Those were both “a seminal moment in the campaign that sort of sums up how that election campaign went,” said Carson, the political scientist. More recently, the Labor opposition leader Mark Latham’s infamous handshake in 2004 turned voters off with its aggression, she added. In 1993, when Liberal opposition leader John Hewson wasn’t able to explain whether his proposed goods and services tax policy would increase or decrease the price of a birthday cake, it “made it look like he didn’t understand the policy he was campaigning on - and that was his election to lose.” “In one moment Albanese undid any good work they could have done in that space by feeding into the narrative that Labor can’t be trusted on the economy.”Įlections have been lost in the past because of such own-goal blunders before, she added. “It wasn’t so much about the gotcha moment, it was the lack of pre-emption,” she said. Instead, it spoke to a lack of preparedness on the part of Labor to anticipate attacks from an opposition eager to paint it as weak on the economy, she said. Speaking about Albanese’s blunder on Monday, Andrea Carson, a political scientist at La Trobe University and the creator of the Below the Line election podcast, put it in a different category than a gotcha question devised to catch a politician out. Should any aspiring prime minister be able to recite these figures to show they have a good understanding of the country they want to lead, or do such questions just get in the way of better, higher-level political debate? In an election campaign that so far seems lacking in big-picture vision, the episode has fueled debate about the value of so-called gotcha questions. And instead, there’s these questions that are asked about - can you tell us this particular stat or can you tell us that particular stat.” “Google it,” he responded, adding: “Politics should be about reaching for the stars and offering a better society. Other politicians received pop quizzes on various other prices and statistics over the next two days, before it all screeched to a halt on Wednesday, when the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, excoriated the news media after being asked for the wage price index. When the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese failed to correctly name the cash rate and unemployment rate on the first day of the campaign, it prompted widespread media coverage, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison seized on the opportunity to label his opponent as weak on the economy.
We still have five weeks to go, and I’m already exhausted. Sign up to get it by email.ĭuring the first week of the federal election campaign, politicians have been asked about: the price of bread, milk and petrol the JobSeeker rate the wage price index the cash rate the unemployment rate, and more. The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau.
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