Labor and the Coalition have been marshalling their teams in preparation for polling day. Here’s a who’s who of the key figures about to plunge into a gruelling couple of months
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton will spend the next few months duking it out in public across the country as they campaign to become Australia’s next prime minister, but the election will be won and lost in a battle between two nondescript office blocks in Sydney.
Behind every decision and every detail, from where to run campaign ads and fundraising drives to distributing the daily talking points for candidates, are the nerve centres of the whole operation – Labor and Coalition campaign headquarters, the home to dozens of political operatives moving chess pieces around the board over the next few weeks.
As in 2022, Labor will run its campaign out of a tower in Sydney’s inner-city suburb of Surry Hills, where the national secretary, Paul Erickson, will attempt to mastermind back-to-back election wins. The Coalition’s campaign headquarters, led by the federal director, Andrew Hirst, will be in Parramatta, 30km to the west, reflecting Dutton’s focus on the suburbs of capital cities – and a shift in focus from the Coalition’s Brisbane HQ in 2022.
Albanese is expected to call the election within days, for a poll that must take place no later than 17 May. But behind the scenes, work has been going on for months.
Numerous senior and experienced staff from key offices in both camps are drafted into the campaign headquarters – referred to colloquially as CHQ – for weeks at a time when the election season hits, with personnel relocating from their home base to the campaign nerve centre. Other key senior staff, usually trusted hands from the prime minister and opposition leader’s personal offices, join the leader in the “travelling party” on the official campaign planes which zoom around the country.
Several more press flacks from each office are posted to the “press plane” of journalists who follow each leader on the campaign trail, helping to corral the media pack.
Days are long on the campaign, with the first of several daily phone hook-ups between CHQ, key personnel and the travelling party often beginning well before dawn, with the last late in the evening.
Both Labor and Liberal sources have stayed relatively tight-lipped about the positions that have been allocated in their headquarters and travelling parties, giving away little before an election that is expected to be very closely fought.
Guardian Australia understands some key roles inside and outside the Coalition’s HQ are still to be confirmed. Official campaign spokespeople are among those yet to be formally named, but the shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, is expected to be a constant media presence, as is the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson.
In another repeat of 2022’s formula, the education minister, Jason Clare, will be a daily spokesperson for the Labor campaign, holding regular media briefings in Sydney, while the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, will assume a similar public-facing role in Canberra.
Albanese will be joined on his campaign plane by a rotating group of senior staff including strategic advisers and press secretaries, alongside digital staff and a team of advancers, who scout locations for press conferences and photo opportunities.
Dutton’s chief-of-staff, Alex Dalgleish, his experienced media chief, Nicole Chant, and press adviser Adrian Barrett are expected to travel with the opposition leader.
In the Labor CHQ, Ben Rillo, chief-of-staff to the trade minister, Don Farrell, will serve in a senior supporting role to Erickson. Albanese staffer Chloe Bennett is head of policy, and the national assistant secretary, Jen Light, is in charge of target seats.
Adam Gartrell has been drafted in from the office of the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, to lead Labor’s campaign media team, with Jim Chalmers’ adviser Matilda Edwards and Albanese press secretary Josh Lloyd to act as media deputies.
Lanai Scarr, who works for the social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, will also have a senior media role, while Brock Taylor (from Murray Watt’s office) and Stephanie Matthews (a Matt Keogh staffer) will help steer coverage in Queensland and WA.
The media unit in Coalition headquarters will again be led by Guy Creighton, the former Michaelia Cash staffer who was also media director in 2022.
Creighton has been drafted back into the campaign after last year being appointed to a global executive position with the advertising and marketing firm Topham Guerin. That company’s digital ad blitz was credited with helping Scott Morrison to his 2019 election win and blanketed news feeds in 2022, and will again be used for online and social media marketing this year.
Alex May – a former SA Liberal party director now working in Dutton’s office – will lead the policy unit inside Coalition CHQ.
Also helping manage media in Coalition HQ will be Sussan Ley’s press secretary, Liam Jones; John Hulin from Ted O’Brien’s office; and Michael McCormack staffer Caitlin Donaldson.
Most daily media messages and press requests will be centralised into the campaign headquarters once the election period officially starts, to ensure consistency of themes and information.
Labor’s team has run mock election scenarios in recent weeks to prepare for the campaign proper, and will descend on the Surry Hills HQ as soon as Albanese fires the starter’s gun. Staffers have been flitting in and out of the Sydney headquarters since late last year.
The Labor election veteran Dee Madigan and her firm Campaign Edge will again be used for marketing, along with The Shannon Company and Moss Group, which ran the party’s hugely successful WA-specific campaign at the 2022 election.
It’s understood staffers assigned roles in the Coalition campaign HQ have been told to be in Sydney within 24 hours of the PM calling the election.
Campbell White’s Pyxis Polling and Insights – the team behind Newspoll – has been brought in for polling while Essential Media and Australia-New Zealand outfit Talbot Mills are running focus groups (Guardian Australia has a relationship with Essential media through its regular poll and podcast).
Coalition polling will be done by Freshwater Strategy, led by the former Crosby Textor pollster Mike Turner.
Officially everything begins when Albanese goes to Government House to ask the governor general to call an election. But like an iceberg, most of the action of the campaign is happening below the surface, out of sight.