So perhaps, for Labor, the reason for removing Gillard from the frontline is more troubling than personality problems or her own electorate, or presentation - perhaps it’s performance-based.
In this pre-election period, there is more attention on those in frontline politics than usual - but that’s only going to get worse. Getting the lineup wrong is one thing. Being unwilling to change it when things aren’t working out is another.
Lest this be thought party political sniping, I will use a precedent from my own side of the fence. In the UK in 2001, the Conservative Party’s Oliver Letwin held the role of Shadow Chancellor under William Hague’s leadership. Following a blunder on promised tax cuts, he famously disappeared from the campaign trail. The Labour Party rightly attacked us on this ground; posters of the missing MP’s face were distributed as “wanted” signs and his elusiveness was a constant theme when government ministers were interviewed. It did us great harm.
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The absence of a politician from the campaign can be just as much a story as their performance in it. Rudd and Gillard should take note.
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About the Author
Alexander Deane is a Barrister. He read English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge and took a Masters degree in International Relations as a Rotary Scholar at Griffith University. He is a World Universities Debating Champion and is the author of The Great Abdication: Why Britain’s Decline is the Fault of the Middle Class, published by Imprint Academic. A former chief of staff to David Cameron MP in the UK, he also works for the Liberal Party in Australia.