2 days Ago By Jamieson Murphy
Thousands of Hunter residents are being bombarded with political text messages from Trumpet of Patriots, with many receiving them "two or three times a day". Login or signup to continue reading The party, backed by billionaire Clive Palmer, has been sending messages such as "solve housing fast trains 20 min CBD cheaper land (sic)", "cut immigration by 80 per cent", and "double fees for foreign students", without an opt-out option. The party's leader, Suellen Wrightson, is standing for the seat of Hunter and the region's voters have found themselves at the forefront of the party's text message campaign.
Newcastle resident Catherine Whelan said she had been inundated with the messages, which would "give gaming ads a run for their money". "I'm getting them two or three times a day..
. it's a bloody nuisance if you pardon my French," Ms Whelan said. "It doesn't matter even if I block them.
I report each one and block the number, but they must have hundreds of phones." Political parties are exempt from the Spam Act and the Privacy Act, as the messages are not considered commercial. That means they are able to send unsolicited text messages without an opt-out option and are not obligated to disclose how they obtained voters' phone numbers.
It is believed parties purchase digital packages from data harvesters, which are often combined with the geolocation capabilities of telecommunication providers, which allows them to target voters in specific electorates. Newcastle resident Andy Ward said he'd received five text messages from Trumpet of Patriots in less than a week. "I got two on Thursday, one on Friday after I blocked it, another one yesterday and I just got one today," Mr Ward said.
"If I was a member of the party, fair enough. But I'm not and I don't agree with anything the party stands for." The Newcastle Herald reached out to Trumpet of Patriots and Ms Wrightson but neither responded to requests for comment.
Recent YouGov polling commissioned by the publisher of this masthead found Ms Wrightson only polled 0.5 per cent of the vote in the Hunter, which was slightly better than the party's Paterson candidate Peter Arena (0.4 per cent).
Although Trumpet of Patriots appears to have the most aggressive political text message strategy, it's not the only party to use them so far during the campaign. Both the Labor and Liberal parties refused to comment about their use of election campaign text messages within the region when approached by the Newcastle Herald . In the battleground seat of Paterson, Liberal candidate Laurence Antcliff has employed the tactic on a much smaller scale, sending out his how-to-vote pamphlets and key party talking points around the economy.
The Australian Electoral Commission said any changes to the Spam Act or the Privacy Act to close the political party loophole would "be a matter for the Parliament to consider". Mr Palmer famously splashed more than $110 million to get a single Senate candidate elected in the 2022 election under the United Australia Party banner. During this election, his party has thrown a significant amount of money towards advertising on Google, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook.
An analysis by ACM revealed Trumpet of Patriots has spent nearly $5 million on digital advertising , just behind Labor and the Coalition who have both spent about $5.5 million. Newcastle Herald news director.
Former Tamworth concrete cowboy and Parliament House press gallery hack. Interested in any and all yarns.Whisper g'day mate to me at jamieson.
[email protected] Newcastle Herald news director.
Former Tamworth concrete cowboy and Parliament House press gallery hack. Interested in any and all yarns.Whisper g'day mate to me at jamieson.
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