The secret to why the leaders’ debate was a ‘debacle’, from former Labor staffer

A former Labor chief of staff has revealed the secrets of political debate preparation, and explains why this campaign is such a “debacle”.

Ryan Liddell knows a thing or two about preparing a leader for a debate; he coached former Labor leader Bill Shorten through two elections’ worth of them.

First as Mr Shorten’s press secretary in 2016, then as his chief of staff in 2019, Mr Liddell has picked up all the tips and tricks for what a leader should and should not do to win a debate and an election.

And he spilt all the secrets to news.com.au’s I’ve Got News For You podcast – from practising handshakes to mock debates, even training against a designated Malcolm Turnbull impersonator in 2016.

“It’s obviously not something you cook up overnight,” Mr Liddell told host Andrew Bucklow. “One of the hardest things for an Opposition Leader is to get recognition or coverage.”

Mr Liddell even brought his then-4 week old baby daughter onto the campaign trail with Bill Shorten in 2019. Picture: Kym Smith

In 2016, with Canberra “fawning” over the then-freshly minted Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Shorten had to do something different. So Labor hit the road. Literally.

“We went around and held these sort of people’s forums,” Mr Liddell said, adding Mr Shorten would spend hours “taking questions from local punters”.

“It meant that by the time when we got it to our first debate … Bill had done about 50 of these (forums), so he had a good feel for the sorts of questions that people were asking, and the sort of answers people respected and wanted, as well as the rhythm of the whole thing.”

Bill Shorten continued his forum-drive in 2019. Picture: Morgan Sette

He also revealed a secret weapon Mr Shorten had for his debate training: a designated Malcolm Turnbull impersonator to battle against in mock debates.

“You really have to try and find the person who can act like them (the opponent) to a tee and really get under Bill’s skin,” Mr Liddell said.

And that person was lawyer and Labor MP Mark Dreyfus who, Mr Liddell said, “had this uncanny ability to impersonate the pompousness that came with Malcolm.”

“And also there were some of the things that Malcolm used to say in a very witty, kind of, underhanded knife-in-the-ribs sort of way. And, Dreyfus had that down to a tee, like it was pretty brutal on some occasions.

“He knew things that would really sort of needle Bill, and (Dreyfus) would go for it and Bill would say ‘Oh, mate, come on, back up.’ It was a little bit of fun.”

In 2016, Bill Shorten recruited a secret weapon to take on then-Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull. Picture Kym Smith

Mr Liddell said all of that behind-the-scenes work researching opponents and practising how to answer questions was why Mr Shorten was so strong in debates in both his 2016 and 2019 campaign runs.

Debates also gave him, as the Opposition Leader, an “equal platform with the Prime Minister”.

That said, he has seen some terrible examples of what not to do in a campaign, including “barking answers” at the audience, “picking fights”, or “saying something that’ll give your opponent ammunition”.

“But the main thing is, you absolutely don’t want to be out of touch,” he said.

He said the second debate “debacle” on Channel 9 was a key example of what leaders should not do to win votes.

“Where it’s just two blokes in a room shouting at each other, it’s terrible TV. And it’s also terrible when, in less than two weeks, there are some people that will go to the polls and decide who they’re going to vote for.”

Originally published as The secret to why the leaders’ debate was a ‘debacle’, from former Labor staffer