Albanian, Dutton should learn from the errors of the past campaign

Here is a suggestion for political leaders who try to impress the voters on the countryside track: never put yourself in the position where you need to take a step back. You never know where you will finish.

The liberal leader Andrew Peacock committed that error in an outdoor event in Perth during the 1990 election campaign.

The peacock, satisfied with his tone, took a step back … and sank one of his elegant shoes in the center of a fuming fuming pile of fresh manure deposited by a police horse.

Like many politicians, Peacock, a veteran of the land mines of acting in the country shows, continued to flash his smile practiced in the desperate hope that no one has noticed. No potential leader wants to be remembered to attract flies.

In the same countryside, and in the same city, Bob Hawke had to urgently reverse himself after hosting a small welcoming dinner for correspondent senior politicians.

He invited only male correspondents.

When women on the press party had the wind of this event very companion, there was a hell to pay.

Hawke was forced to be a pedal. He quickly organized a second dinner for those who called “The Sheilas” unusual. A little time passed before a shaky balance was reached.

Kim Beazley from Labor took a step back during the 2001 campaign and, above all, allowed journalists to see him do.

On board the old Raaf Vip 707 used to transport the opposition leader around the countryside path (the then Prime Minister John Howard used the other), Beazley wandered in the rear cabin for a chat with those of us who reported his campaign.

It was initially lively, declaring that he was sure he win the elections. In a few minutes, his momentum is faded. He collapsed in a place, saying he couldn’t win, but he felt he had given everything he could.

In the years of crossing electoral campaigns, the first in 1983, I witnessed a few more desolate moments than a leader who was talking about admitting the defeat. He turned out to be a prophecy that self -brought to Beazley.

It seems equally not very wise to believe that the victory is guaranteed.

John Hewson, in the 1993 campaign, assured all those who would have beaten Paul Keating, had a discussion with journalists in the outback South Australia, refusing to say if the local calls would have been temporarily for the purposes of charge if he had become prime minister.

It was infuriated by the fact that journalists had recklessness to continue asking for a direct response. Traveling again to Adelaide on a small plane, he sat down separated from the media by traveling from anything but a tent. We could all feel him re -read his press secretary who “if they (journalists) had gelignite for the brain, they would not have enough to detonate their hats”.

Much amused, we all reported that Hewson would not have excluded local calls. Shortly thereafter, he indierced and issued a late night press release, firmly excluding anything like this. He later lost his attempt to disturb Keating.

The choice to move away or not is a political art perfected by – who else? – John Howard.

In 2004, the Wily Howard refused a step back when Mark Latham tried to dominate him with an overwhelming handshake. The images of Latham that are looming on the much smaller Howard have accentuated the impression that Latham was a bully, pleasant Howard and his Mesder do not end.

The first day of Anthony Albanese on the countryside track in 2022 – when notoriously not remembered neither the official cash rate of the reserve bank nor the unemployment figure of the nation – will surely remain the error of the number one campaign to avoid forever.

It was aggravated by the Albanian attempt to blame journalists for having been able to have such questions – “We can ask old things Q and a stuff over 50 different figures” – and to create the unemployment rate – “I think it’s five points … Ah four … sorry, I’m not sure what it is”.

The Albanian was wonderful to compete with Scott Morrison, whose bulldozing style was confirmed towards the end of the countryside when he ignored the sensitive advice of the Field toilet that he never working with children or animals, and faced a small child on the ground on a football field.

Tony Abbott was known to colleagues as “Danger Man”, who showed in many surprising ways, including when, hoping in vain to remain in vain in 2015, he stopped happily in front of a shop with a great yellow sign that blowing the word “refuses”.

Leaders could remember that their main work during an election campaign is to communicate with the voters.

Gough Whitlam’s rapid expansion has concluded 23 uninterrupted conservative governments. Bob Hawke had art in trucks and remained the prime minister from 1983 to 1991. John Howard also knew how to communicate – sometimes, critics noticed, from the dog whisper – and remained prosecutor for 11 years.

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Neither Albanians nor Dutton seem particularly blessed with great natural communication skills.

They could benefit from the study of those who learned the trade, who all had some things in common.

At the best, they paid the discussion movements prepared by the staff and spoke with certainty and passion. In their most compelling, they threw written and extemporaneous speeches without paint.

The members of the public tended to believe that Whitlam, Hawke and Howard were talking directly to them, whatever they could think of them. Nobody who has ever heard Paul Keating to his most intense will ever forget it. Neither those who found themselves transfixed and fans when Julia Gillard, not a public speaker in particular acclaimed, torn the script and torn himself to Tony Abbott with his speech by misogyny (“I will not be lesson in sexism and misogyny by this man … not now, never”).

The truth is that most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about politics or politicians.

But when an election campaign is underway, many of us commit themselves, knowing that we will have to make a decision to the polls soon. It is then that Australians must believe that what they are listening to political leaders is genuine.

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Both Dutton and Albanian, of course, have a reason for nervousness. Almost everyone agrees that none of them can hope for much better than the minority government at the end of this campaign.

As the campaign starts correctly, they will surely begin to melt.

They would do well to remember not to take a step back. And if everything else fails, he continues to smile in the wild hope that no one notices the flies.

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