Steve Price: ‘A crack at naming the best and worst Australian political leaders of my time’
Australia in 2022 lacks great political leadership at all levels of government — it seems leaders like Howard and Hawke may be a thing of the past.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
On Monday night, at a theatre in Sydney, new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was sitting in the front row of the balcony section of the Enmore Theatre.
In house to watch a band called Gang of Youths, who are described as an Australian alternative rock band, the PM – just back from a week off – was wearing a Joy Division T-shirt and egged on to skol a plastic cup of beer.
Joy Division were an English band from the ’70s named after the prostitution wings of the Nazi concentration camps of WWII. The name comes from a book House of Dolls written by a holocaust survivor.
Even prime ministers are allowed down time and a 59-year-old baby boomer who ran Young Labor with radical connections at university in Sydney will inevitably have curious tastes in music.
The PM needs to be careful, though. Now that he is in charge, Albanese needs to be sure he doesn’t turn into another Kevin Rudd – the two-time PM Australians threw out to elect Tony Abbott.
Rudd loved to rub shoulders with famous actors and personalities as well as famously holding a Canberra summit when he won office from John Howard in 2007.
Scrawling on butcher paper mindless think tank ideas while sitting on the floor is an image we would all rather forget – let alone the deadly pink batts fiasco and cash for clunkers policy.
I did hear this week that the idea of the NDIS came from that summit, and we now know how that is and isn’t working.
Next week’s job summit in Canberra is sadly shaping up to be a repeat of Rudd’s elitist get-together and a reminder that both Albanese and Rudd were and are striving to be the new Bob Hawke.
Hawke’s wages accord agreement, struck with union boss Bill Kelty and Australia’s big employers, did work and set the standard for this sort of gathering.
The problem for Australia is the new PM – for all his beer skolling – is no Hawke and neither was Rudd.
Comparing political leaders of one era to another is an exercise full of risk, but in the week an All-Australian AFL side was named I thought I’d have a personal crack at naming the best and worst Australian political leaders of my time.
That means federal and state political leaders from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and from 2000 until now. Of the 10, seven are Labor politicians and three are Liberal, with two women and eight men.
Who doesn’t love a list – and I’d welcome feedback on anyone you think I may have left out.
Australia, in my view – and the world – in 2022 lacks great political leadership at all levels of government, whether it be federal, state or local governments. The world, too, lacks great political leadership at a time when we could all do with some inspiration.
Where are our Churchills and Kennedys, our Thatchers and Mandelas in politics? Where are our modern versions of General John Monash or Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop or explorers like James Cook and Neil Armstrong?
Seriously – is the best we can do Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson in politics and Elon Musk and Kim Kardashian in business?
Of my top 10 best and worst political figures, I have interviewed or questioned all of them at media conferences, socialised with a handful and argued with them all over a 50-year career in media.
TOP FIVE
Bob Hawke Labor PM
John Howard Liberal PM
Bob Carr NSW Labor Premier
Steve Bracks VIC Labor Premier
Don Dunstan SA Labor Premier
BOTTOM FIVE
Kevin Rudd Labor PM
Malcolm Turnbull Liberal PM
Kristina Keneally NSW Labor Premier
Joan Kirner Vic Labor Premier
Scott Morrison Liberal PM
Honourable mentions need to go to Gladys Berejiklian (good), Joh Bjelke-Petersen (bad), Mike Baird (OK), and Peter Beattie (goodish).
It’s not an extensive list by any means, but here are a couple of examples.
I went to Don Dunstan’s farewell media conference in Adelaide held at a hospital where he was a patient and dressed in a silk dressing gown. This was the ’70s, he was gay, wore pink shorts to parliament and put SA on the map.
Playing golf one day with Bob Hawke after his retirement at a course in Sydney, he kept setting fire to the bush with his lit cigar, swearing and telling great stories.
Eating dinner in the private dining room of NSW Premier Bob Carr’s office, he kept asking me what ministers were doing a good and bad job and telling them to come in for a chat.
Or John Howard standing at the door of Kirribilli House for Christmas drinks and remembering everyone’s name – partners included – as we left.
Anthony Albanese has been Prime Minister for not quite four months and might well end up on a future list as a successful leader. To do that, he needs to be himself.
Stop trying to be Bob Hawke and realise results and leadership count for much more than symbolism.
Ditch the trendy T-shirts and playing to the Enmore mob who can afford a Monday night out at a music concert drinking beer – they are not the Aussies that need your help right now.
DISLIKES
Meghan Markle’s dodgy podcast proving what a flake she really is
Victorian Labor hiring a highly paid adviser for heroin injecting facilities before a report on their future is even released
Frankston Council issuing $186 parking fines to cold water swimmers parking in boat trailer spots at Oliver’s Hill
Bloated local councils wasting millions of dollars of ratepayers’ money on training courses
LIKES
Positive signs after surgery for the legendary John Farnham – get well mate
Classy exit from McLaren F1 team by Aussie Daniel Ricciardo
Ukraine’s outstanding resistance to Russia clicks over six months
Coles freezing some supermarket prices until year end
Australia Today with Steve Price can be heard live from 7am weekdays via the LiSTNR app.
Originally published as Steve Price: ‘A crack at naming the best and worst Australian political leaders of my time’
Price: Patton now Allan’s sacrificial lamb amid Vic’s law and order dramas
Shane Patton tried to be the top cop, the tough cop, the bloke in charge of all of Victoria Police — but he also tried to play politics, and in the end it was the politics that burnt him.
Complex extradition process giving crims a passport to freedom
For every long-range arrest set up overseas — after many years and much money — plenty of fugitives remain one step ahead of the law and out of reach.