Making Queensland Safer: The Role of Misinformation and Negative Rhetoric in the Outcome of the Queensland State Election.

The Queensland state election in 2024 brought complex social issues to the forefront of the media. From the cost of living crisis to women’s rights, both major parties presented strong policies and campaign strategies that greatly affected the public. A major issue presented by the Liberal Coalition was the apparent prevalence of youth crime, sporting the slogan “adult crime, adult time”. This was arguably one of the coalition’s most popular, yet controversial, policies. Despite many conflicting opinions on the issue, it generated extreme media attention and support from the public. This essay will analyse the communication strategies that influenced the Liberal National Party, particularly in reference to the populist strategies in their campaign and policies. To begin, the misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric of this campaign will be analysed in order to understand the impact it has had on marginalised communities in Queensland through incriminating children while portraying upper-class citizens as victims. Evidently, these populist communication tactics invigorated the public’s sense of fear and victimisation in order to create division and thus, a loyal voter base. This analysis will be extrapolated to form a plan for a campaign opposing incivility in government and, as an extension, the rise of far-right ideologies amongst the public.

Making Queensland Safer Laws:

The “Adult Crime, Adult Time” slogan was the centre point of the Liberal Party’s “Making Queensland Safer” campaign. The change to legislation as a part of this campaign included removing Detention as a Last Resort, and a list of thirteen offences to be considered part of the policy (Crisafulli et al., 2024). This is an amendment to the 1992 Youth Justice Act, which was originally formed to provide greater flexibility for minors in court, as well as the importance of rehabilitation and reintegration. Moreover, the Youth Justice Act placed particular emphasis on the families and communities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this process (Youth Justice Act, 1992). Evidently, the amended law doesn’t take into consideration the child’s mental capability, emotional maturity, or other societal factors that may influence one to commit a crime. After the amendment had been passed, Queensland’s Attorney-General Deb Frecklington acknowledged that the legislation violated international human rights practices. She conceded that the bill would place a greater number of children in watch houses for extended periods of time, limiting their “right to liberty without discrimination”, however reproached the notion that the amendments discriminate based on race (Messenger, 2024). The Liberal government’s controversial law was possibly the biggest talking point of the state election - despite the overwhelming evidence demonstrating that this policy is ineffective, the misinformation and uncivil rhetoric spread by the Liberal Party proved to be a winning campaign strategy.

Misinformation:

During the lead up to this election, there was an extreme politicisation in the media of stories and statistics involving youth crime, effectively portraying this issue to be ‘rampant’ and out of control. However, studies have shown that the data that the LNP were referencing was inaccurate, or skewed to portray the message that youth crime was an ‘epidemic’ when, in reality, it was at an all time low. Firstly, they reported exclusively short term trends; The Courier Mail claimed that youth crime rates in the past twelve months had skyrocketed to crisis rates. However, when this data is extrapolated back to 2008, youth crime rates have actually decreased from roughly 3700 per 100,000 population to roughly 1900 per 100,000 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2023-24). Furthermore, LNP Leader David Crisafulli cited victim numbers as evidence for the worsening state of youth crime in Queensland. However, victim numbers are taken out of context and do not consider factors such as the population of a given area, and are therefore very misleading, if not deceptive, statistics (Sato, 2024).

These misleading and inaccurate statistics are indicative of framing and agenda setting being utilised against the public’s security fears and general sense of xenophobia. By planting fear of “dangerous” young criminals in Queensland communities, the Liberal National Party effectively “othered” youth offenders to frame the party as being tough on crime and responsive to the community. Moreover, these “youth offenders” are frequently from impoverished families, have intellectual disabilities, or are people of colour; essentially, this policy further perpetuates classism, ableism, and racism by ostracising vulnerable children (Weatherburn & Lind, 1997). Rather than confront the failings of Australia and its dark past, the LNP re-framed the issue of youth crime to portray these children as delinquents through their manipulation of statistics (Krzyżanowski et al., 2021, p. 6). This is a common tactic of populist communication because it caters directly to the nationalist identity and citizens who perceive themselves to be the victims of injustice at the hands of the political elite. Evidently, the general public were largely on board; believing that the Labour Party had failed them by letting youth crime spiral out of control, the Liberal National Party seemed committed to fixing it.

