What is it with Baird’s social media approach?

YOU have to question Mike Baird’s social media ­approach. Some of the stuff that he posts online is ­undignified for a premier, says Andrew Clennell.

WHEN Mike Baird brought Jeff Kennett and John Howard in to address state cabinet recently, they both had the same message.

The electorate never judged you at an election for what you had done, they said. They judged you on what you were promising to do.

In other words, once you had achieved something, it was pretty much forgotten.

Kennett should know all about this.

He was unceremoniously punted as Victorian premier after eight years of arguably very good work for Victoria.

As much as Kennett had done in revamping Melbourne, the establishment of the Crown complex, the building of great motorways and bringing the economy to booming, the electorate threw him out.

Tony Abbott also knows about this phenomenon. He stopped the boats and cut the carbon tax but people seemed to forget about those issues as soon as they were resolved.

When Abbott tried to introduce such controversial measures as a $5 charge on Medicare, his poll numbers hit the floor.

Premier Mike Baird / Picture: Mark Evans

A politician could deduce that the electorate is rather an ungrateful bunch. They really just want politicians to build and run the services they need and then get out of the way.

In some ways politicians are like a referee in a rugby league match.

If they do a good job, you barely notice them.

That’s where Mike Baird has swung into trouble over issues such as the greyhounds ban and lockout laws.

The second one is ironic because it was Barry O’Farrell who introduced the lockout — but Baird, through the agency of some overeager staff, decided to own the laws by declaring he would take a lot of convincing to change any aspect of them. He prejudged the outcome of an official government review on Facebook.

Likewise, when it came to the greyhound industry ban; there  was nothing floated beforehand, no targets for the industry to meet and no period of ­consultation.

Again we found out from a Facebook post that Baird was banning an entire industry. Most people would not even have known the Special Commission of Inquiry had been on.

Even those in the community who support or are indifferent about the greyhound ban think the issue was “mishandled”.

Now people around town are questioning the competence and arrogance of Baird’s staff — perhaps not surprisingly when one gets up in a meeting and says Baird’s Facebook channel can be like “North Korea”.

There is talk to staff of contempt for “legacy media” and  the importance of ­“social media”.

You have to question Baird’s social media ­approach full stop. Some of the stuff that he posts is ­undignified for a premier.

Another senior staffer swaggers around and tells ­internal meetings: don’t worry, ordinary people don’t care about the things we care about.

Of all the issues of late, it is actually the health issue that probably bites the hardest. The death of a baby at Bankstown Hospital (and another brain damaged) from a failure of processes was probably going to be covered up by the minister and bureaucrats and, when it came to the crunch, Health Minister Jillian Skinner did nothing but stand up for those bureaucrats who were behind the failure of ­processes.

Another appalling political judgment.

The government has put its fate on two ­issues — greyhounds and lockout laws — into the hands of ­reviews.

Normally government can point a reviewer towards an outcome it would like but the government appointed two former High Court judges, men who will not bow to a phone call from someone in government.

These are not men accustomed to being told how to make judgments.

Another political misstep by what is suddenly looking like a novice government.

Baird needs a circuit-breaker. A reshuffle is one way and it must occur as soon as possible and see Jillian Skinner retired. An overhaul of Baird’s senior staff is another option but so loyal is Baird he will probably not go for it, despite the evidence it is necessary.

Baird should certainly look to ease some provisions of the lockout laws when the review by Ian Callinan QC comes out at the end of the month. I’m told this time, unlike the greyhounds, the government response will not be released at the same time as the Callinan report, giving time for the public to digest the report before any decision. Whatever the Premier does in any reset of government, he needs to show he is listening to critics and not just stubbornly digging in.