Political reporter BELINDA STRAHORN looks at the challenges covid has brought to election campaigning.

KNOCK, knock, who’s there? 

No-one.

Don’t expect to be bombarded by teams of political door knockers this election season, with one notable exception, the Greens.

Candidates and political parties in this year’s ACT election are coming to grips with a changed environment, and are learning to navigate the campaign trail without some of the most basic building blocks of politics.

For as long as anyone can remember, turning up on doorsteps has been one of the most reliable ways for political hopefuls to sell their message. Territory campaigns are now facing a dilemma with most parties ditching or modifying door-to-door canvassing and other field campaigns.

ACT Labor secretary Mel James has been around election campaigns since she was six. She says covid has “forced” the party to become more “creative” in the way it communicates.

“A lot of what we are doing is trial and error because it’s so hard to replicate a good field campaign online, but it does provide candidates with an opportunity to be a little bit more creative in how they are connecting with people,” James said.

“Tara Cheyne, one of our candidates, does a daily update on government announcements which people have really embraced, we have had other candidates doing street stalls online, Zoom events and online discussions.

“While we are not door knocking, we are phone calling, but that has its limitations because we don’t have everyone’s phone numbers and it’s a bit different to being able to rock up on someone’s doorstep.”

Strategists refer to research suggesting that in-person conversations are powerful tools in winning voters, which may be why the ACT Greens are getting back to the in-person door knocking. 

But this is door-to-door canvassing with a covid twist and the party’s campaign manager Clancy Barnard is pleasantly surprised by the reception Greens’ door knockers are getting. 

“We go out in groups of two, we have hand sanitiser and masks, we put a mark on the ground, move back 1.5 metres and we don’t hand material to people,” Barnard said.

“We have found that more people want to talk this election campaign than ever before. People have more time and seem to be more connected because they are not travelling as much, so there is more of an interest in what is happening at a local level.

While Labor and the Greens have been more forthcoming, the Liberals are not disclosing how they are engaging with voters.

A Canberra Liberals’ spokesperson said the party is “adapting to these unprecedented times, finding new ways to tell every Canberra voter about our positive plan to reduce cost-of-living pressures, lower taxes and deliver better services to help Canberra families and local employers get ahead.” 

Perhaps the Liberals could take a leaf out of Tim Bohm’s book. The Canberra Progressives’ candidate for Kurrajong is transitioning to an all-digital campaign trail.

Bohm is a seasoned campaigner, running as an independent in last year’s federal election for the seat of Canberra. The advertising director has contested two ACT Assembly elections as Bullet Train for Canberra leader and Like Canberra party co-founder. 

“Last time we did doorknocking and we are not doing as much of that this time but we are still handing out flyers, some people still want to talk to you and we are just making sure we are a safe distance away,” Bohm said.

“There’s also been a big uptake in the older demographic on Facebook. It’s that over-50s market that is now getting on social media and seeing things and sharing them, so social media is a really important tool in reaching voters.

“It’s much easier and more efficient than the traditional door knocking, and because there are so many apartments in our electorate it’s getting harder to knock on doors.”

Ian McAllister, professor of Political Science at the Australian National University, has been studying elections for more than 40 years. McAllister argues that covid has hastened the move away from a focus upon face-to-face communication.

“What covid has done is accelerate a lot of trends that have already been taking place over an extended period of time, so you will see much more remote contact with voters through social media, through phones, through leaflets and you’ll see much less personal contact,” McAllister said.

“What you can do with social media and the internet that you can’t do with door knocking is micro-targeting, because you never quite know who’s going to be on the other side of the door.

“With micro-targeting through the internet you can identify the people you want to get hold of, so if you are a Greens candidate you can go out there on the internet and identify the young or, say, better educated young voters that are more likely to vote for you, so in that way your campaigning becomes more effective.”

Yerrabi MLA Deepak-Raj Gupta had to find new ways to spread his message when covid up-ended his campaign plans. Now, he’s relying on phone canvassing and a humble street stall, to reach voters.

“I’ve spoken to 15,000 people over the phone since covid hit in March. I set myself a goal of making 100 phone calls a day, yesterday I made 179,” Gupta said. 

“Sometimes I’m the only person that people have spoken to for weeks, that’s really sad, there are so many isolated people out there, if I get re-elected I really want to do something about that.”