Slogans and Rhetoric:

“Adult crime, adult time” seemed to adorn every Brisbane billboard in October 2024. This simple, catchy rhyme effectively enabled the public to latch onto an idea without fully grasping the impacts this policy may have. Populist messaging is characterised by providing a simple and persuasive solution to the every-day citizen’s wants and needs; politicians distinguish themselves from the “elites” by attributing blame to others, often appealing to the public’s sense of pathos (Hameleers et al., 2017, p. 872). Evidently, the Queensland Liberal Party were communicating to the public that they had a quick and easy fix for youth crime, and the lack of nuance in their portrayal of the issue as aforementioned only supports their policy. Moreover, the slogan reduced an inhumane policy addressing a complex issue into a soundbite for the marketing team. This is further demonstrated by a statement from Crisafulli, in which he explained that the policy was for “every Queenslander” who has “felt unsafe” and “been a victim” of youth crime (Queensland Cabinet and Ministerial Directory, 2024). Through having manipulated the target public with misleading statistics and cultivating fear in Queensland’s communities, Crisafulli pandered to those who felt victimised by certain demographics in their neighborhoods and are extremely averse to social change.

Here, it is essential to acknowledge that neglect, abuse, and economic stress is a significant factor for juvenile participation in crime (Weatherburn & Lind, 1997). Crisafulli, for the benefit of his own campaign, shifted the blame for the public’s dissatisfaction in politics to distrust of underprivileged and marginalised children. The victimisation that Crisafulli is projecting only serves to further ostracise a suffering demographic, by overlooking the evidence that this policy violates human rights, and exacerbating class division in Queensland’s communities at a time when the inflating cost of living has reached a point of crisis. This establishment of an “in group” and an “out group”, the “victims” and the “perpetrators”, creates a certain cognitive dissonance from the issue by diverting the focus from the systematic cause of youth crime, to the personal effects (Herbst, 2010). In summation, the rhetoric surrounding the Liberal Party’s “Adult Crime, Adult Time” policy is indicative of reductive populist communication techniques used to elevate their own power.

Proposed campaign:

Such analysis of these political communication strategies and understanding of populist politics provides the basis for a counter-campaign against policies that promote incivility and divisiveness. Through being informed of populist tactics and the way that these politicians interact with the public, it is possible to bring attention to the misinformation and lack of professionalism in their campaign. This is applicable across a range of topics, from the upcoming election and the uncivil media strategies, to the rise of right wing ideology amongst young men due to xenophobic media messaging. For example, a campaign to counter the Liberal Party’s youth crime policy would centre human rights at its core messaging to bring attention to the misinformation in the LNP’s campaign. Finally, the incivility of the LNP policy can be emphasised through creating a more humanitarian focused campaign that appeals to a sense of pathos to the public; since the incriminated children were dehumanised and politicised for the sake of the Liberal campaign, a counter-campaign could share their individual stories and struggles, and promote a thorough understanding of the causation of youth crime.

Conclusion:

The rise of incivility, misinformation and populism in political communications is having a tangible and detrimental effect on marginalised Australian communities. The effect of this messaging paints upper-class communities as “victims”, thereby creating extreme division and promoting fear throughout the public. This “us versus them” attitude then gave the Liberal Party a platform to benefit from their voter’s sense of injustice, by providing a solution based on misinformation and prejudice. Through an analysis of these communication strategies, it can be determined that promoting a factual and humanitarian centric campaign could be an effective counter to campaigns such as the Liberal’s “adult crime, adult time”. Furthermore, it is evident that integrity in political messaging is essential to draw attention to the concerning rise of right-wing ideologies and xenophobic rhetoric in the media. To conclude, the success of the Liberal Party in the 2024 Queensland state election demonstrates the effectiveness of populist communication strategies through divisive ideologies that are detimental to Australian communities.




References

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