Australia's political parties proved they were not too set in their ways to learn a few new tricks - or at least a few new campaign techniques - for the 2004 federal election on 9 October 2004. With opinion polls predicting a tight race and political commentators alleging that there were large numbers of undecided voters who were open to persuasion, the parties could not afford to be complacent. Sarah Miskin reviews some of the innovative techniques of the 2004 election, including tele-marketing, e-mail spam and Internet campaigning, as well as some of the traditional techniques.