Steve Price: Election race is between dumb and dumber

Anthony Albanese thinks he’s the next Bob Hawke and ScoMo is an annoying uncle always putting his foot in it, leaving Aussies lacking in real leadership.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is like an “annoying uncle, always putting his foot in it”, and Australia deserves better in times of natural disaster. Picture: Elise Derwin.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese used a speech this week to plant his prime ministerial stake in the ground, and said he would govern like Labor legends Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.

What a joke.

Surely Albo — as he likes to be known — is kidding himself. The veteran Sydney leftie is for a start a much nicer, more genuine bloke than Keating could ever be.

He doesn’t stand in Hawke’s shadow, and doesn’t have the mongrel in him to shred opponents like Keating did.

A sharp new suit, capped teeth, trendy glasses and serious weight loss makes the hard left inner-Sydney suburban Labor apparatchik more appealing, but he’s no Labor giant like Bob was.

Outside NSW and Canberra, he’s still relatively unknown and here in Victoria he’s got the hard choice of whether to use the divisive Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on the campaign trail.

Anthony Albanese “wants to be” like Labor giant Bob Hawke, but never will be, says Steve Price. Picture: Peter Bennett.

Every appearance of that pair together – who could forget the fake selfie barbecue shot at Dan’s place – will remind Victorians of six lockdowns.

The very best thing the potential next Labor PM has going for him is the bloke whose job he wants to take — Scott Morrison.

I’m now convinced the May election is increasingly a competition between dumb and dumber. The mob don’t know or trust Albanese, and it’s worked out Morrison and don’t like him.

Scott Morrison has developed a very great ability to annoy the hell out of people.

As hard as the PM tries, his actions - especially during the seemingly never-ending natural disasters we have in this country - trip him up every time.

What Morrison agreed to do in the northern NSW disaster zone of Lismore this week was breathtakingly dumb. Whoever advised him – and we saw this with the hairdressing stunt a few weeks back – needs to be sacked.

The Federal election is between dumb and dumber: Picture: Mark Knight

Bob Hawke would be rolling in his grave.

Australia’s PM jetted into the disaster zone, then dodged the media and local people by making an unannounced visit to a dairy farm.

He then turned up — arriving, as best I can work out, by dodging protesters and entering through a back door — to address media late in the afternoon before flying out to Brisbane.

Out the front of the council chamber was the main street of Lismore, littered with the lives of the people who live there.

Trucks and equipment were dumping the hopes and dreams of a broken people into dumpsters. Fridges and TVs, photo albums, carpets, kid’s clothes and furniture. All gone.

What the PM did next was unforgivable. He exited by the same rear door, apparently rattled by a tiny rag-tag bunch of climate change protesters and Greens activists.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the Norco Ice Cream factory, in the flood devastated town of Lismore. Picture: Elise Derwin

Instead of striding out the front door and interacting with actual Lismore residents he went to a staged event in a factory, again minus the media.

Now the PM was on a hiding to nothing.

In the Northern Rivers, the two NSW State seats of Lismore and Ballina are held by Labor and the Greens.

Next door, the Federal seat of Richmond is a Labor seat so the territory between the Queensland border in the north and from the coast at Byron Bay west to Lismore is anti-Morrison territory.

Alternative lifestylers, who are more worried about climate change politics and avoiding being vaccinated, were just waiting for an opportunity to embarrass him.

The private ‘no media’ visit to a dairy farm, and then a factory, was just a bad look.

It gave the Morrison-haters the opportunity to show again and again the vision of bushfire victims refusing to shake his hand in 2019, playing right into the Labor playbook that he doesn’t care.

He does care of course, but is taking a huge risk in believing that Australian voters won’t think that he doesn’t.

The PM was “apparently rattled by a tiny rag-tag bunch of climate change protesters” in Lismore, so snubbed the devastated residents. Picture: Nicholas Rupolo

We are only weeks away from the election campaign and the battle lines have been drawn.

Sadly though for Australians, we don’t have much of a choice.

A bloke who wants to be Bob Hawke, but who isn’t, and the alternative joker; a ukulele-playing guy who tries too hard to be like the rest of us but is like that annoying uncle always putting his foot in it.

Media stunts from both don’t cut it and we hanker for the days of real leadership.

Like John Howard in a flak jacket taking away farmers’ rifles after Port Arthur and Bob Hawke taking in Chinese students after Tiananmen Square.

We wish.

Former Prime Minister John Howard was a strong leader, who had the courage to take a stand on gun control.

LIKES

Loving stories of Shane Warne from his mates.

Ordinary Australians doing amazing things in the flood emergencies.

AFL back next week with actual crowds.

Increased spending on the Australian military.

DISLIKES

Petrol and diesel prices spiking at over two dollars a litre after Russian oil bans.

Loss of cricketing greats Rod Marsh and Shane Warne within 24 hours of each other.

Revenue raising hidden speed cameras docking people one point at a time until they lose their licence.

Moomba – it survives, sort of.

Australia Today with Steve Price can be heard live from 7am weekdays via the LiSTNR app

Originally published as Steve Price: Election race is between dumb and dumber