As we bid farewell, who was crowned King of Spam?

Will you still love me tomorrow?

After being bombarded with emails during the final days of the election period, our inbox was remarkably empty on Sunday and Monday. Maybe everyone was still hungover? Certainly something stronger than an Iced VoVo and a strong cup of tea?

As of noon yesterday, we’d not received a single post-election email from Labor, nor any further request for a donation (after the 20-odd we’d received across the week). However, some pollies were keen to get their post-election spin out early.

Greens Senator Adam Bandt was crowing about the “highest-ever Greens vote”, notwithstanding the possibility of the parting losing three of its four House of Representatives seats. Country Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was also out early, saying the Coalition’s campaign “wasn’t good enough, and we lacked a clear agenda” and that it lost “because we didn’t stand tall enough”.

We promise this is the last time…

Parties collectively spent $418 million during the 2022 election — and this year’s campaign is expected to have cost significantly more. Every extra dollar collected is an extra YouTube or Facebook ad.

In the week leading up to election day, one email from Liberal Senator Claire Chandler had six demands for cash because “the other side is running scared and throwing everything they have at this last-minute campaign”. Senator Price provided eight links to donate, and this PS for forgetful readers… 

The ALP, never shy in asking for money, was running an internal scare campaign — “This could be like 2019”. But then bizarrely also went with an international plea:

Perhaps having read our previous piece about oddly specific donation pleas, this time the party also clarified:

A sense of urgency was evident from the independents too. Monique Ryan (Kooyong) sent three messages on election day, Senator David Pocock (ACT) gave 17 links to policy positions (and ads for merch) on April 30, and Zoe Daniel (Goldstein) had to resend a link to sign up volunteers after sending the wrong one.

Pork, policy and spamplanations

Last week, one of our readers asked: “Is there any evidence that $16,560 to the Callide Football Club induces anyone to vote for (or against) their local MP or the candidate whose party is delivering the funds?”

This is a good question, given that the parties certainly act like it matters in their newsletters. WA Liberal Senator Matt O’Sullivan says: “Politics at its best is practical” and about “real solutions to the communities we serve.” He then points to a promise to help with a local bridge.

Recent analysis suggests the answer to whether pork-barrelling of this type had any appreciable effect on the vote in 2022 was: “nope”.  As political scientists, we’re cautious about saying what effect it had in 2025 — except to say politicians of all stripes seemed to think it mattered.

After all the attention on spam emails, spam texts, etc, we noticed some e-newsletters began trying to justify why we were receiving their emails. The ALP said, “You are receiving this email because you are a registered voter in the upcoming election” — implying they got our email address from the electoral commission. Zoe Daniel and the Greens also provided a range of explanations. Importantly, they all had unsubscribe functions.

There wasn’t much in the way of new policies in these final few days, but we did enjoy Labor’s Medicare/public phone mash-up. Would kids these days even recognise one?

Elsewhere, Henry Pike (Bowman, QLD) seemed a bit confused about the length of parliamentary terms, warning about the dangers of “four more years of Labor”. I’m running Introduction to Australian Politics next semester if he is interested?

One of the novel phenomena this election was the use of podcasts as political platform, with speculation over the potential effect of influencers on the vote. In that spirit, did you know Liberal Senator Alex Antic produces a podcast and YouTube series called “Based”, which he described as “cutting-edge conservatism”? Last week he promised interviews with other SA Liberal candidates (none successful). Some of these racked up 500+ views!

Spam leader?

We’ve consumed an unhealthy amount of election spam in writing these columns, but it’s all worth it as we can now reveal *drumroll, please* who will be our King or Queen of Spam…

With 96 newsletters since 2024, it’s the returning member for Bowman, “I like Pike” Henry Pike!

Honourable mention to Dan Repacholi (Hunter, ALP) with 78 newsletters sent, and to Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberals) with 72! 

A Farewell to Hams? 

Finally, as we say goodbye to our regular column here at Crikey, we also bid an emotional farewell to (as of current counting) five of our spammers who are now “spending more time with their families”.

Two were Coalition members in seats they may have been surprised to lose. James Stevens (Liberal, Sturt, SA) wrote six times during the campaign from a seat held by a Liberal since its creation in 1972. In his last email, he said, “Tomorrow you have a very important decision to make.” He recorded an 8.8% swing against him — significantly worse than the average swing against the Coalition.

Luke Howarth (LNP, Petrie, Qld), member since 2013 in a seat that has been won by the Liberals at 14 of the previous 20 elections, only wrote once during the campaign. Since early 2024, he had written 14 times, with his final message as MP on April 1 asking: “With the federal election now set for Saturday, 3 May 2025, it’s a good time to reflect: Are we better off now than we were three years ago?”. 

The other two spammers we bid farewell to are both first-term MPs from the Greens, who swept in as part of the “Greensland” wave in 2022. Now with the tide turning back toward Labor, Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith) and Stephen Bates (Brisbane) will spam no more (as local members anyway).

Chandler-Mather was a more prodigious spammer than our Liberal ex-members, writing 28 times since we started collecting newsletters. His final message was on May 1: “In this day and age of soundbites and slogans, it might be a bit mad to send a sometimes six-page-long e-newsletter! But I believe that being open and willing to trust people with the information is part of what being a good local representative should do.”

Bates sent a more modest 21 newsletters over our observation period. His final reflection points to an idea we’ve tried to convey playfully in this series: “Little things that don’t get much media attention but make a huge difference in everyday people’s lives.”

And finally, a farewell to Liberal-turned-independent Russell Broadbent (Monash), who had served his electorate since 2004, and the local area in different seats on and off since 1990. Despite only sending seven newsletters, Broadbent loomed large in our spam folder for his novel approach — bringing us messages asking us not to donate, a mannequin selling potatoes, and sometimes perplexing political cartoons.

On that note, thanks for reading! And remember, nothing is stopping YOU from signing up to this much spam! (Or just check out CanberraInbox.)