first Monday of January through to election day, the Prime Minister was in the form of a lifetime,” Mr Erickson said.

“Albo was in his element, connecting with everyday people. While the Prime Minister was telling a positive story about who we are and where we’re going, Peter Dutton was gloomy about the country.

“In contrast, Peter Dutton promised to drag the country backwards. Back to the relentless, infected division of culture wars.

“Peter Dutton never missed an opportunity, to miss an opportunity.”

He said Labor won big in 2025 because Australians accepted two simple arguments: First, Mr Albanese was the only leader with a plan to make Australians better off over the next three years and in uncertain times, Mr Dutton represented “an unacceptable risk”.

He said several uncontrolled external influences played into the campaign, but played to Mr Albanese’s hands as “critical leadership tests”, including Donald Trump’s liberation day tariffs, ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred and ANZAC Day neo-Nazi incidents.

It resulted in a thumping majority win for the party and the first election since 1966 where the incumbent party didn’t lose a seat.

However, it came despite boasting a historically low 34.6 per cent primary vote.

“In the campaign, you’re not so much focused on trying to drive up that number as you are trying to run the strongest possible campaigns in all the places that they need to be in to get to a majority,” he said.

“In a world of a declining primary vote for major parties, it means that there’s no such thing as a safe seat. You have to make sure that you’re running the strongest possible candidates and campaigns everywhere in the country.”

Throughout his address Mr Erickson also delivered an extensive thank you to his team and for creating “the only CHQ (campaign headquarters) I’ve ever seen that people didn’t want to leave”.

Nuclear lessons for Coalition

In a list of lessons he handed down to the embattled Opposition, he urged the now fractured Coalition to abandon its nuclear energy policy.

The policy had played a huge role in Labor’s paid communications in the final stretch, including their headline “He cuts, you pay” campaign.

He urged the Liberals to instead embrace the economic opportunities of the energy transition.

“They operate in an echo chamber,” he said.

Mr Erickson criticised the Coalition’s strategy of maintaining unity at all costs, resulted in “lowest common denominator” policies.

“As a result, the ideas that the Coalition put forward in the term and in the campaign were a pitiful crop, cultivated in the poor and infertile patch of common ground the Coalition agreed to stand on,” he said.

He said a “misread” of the Voice to Parliament reject had convinced the Coalition that a “century-old reluctance to change the constitution, represented a realignment of Australian politics and an endorsement of their narrow world view”.

He highlighted their approach of opposing everything Labor proposed and trading middle-class urban supporters for potential gains in outer suburbs.

“(They chose to) trade in their middle class supporters and urban electorates for a path to victory built on frustration with inflation in the outer suburbs and regions,” he said.

The party was more focused on claiming “front-runner status” than explaining their vision and “what they would do if they won”.

Teal threat and review

Mr Erickson also committed at the Press Club address to reviewing the Teals attempts to take Labor-held seats.

He acknowledged the close calls in electorates like WA’s Fremantle and ACT’s Bean with independent challenges but said it wasn’t a local phenomena but more of a broader trend.

“There’s no such thing as a safe seat anymore,” he said.

“We were not surprised to see those independent challenges emerge. We’ll be having a look at what that means and how we campaign to me It reinforces them as such thing as a safe seat.”

Kate Huelett on Wednesday warned her narrow loss to Labor’s Josh Wilson in the formerly safe seat “really feels like a turning point” in Teals targeting Labor seats: “I think this is a real warning shot”.

Labor gives Greens a take down

Mr Erickson revealed Labor dedicated resources to counter the Greens, especially after their 2022 successes in Queensland.

He said the Coalition’s blocking strategy meant for the past three-year term, Labor had to “deal with” the Greens, who he claimed were also intent on blocking Labor policies.

“The sore points after the 2022 election for Labor was the recognition that we had underestimated the threat from the Greens,” he said.

Mr Erickson dismissed right-wing group Advance’s claims of knocking Greens out of seats, including their former leader Adam Bandt in Melbourne.

He suggested their messaging was ineffective compared to Labor’s efforts and more about appealing to donors than actually influencing progressive voters.

“Content that Advance were putting out about the Greens, it was a very different quality that was making them a much harsher marketing argument.

“I think it had more to do with appealing to the views and concerns of their donors than it did to actually having an impact among progressive votes.”

Adapting to a fragmented media

Mr Erickson said Labor invested heavily in reaching voters through emerging media platforms, working with influencers to meet voters where they were.

“The media landscape has changed, that’s clear. It’s continuing to evolve, and the pace of change is accelerating.

“We also tried to connect with lots of new and emerging forms of media, new content creators, podcasters, things like that, and made the effort to be everywhere.”

He said the Prime Minister also had a better relationship with the traditional media through the press gallery and was available to the travelling press pack multiple times daily as well as addressing the National Press Club in the final week of the campaign.

Advertising and truth in politics

Asked about misinformation around advertising Coalition’s potential Medicare cuts, known as Labor’s “Mediscare campaign”, Mr Erickson stood firmly behind Labor’s advertising, stating they were comfortable with their assertions.

“On truth in political advertising. It’s been in our platform since 2021 that Australia needs a truth in political advertising framework,” he said.

“I’m sure that all of the ads that we ran in this campaign would have sailed through (the current political advertising framework).

“There’s some very good questions to work through there. I’m sure that the Joint Standing Committee on electoral matters will take that up as part of their inquiry into the election.

“There’s a set of really important questions that need to be worked through about who the umpire is, how the process works, what the penalties and the sanctions are, because you’ve got to get the balance right, and you don’t want to end up having a dampening effectt.”

Policy and the future

He was also asked if Labor would use their new-found political power with a majority of at least 93 in the lower house and a friendly Senate for major reform which unions and business have called for.

Mr Erickson said Labor would stick to the policy agenda they presented at the election and cautioned them getting ahead of themselves.

“I think that there was a lot of ambition in the plan for the next three years. We need to be stay very round and just stay focused on delivering the agenda that we were elected on, and I think that that’s that is where the focus has been over the first few weeks, and that’s where it needs to remain.”

Tracking polling insights

In the final weeks, Labor’s tracking polls showed voters believed the Coalition had “told the most lies” during the campaign.

“Our tracking poll found that voters believed that Labor’s campaign was more focused on the issues that mattered,” he said.

“Labor was the best party to make them personally better off over the next three years by a margin of 12 points. The Coalition had told the most lies during the campaign by a margin of five points. And the Coalition ran the more negative campaign by marking the 11 points.

“These results are the ultimate indictment of the Coalition’s closing focus on cultural wars instead of cost of living.”