But the 2025 federal election has seen the proliferation of the major parties dabbling in their own meme factories as the new method of online political communication.
Rainbow font recalling early 2000s Word-Art superimposed on a sunset background with “Reminder: You’ll pay more tax under a Liberal government”; Peter Dutton bingo; a deepfake cut of Interstellar but it’s someone trying to convince their friend not to vote for Labor; and cutesy “enrol 2 vote bestie” notes are just some of the offerings out there from the ALP, Liberals and the Greens — and some aren’t quite hitting the mark.
An expert in visual and satirical political communication, Professor Richard Scully from the University of New England thinks parties such as Labor and the Liberals are “still a bit all at sea about it”.
“[The major parties] know they have to do it, but they don’t know how,” he says.
The hierarchical structure of the two major parties makes it difficult to get real cut-through for genuine content that appeals to younger audiences, Scully explains, which is a “huge issue” for their social media content.
“Their approach is to get somebody or even to hire somebody — as the Liberals tend to do — to do their memes for them.”
The level of understanding in the Gen Z and Millennial demographic, having grown up online, is key to how memes work, Scully says.
Apt for those used to a diet of tumblr-esque apathy in a life that keeps on serving up crises of ever-increasing magnitude, irony and satire is the key.
Australian Green Memes for Actually Progressive Teens — a wellspring of news headlines with deadpan commentary, Simpsons memes hating on landlords, and regular digs at the prime minister’s real estate portfolio — is not an official account but deals generously both in and out of campaign season in memes appealing to many younger people.
“I think that they just — they get it,” Scully says of the page, which he cites as an example of the volunteer or unendorsed social media creators that make the most interesting work.
Whether the Simpsons-against-landlords trope or a Peter Dutton starter pack can actually sway an undecided voter’s mind however, is another story.
“Realistically … there’s not a lot of follow through in terms of ‘What did this meme actually do?’” Scully says, apart from the number of views or followers of specific accounts.
Instead, political memes may serve to reinforce a particular message or clarify what people were already on the road to thinking — if they can get the tone right.
“It’s an unspoken thing. If it sounds like a piano falling down the stairs or a dull thud, it’s kinda like ‘Oh, dear’,” Scully says.
And despite their best efforts, not all quite make the cut.
Disclaimer: As we near the 2025 Australian Federal Election, Missing Perspectives will be platforming various voices and perspectives about Australian politics and the election. The opinions and/or views expressed by individual contributors and interviewees represent the opinions of those people, and not necessarily those of Missing Perspectives.
Top photo source: Canva
