In mid 2024, ABC Friend began planning our campaign for the federal election. So – why campaign and what did we achieve?

Elections are a time when politicians and candidates become acutely aware of voters' concerns and the 2025 election was no exception. It gave us a rare opportunity to demand that candidates and political parties pledge to secure a fully funded and truly independent ABC.

Despite recent increases, the ABC's funding falls far short of what it needs to do its job properly, and the threat of political interference has not disappeared. When, during the campaign Peter Dutton described the ABC as "hate media" and refused to rule out funding cuts, he reminded us that the ABC's future is not guaranteed.

In this campaign, we wanted to make it crystal clear to all politicians that thousands of Australians want a strong, fearless and independent national broadcaster.

Grassroots advocacy  

We designed a data-driven campaign, combining on-the-ground activity in targeted electorates with social media. And – in a very noisy election – we had some success, elevating the ABC's profile as an election issue, reaching over one million individual Australians, and giving voters crucial information about where candidates stood on public broadcasting.

Campaign platform

Our campaign platform served as a policy framework and an accountability tool. Rather than simply advocating in abstract terms for ABC support, we developed specific, measurable commitments that candidates could endorse or reject. This strategic approach transformed the traditionally nebulous concept of "supporting the ABC" into concrete policy positions that voters could evaluate.

The platform followed months of preparation and policy development. By creating a detailed framework, we aimed to generate substantive responses rather than empty political platitudes.

Targeted electoral strategy

To make the best use of our resources we targeted 25 key electorates. Rather than spreading resources thinly across all 150 federal electorates, we identified seats where ABC Friends advocacy could have maximum impact. This concentrated approach allowed for deeper engagement with candidates and more thorough assessment of their positions.

Each state selected electorates according to factors such as electoral competitiveness, local factors and the presence of active ABC Friends membership who could campaign on the ground. Strategic targeting sought to make the best use of limited resources and maximise political influence.

Events, such as the rally hosted by ABC Friends NSW&ACT, gave ABC supporters an opportunity to hear directly from party luminaries and ABC advocates.

Scorecards

Using candidate scorecards, local groups surveyed candidates and rated their responses, giving voters clear, comparable information about where each candidate stood on ABC funding, independence, and crucial issues like emergency broadcasting.

This transparency tool moved the conversation beyond partisan talking points to specific policy commitments. Candidates couldn't simply claim to "support the ABC" without detailing exactly what that support would look like in practice. The scorecard format also made it easy for voters to quickly assess candidate positions.

Digital reach and social media

The campaign's digital strategy proved remarkably successful, reaching over one million individual Australians through social media advertising and online engagement.

This is quite an achievement for a small grassroots organisation, and it demonstrates how targeted content and strategic promotion can amplify advocacy messages far beyond traditional supporter bases.

The concrete nature of the campaign platform also provided content for social media posts and encouraged readers to visit the campaign website to find out more.

Party-level engagement

Beyond individual candidate outreach, ABC Friends sought formal responses from the ALP, LNP and the Greens, elevating the campaign from local electoral contests to national policy debates. Party responses gave insights into broader institutional commitments to public broadcasting and supplemented the individual candidate assessments.

This dual approach – targeting both individual candidates and party organisations – created multiple pressure points for political engagement with ABC issues.

Our analysis of the parties' responses can be viewed on the campaign website.

Transparency and accountability

The decision to make all responses publicly available through the campaign website demonstrated our commitment to transparency and democratic engagement. Rather than using survey responses for behind-the-scenes lobbying, we sought to empower voters with direct access to candidate and party positions.

Transparency serves multiple purposes: it creates incentives for candidates to provide thoughtful responses, it enables informed voting decisions, and it establishes a public record we can reference during future policy debates. The permanent online archive also ensures that politicians can be held accountable for their pre-election commitments throughout the parliamentary term.

Impact and legacy

In this campaign ABC Friends sought to advocate effectively through a combination of old and new campaign techniques.

By combining traditional grassroots organising with digital tools, even small organisations can have some influence on political discourse.

We will adapt the platform, the scorecard system and other campaign elements for future campaigns and in our ongoing advocacy to ensure that ABC Friends' impact extends well beyond a single election cycle.

What's next?

As with all campaigns we learnt many lessons which we'll apply once the ABC Friends board has completed a comprehensive review of what worked and what didn't.

Our task now is to follow up with the successful MPs and political leaders to remind them of their commitments and ask them to actively push the case for the ABC.

At a policy level we need to work with the ABC and others to address some enduring questions: How best can the ABC's funding be secured in the long term? How can it be given more protection against political interference?

The new leader of the Liberal party, Sussan Ley, believes that "government is ultimately formed in the sensible centre". Can we, with our 85,000 supporters, persuade her and her party to ditch their culture war against the ABC and support a public broadcaster for all Australians? We'll certainly try.

And how will the new Minister, Anika Wells, fight for a stronger ABC in a fragmented media environment where misinformation abounds?  

Across Australia, ABC Friends volunteers worked hard to get our message across to voters. Whether you displayed corflutes, organised events, letter-boxed, talked to candidates, handed out advice at polling stations or donated to our campaign – you made a difference.

Thank you