Report from the Director of Campaign Enable

“National Director Campaign Enable ‘I Have a Disability and I Vote’ 2007” could be the most recent entry in my CV.

On election eve [literally] Campaign Enable asked me to help out as Campaign director.

Always ready to learn new skills and with some pre-existing pressure group experience [some going back to the 1960’s and the anti-Vietnam war movement] I said ‘yes’.

That ‘Yes’ began a busy six-week campaign and ended with some lessons learnt. Most of the lessons will be familiar to regular campaigners - some of them though we must learn from enough to correct our future practice.

Lesson #1
Expertise helps. The Campaign had T-shirts printed and research so we had a ‘hook’ to the media. Photos and article in the Australian, TV interviews, radio on AM – Radio National……..

Remember: find a hook and use it as a photo opportunity. A good time to start is just before the campaign begins officially. Much of this exposure was in the lull between the pre campaign and the announcement of Election Day. We had an ideal hook with the statistics on people on the DSP in each electorate.

Lesson #2
Begin with a budget not a ‘debt’. By day one, the entire Campaign Enable budget had been – wisely - spent on T-shirts. This meant we had to recoup the money spent on shirts and had no funds left to campaign with on the ground.

Lesson #3
The T-shirts were brilliant, they stood out and we had them on waiters in restaurants, they decorated podiums - we sold the lot. If you have one you will be able to wear it as proudly and for as long as an ‘ITS TIME’ T from 1972.

Lesson #4
Campaign eve is way too late for the director to start. I spent the first week trying to memorize the campaign policies while talking to journalists! The ACTU ran a surprisingly similar campaign in 24 key electorates. They had funded organisers embedded in each electorate 2 years ago! Plus they have decided to keep their ‘Work Choice’ campaign structure in place for ongoing community campaigns.

This strategy can work for us. While the ACTU is bigger and richer we have the advantage of being time rich. We could set up something similar for on going campaigning - we must if we are to compete with well-organised carer groups who have the sympathetic ear of governments at the moment.

Lesson#5
We must organise better. You can NOT run a campaign from Melbourne without active politically knowledgeable coordinators in each state. Western Australia worked well for us they ran a self sufficient and savvy campaign. People in other states tried but they needed support and training.

Lesson #6
Do NOT put these lessons away until the next election we must build on our success. This is just the beginning, the ALP has announced a social inclusion policy with a board and a unit working from Julia Gillard’s department. Will it have any disability focus? Will it have anyone with a disability on the board?

Lesson # 7
Lobbying is not just for elections. The lobbying networks we establish should be state based and work constantly at influencing governments. AFDO could play a valuable role in training these organisers and state members should be head hunting appropriate people and supplying them with a workstation and a few dollars to begin the campaign. Through the Australian Council of Social Service we could arrange training by state Councils of Social Service.
In Victoria I will continue the work using the axes4all logo I used for this campaign [An organisation with a close to CBD location and a spare broom cupboard might like to offer me some space; others might finance some business cards or internet access].

Lesson #8
Be positive not negative. Learn from our lessons. Do not grumble but do something because this campaign shows we can have influence.

Lesson #9
The wins are sometimes other than what you expected. A small rally in Deakin Victoria attracted 2 local councillors. With a bit of work in the New Year their council will appoint Disability Advisory Council.

Lesson #10
No one can juggle more than 8 things in their head at one time so there is no lesson 10 - choose one other to ignore!

David Brant
Campaign director ‘I have a Disability and I Vote’
Axes4all@tpg.com.au

If you don’t fight clever you lose