The Labor Party (or someone pretending to be the Labor Party) is targeting voters by text message, continuing the claim that the Liberals want to privatise Medicare.

After the party rolled out Bob Hawke for his first ad appearance since he was prime minister, Labor’s campaign around the “secret Liberal plan” to privatise Medicare — which the government denies — has taken a new and invasive turn.

Labor text message

 A tipster sent us through this text message, received last night, which warns “Mr Turnbull has plans to privatise our Medicare. Labor built Medicare and now we need your help to defend it. Can you help?” This is followed by a link which directs to a webpage where the recipient can make a donation to the party, with no further details on the so-called privatisation of Medicare.

Which is all pretty standard stuff,  until you consider the tipster is not a Labor Party member, has never subscribed to the ALP online updates, and has never provided her phone number to the party. Voters are very sensitive to the ways in which political parties use their data and want to know how they are getting this info. The eagle-eyed reader will also note there is no “unsubscribe” option. Have you received a similar message? Do you know how the ALP has your number? Drop us a line here.