Yes, the Libs did it in 2004 and the opposition found it most disagreeable. The ALP said the new strategy was "unwelcome and bizarre".
MAXINE MCKEW (phone message): Hello, this is Maxine McKew. I'm calling residents in Adelaide with a message about climate change.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Tony, one of the voters in the Adelaide seat of Boothby, held by Liberal Andrew Southcott with a margin of 5.4 per cent, is not impressed.
TONY: Well, I got a surprise. I felt that Maxine McKew, I've heard about her, I know that she's competing in another seat and it's another state, and I found the whole message intrusive as far as having to make my own decision-making, which way I'll actually vote (phonetic).
ALEXANDRA KIRK: It won't affect your vote?
TONY: Not that particular phone message, no.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Not positively or negatively?
TONY: In no way whatsoever. It just is a annoyance that I had to listen to it.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: It didn't go down any better with one of his neighbours, Mary Silver.
MARY SILVER: It was just quite surprising to get a phone call out the blue from a New South Wales candidate. It doesn't make me change my mind at all or think any differently really.
Well, I couldn't bring myself to vote for our Boothby candidate even if I was voting for a Labor government. So I'm afraid what Maxine McKew says isn't going to make any difference to me at all.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: She doesn't like unsolicited calls, whether for charity or politics.
MARY SILVER: I guess we're in a public domain and people can call our number about anything, but I rushed in from the garden to try and answer the call, and it was on the answering machine. So I do find it rather annoying to get phone calls, well unsolicited phone calls, and whether they're a political nature or a begging phone call doesn't really make much difference.
Often it's an inconvenience.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Maxine McKew wasn't available to speak to PM. Labor's campaign spokeswoman, Senator Penny Wong, defends the strategy.
PENNY WONG: Climate change is a key issue for this nation's future, and we want to share Kevin Rudd's plan to tackle climate change.
I smell a hypocrite