Labor member for Richmond Justine Elliot (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

How often do you have to repeat an unsupported allegation before it’s accepted? Many times.

That seems to be the hope of Labor backbencher Justine Elliot who has launched a social media campaign claiming that the Morrison government plans to introduce a cashless welfare card for pensioners.

The MP For Richmond told her Facebook followers: “If reelected, Scott Morrison will force pensioners on to the cashless welfare card. The plan will put 80% of your pension on a card that will limit what and where you can spend your own money.”

She cites as “evidence” a statement from Senator Anne Ruston, Minister for Families and Social Services, saying the government was considering broadening use of the already highly controversial cashless debit card program (under which 80% of a person’s welfare payments is quarantined on a card that cannot be used to withdraw cash or buy alcohol or gambling products).

However, Ruston says the government has “publicly ruled out ever requiring age pensioners to use the cashless debit card” and characterises Elliot’s campaign as a “social media rant”.

So is this just unplanned freelancing, or is it a trial balloon for a new “Mediscare”?

It’s worth remembering that the original “Mediscare” was a campaign by Labor leading up to the 2016 federal election and based on a claim that a Liberal government would privatise Medicare.

An Essential Media poll late in the campaign showed 50% of voters thought it likely the Liberal Party would attempt to privatise Medicare if it won the election, 34% said it was unlikely, and 17% did not know. Of those polled, 81% said privatising Medicare — as well as changing its current form — was cause for concern.

Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was forced to declare that “Medicare will never, ever, ever be privatised”, which Labor counted as a success. The government’s response was widely criticised for being too late and for allowing Labor to control the agenda.

So is Elliot’s social media campaign a legitimate new “Mediscare”, or simply freelancing to generate support in her electorate … and maybe earn a place in the shadow cabinet? On the evidence so far it seems to be the latter.

Labor’s original campaign was effectively planned and executed, with a very substantial budget and heavy involvement of political allies. Elliot has received support from a handful of backbenchers, along with her assertion to The New Daily: “A lot of people in my area were raising their concerns. I’ve been inundated.”

However, social media support — even when extensive — does not make a false claim true, as demonstrated by Donald Trump’s “big lie” about the US election being stolen.

In her defence, Elliot — who was parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs and trade in the first Rudd government — says she “won’t be silenced”.

But no matter how often she repeats her unsupported allegation, it seems most unlikely to have any wider impact.

Tony Jaques is an expert on issue and crisis management and risk communication. He is CEO of Melbourne-based consultancy Issue Outcomes and his latest book is Crisis Counsel: Navigating Legal and Communication Conflict.