Your investment had a good return

Dear ,

We appreciate your substantial financial support of the AIP which contributed directly, or indirectly, to our recent campaign in the state election. I can safely say we got a return for your commitment.

While we ran an anti-Labor, anti-Greens campaign in the 2020 election, this year our campaign was literally more than an order of magnitude larger. We spent in the region of $800,000 and distributed material in up to 42 electorates while concentrating on 13 marginals.

As a result we were able to help neutralise the Labor financial gerrymander which used donation and funding caps, along with union registered third-parties, to massively outspend the LNP and non-Labor minor parties.

We targeted the seats that would determine whether the LNP won a workable majority, and the demographic in those seats - women between 25 and 45 - that needed to switch from Labor for a good win. The result was an average swing to the LNP of 6.4% and a median of 6%, against the state average of 7%. Five of the seats we targeted fell to the LNP.

The bulk of the funding came from COAL Australia, an initiative of Bowen Coking Coal Chair Nick Jorss and we all have a lot to thank him for. COAL Australia funded a number of campaigns, without which the LNP would have been struggling to make even minority government.

I've attached a full report on the campaign. Highlights were:

• Targeted 13 seats in a campaign which helped to win 5 seats – the number needed for the LNP to have a workable majority
• Raised and spent $887,361 including $746,600 from COAL Australia and $140,761 from other sources
• Put together an experienced and cohesive team of campaign professionals
• Conducted extensive qualitative research with 207 separate interviews which identified “What’s up with Labor? Time’s up!” as the most effective campaign theme.
• Developed a strategy and tactics based on that research and also anticipated contingencies during the election campaign
• Executed an advertising campaign including print and video ads which was delivered to 13 target seats in total
• Provided corflute signage to a total of 42 electorates for election day and pre-polls
• Produced three research papers to support the themes of the campaign and to frame the election and election issues for journalists and policy makers
• Ran an earned media campaign from the research papers and via op-eds on election issues which also helped to frame the campaign, particularly the ALP financial gerrymander

Once again, thanks for your help. Our job now in Queensland is to produce policy ideas that the Crisafulli government can use, and put pressure on them to implement them.

We also intend to run a campaign in the next Federal election - the Albanese government is far worse than the Miles one.

Kind regards,

GRAHAM YOUNG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR