Analysis: Good and bad news for leaders locked in race for premier

Love her or dislike her, Annastacia Palaszczuk has political presence, which is more than can be said for her opponent, writes Mike O’Connor.

Incompetent and disappointing, or a committed leader who does a good job but who can be pushy and arrogant?

Sound like somebody you know? That’s right – it’s Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as described by respondents to a YouGov poll commissioned by The Courier-Mail.

The good news for Palaszczuk is that when asked to describe her, 29 per cent of people saw her as competent, committed and doing a good job.

The bad news is that 32 per cent described her as disappointing and incompetent and rated her performance as premier as poor, while a further 8 per cent damned her with faint praise by rating her as average or adequate. Outstanding, visionary and statesmanlike were not descriptors that sprang readily to the minds of those polled.

She can take some solace from the fact that love her or dislike her, she has political presence, for while it’s one thing to be an unknown force in politics, it’s quite another to be simply unknown, which is where the poll results for Opposition leader David Crisafulli are disturbing.

When asked to describe him, 13 per cent of the people polled said they hadn’t heard of him, which has to be more than a little worrying for an alternate Premier 12 months out from an election. He doesn’t have an image problem because he doesn’t have an image.

A further 10 per cent said there were unsure of how to describe him.

On the plus side, that’s 23 per cent of the sample which is up for grabs if they can find out who he is and for what it is that he stands.

He also suffers the dreaded average-adequate tag with 9 per cent of people saying that this described his performance.

Predictably, there was no such recognition problem for Palaszczuk. Everyone has heard of her, even if quite a few of them wish that they hadn’t, with only 3 per cent of people saying that they were unsure of how to describe her.

When it came to rating Crisafulli’s performance, more people thought he was doing a good job rather than a poor one but those who gave him a positive review – good standing, competent, satisfactory – only represented 16 per cent of the sample while 13 per cent saw him as ineffective, not good, weak and disappointing.

Palaszczuk may have a high profile but quite a few people don’t like what they see.

Showboating was the judgment of 8 per cent, a legacy perhaps of the red carpet persona which has now been quietly dropped with the same number finding her to be selfish and arrogant.

Brutal honesty could collectively describe the opinions of some, with 5 per cent thinking her to be boring, stale and uninspiring, a view which paled in comparison with the 3 per cent who went with dishonest and distrustful, and another 3 per cent who opted for pushy, unreasonable and scornful, these easily outnumbering that 2 per cent who thought she was compassionate, caring and honest.

Yes, it does help to have thick skin if you are considering a career in politics.

Crisafulli is seen as a work in progress by 11 per cent who thought him to be optimistic, aspiring and developing as a leader, a view not shared by that 8 per cent who thought him as lacklustre, uninspiring and silent. A silent politician? The only one in captivity, surely.

Rather than silent, 6 per cent thought he was argumentative and negative, an occupational hazard for those in opposition while honest, trustful, fair and caring was the judgment of 4 per cent of people, putting them at odds with the 2 per cent who saw him as distrustful, dishonest and sneaky with 3 per cent thinking him to be refreshing, new and energetic.

Only 1 per cent rated him as inexperienced.

Palaszczuk suffers more than her opponent when it comes to character assessment, with Crisafulli arguably regarded as being “nicer”. Whether being nice cuts it with the electorate is yet to be seen.

He has the job ahead of him now to not only convince Queenslanders that he has the vision and the team to run the state but to become more visible.

Neither party enjoys a high approval rating. It may come down, as so often happens in politics, to people voting for the one they dislike-distrust the least.