David is no Goliath and his failure is on him – not us | Leon Georgiou
The quitting opposition leader has blamed The Advertiser for his fall from the top job – but he’s deflecting, writes Leon Georgiou.
Opinion
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A day after stepping down as opposition leader, David Speirs has unsurprisingly blamed everyone but himself for his own failures.
Speaking on radio this morning, Speirs pulled out the tin foil hat claiming The Advertiser conspired against his leadership and editorialised against him.
“Let’s be very frank about this, The Advertiser never supported my leadership, they took an editorial stance against me from day one, and if you read the paper today they are patting themselves on the back from being right all along.”
That seems like a bold claim by a man who proudly boasted that he never read The Advertiser, watched TV news or listened to radio except when tuning into NOVA at the gym.
He did say he enjoyed reading The Times of London, even if just for the pictures.
But we can forgive you David, if you missed the long list of stories we published that put forward your message.
Alternatively, you could have had your media monitors pull up our stories for you and if you were so loathe to read them, then I am sure they would have written some cliff notes.
Honestly, sometimes it felt like we were giving you a free kick. Don’t blame us if you can’t kick a goal.
And I doubt we are going to get a thank you for the multiple chances we gave you to take the government to task – even when our journalists did your job for you and highlighted the poor decisions, mistakes or even the failures made by the Malinauskas government.
Even still, you made our power list, number 45, and it was all pretty positive stuff: “Speirs has, at least, a competitive spirit and energetic demeanour – something too often lacking in the past among state Liberals who were too comfortable in opposition.”
Look, I get it, you were “trying to lead the party and put forward an alternate vision for South Australia” and that is tough – although Mali seemed to pull it off in opposition.
Here’s a tip, it’s not the role of this masthead to write up your communication strategy nor is it The Advertiser’s role to “get on board” with partisan leaders, as you suggested on radio.
Perhaps if you took the time to read The Advertiser you might have been better able to connect with the people in this state and deliver a message that resonates with them.
I genuinely sympathise with anybody in the public eye who is critiqued on their performance.
But politicians claim to be leaders, they get paid to lead, and all great leaders are able to admit when they are wrong – unlike weak leaders who have a tendency to blame everyone but themselves.
I think it’s telling that in looking back at what you could have done differently in your time as leader you didn’t take responsibility.
Instead, you tried to make out that your failures were the result of some moral high ground, claiming “maybe I should have taken (The Advertiser’s editor) out for lunch more often”.
You are dead wrong if you think lunch buys you favour at The Advertiser, we report without fear or favour.
You’re out because of your own failures, not ours.
And since you missed it, here’s a sample of all the opportunities we gave you that you were unable to capitalise on.
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