Without a clear, published manifesto before an election, parties can deny intentions until after being elected. This was the problem with the LNP Government in Queensland in 2012, and caused suspicion with the ‘small target’ strategy of the Coalition in the 2016 federal election.
‘Australian politics would work far better if the parties released manifestos containing all their election promises at the beginning of the official campaign,’ wrote Joff Lelliot in the ABC’s The Drum in 2013.
‘In a modern democracy with an educated electorate, policy and policy discussion should be at the centre of elections.
‘But if policy was anywhere to be seen in the recent [2013] federal election it was in rather obtuse ways.’
The same thing could be said of the Coalition’s 2016 election campaign.