Rule number one: if you really want to win an election, it’s a good idea to turn up. Take note Peter Dutton. Rule number two: if you do turn up, don’t make a dill of yourself and a nasty one at that. Take note Sussan Ley.
Thanks to their behaviour in the lead-up and aftermath of the Dunkley byelection, the leader and deputy Liberal leader risk being cast as the toxic twins of federal politics.
Illustration: Dionne Gain
Dutton should have been in Dunkley on Saturday. He should not have left it to others to make the excuses on the night then to recite the talking points on Sunday and Monday while he avoided cameras and microphones for three whole days.
Win, lose or draw, the leader has to front. He owes it to candidates, campaign staff, volunteers, voters and his MPs. He needs to be honest about what happened and why it happened, accept responsibility, then say what he plans to do about it.
Instead, on Saturday night it was left to the women, some more artful than others, to put Kardashian-style false eyelashes and lipstick on a pig. The exuberance was excused as a reaction to losing Aston last year, meaning even a slight swing had the smell of victory about it. True, everything is relative, nevertheless the result still stunk.
Not on any planet or in any universe could a barely average result qualify as success. Arguing otherwise shows no respect for people’s intelligence.
One reason given for Dutton’s absenteeism (apart from not wanting to get booed at booths) was to allow the candidate, Nathan Conroy, to shine. Labor fixed that with giant photos on mobile billboards featuring the ugliest pic of Dutton they could find, declaring a vote for Conroy was a vote for Dutton.
It is folly to think a leader can get away with hiding in an election. It only accentuates the problem. Usually, a party gets the leader to change, perhaps by prodding him to do more than beat up on refugees or question the judgment of Australia’s top spook. Or they change the leader. MPs still say Dutton is the best they’ve got, but they are not blind to his faults. He needs to get cracking on policies and broaden the range and frequency of his media engagements.
Dutton and Ley have created a foolproof what-not-to-do election guide
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06.03.2024
Rule number one: if you really want to win an election, it’s a good idea to turn up. Take note Peter Dutton. Rule number two: if you do turn up, don’t make a dill of yourself and a nasty one at that. Take note Sussan Ley.
Thanks to their behaviour in the lead-up and aftermath of the Dunkley byelection, the leader and deputy Liberal leader risk being cast as the toxic twins of federal politics.
Illustration: Dionne Gain
Dutton should have been in Dunkley on Saturday. He should not have left it to others to make the excuses on the........
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