The Victorian Liberals' state election "Remember This November" campaign (Image: CrowdTangle)

A month ago, Victorian Liberal MPs simultaneously posted a red graphic to their social media accounts with a simple mantra written in big, white text: “Remember this November”.

The three-word slogan is key to the state opposition’s efforts to end their time in the political wilderness by defeating the Daniel Andrews Labor government. At the moment, this looks like a tall order as the Labor Party still has a comfortable lead in the polls.

The Victorian Liberal Party’s plan to overcome this popularity deficit is a campaign that doesn’t mention them. The “Remember this November” branding doesn’t use the Liberal Party’s name, logo, policies or members. It’s even coloured red, not too far off from the Labor Party’s own branding.

Instead, the Victorian Liberals’ campaign hopes to make the election a referendum on the Andrews government’s handling of COVID-19 restrictions, health, spending and corruption. This includes focusing on the state’s lockdowns and well-publicised issues with hospital bed and ambulance shortages, as well as new taxes. 

The campaign calls on its audience to “share your stories about the last four years”. Rememberthisnovember.com.au features a handful of video testimonials from people talking about how the Labor government’s policies have hurt them; these people, only identified by first name and by occupation, aren’t Liberal MPs or identified as associated with the party. So far, Facebook posts mentioning the website have fewer than 3000 interactions — a small amount.

The “Remember this November” branding is being used in MPs’ talking points and in physical and digital advertising, as well as across the Victorian Liberals’ social media presence. On TikTok, the party has changed its account name to rememberthisnovember and uses the #rememberthisnovember hashtag on all its videos (so far, only two other non-Liberal accounts have made videos using the hashtag).

The Victorian Liberal Party’s “Remember this November” campaign places its hopes on channelling anti-Dan Andrews backlash and frustration at a handful of policy areas into widespread appeal. The question is whether the Matthew Guy-led party room can stay disciplined even as the party’s faithful can’t help but play to the extremes.