Editorial: Perfect forum for leaders to connect with voters

Election campaigning is at its raw best when all the minders are removed from the conversation and it’s just the candidates talking directly with the voters, writes the editor.

Election campaigning is at its raw best when all the minders are removed from the conversation and it’s just the candidates talking directly with the voters.

That is the beauty of the People’s Forum concept, as we will see again tonight when Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese face a room of 100 undecided voters at the first head-to-head event of this campaign – hosted in Brisbane by The Courier-Mail and Sky News.

While it is the perfect forum for both leaders to cut through the spin and capture the attention of voters with a clear outline of the vision they have for this nation, more than a few leaders have been caught out in these events. So they are always unmissable – being so unscripted and unpredictable.

Debates between the two candidates who want to lead became popular in the Western world more than half a century ago with the arrival of television.

One of the more famous contests in those early days was during the 1960 presidential election between the Democratic candidate – then US senator John F. Kennedy and the incumbent vice-president and Republican nominee Richard Nixon.

It was a contest credited at having given Kennedy the keys to the White House in what ended up being a close election – largely due to his more telegenic appearance.

Australian politics has never quite matched the hoopla of American campaigns, and that is probably a good thing.

But Australian voters are well aware that the opening week of this campaign – a few missteps aside – has been swamped by spin and carefully crafted lines and picture opportunities designed to attract favourable media coverage.

There is nothing wrong with that.

It is all very much part of the democratic process, and a necessary part of the exchange of ideas that are part of electioneering.

But most Australians who will cast their vote next month know full well that the stakes in this contest are higher than they have been in generations.

The Covid-19 crisis has left this nation deeply in debt, inflation is rearing its head in a manner it has not done since the 1970s, the war in Ukraine threatens to up-end peace in Europe, and our relationship with China will require careful statecraft and a steady hand from whoever emerges as prime minister.

We are therefore all obligated as voters to go beyond mere feelings and perception and instead demand the substance on what is on offer from these two men.

Tonight we will not only see these two men outline their beliefs and their vision.

We will also witness them answering the questions of ordinary Australians, who as past forums have shown, can often catch out politicians with out-of-left-field concerns and preoccupations not readily apparent to the media.

The forum will perhaps be of most value to Mr Albanese, who had a shocker of a first week. He needs to reassure voters he is on top of his brief, especially when it comes to economic matters.

But it is important to Mr Morrison too. He has a chance to make a case to voters that while they might not like him, he is the better choice as leader.

Whatever they choose to concentrate on, and whatever questions are thrown their way, this is politics as it should be.

May the best man win.

TOUGHEN SENTENCES NOW

That a man who ambushed and sexually abused a total stranger he attacked after hiding in the bushes at a local park walked free from court yesterday is clearly not in line with what the community would expect for such a horrific crime.

The challenge is that both the defence and the prosecution both submitted that Joshawa Eric Kane, 28, be sentenced to 18 months. That is because their advice to the judge – who described the crime as both “cowardly and disgusting” – is based on case law precedent. We would submit that precedent is a joke, not just in this instance, but in a worrying number of cases that are coming before our courts.

What is required is a genuine deterrent. An 18-month sentence suspended after 282 days in custody is not enough.

And the only authority that can make such an adjustment is the state government through legislation. We urge Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to act.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: Perfect forum for leaders to connect with voters