Opinion: Image is everything in politics, good luck finding substance

In modern politics the focus is on image, which leaves us with the unenviable task of working out what the person stands for, writes Mike O’Connor.

If Scott Morrison loses the keys to The Lodge in the ­forthcoming election, he will surely wonder when it all started to go wrong.

Was it that abortive Hawaiian holiday that allowed his detractors to paint him as more concerned with working on his tan than ­fighting bushfires?

Firefighting, of course, is the ­responsibility of state governments, which refuse to manage fuel loads and maintain access tracks for firefighters because they are frightened they will be accused of environmental vandalism by the Greens.

Morrison, however, copped the blame for unprecedented fires, which were not unprecedented at all, but the damage was done. Fires, floods, droughts, cyclones – blame the feds.

Assembling a National Cabinet to deal with the pandemic must have seemed like an admirable exercise in inclusive democracy, and may have been if the state Labor premiers had not undermined its workings at every turn.

Given the choice between acting collectively for the common good or playing petty state political games – “Queensland hospitals are for Queenslanders” – they opted for the latter.

Morrison, then, paid a price for thinking that they might act in the national interest.

Federal money was showered on the states, but predictably, it was never enough.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Brisbane yesterday. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

Were there mistakes made along the way? Absolutely, but overall the Federal Government acted responsibly while fighting Covid-19 with one hand and the premiers with the other.

Morrison has been accused of being insensitive to issues affecting women, but as Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is discovering, it is wise to have your own house in order before you start throwing grenades at the other side.

The hypocrisy on display ­regarding the tragic death of Labor senator Kimberley Kitching is breathtaking, and if it has had one benefit, it is to underline what ­everyone knows but lacks the courage to state and that is that when it comes to bullying women, other women are as guilty of it as men.

While accusing Morrison of having a problem with women, Albanese refuses to investigate serious allegations made from the grave against senior female members of his shadow cabinet.

I’m not suggesting that Morrison’s the greatest prime minister we’ve ever had, but I don’t think he deserves the vitriol that has been heaped upon him personally, a lot of it because he dares to be a practising Christian.

Albanese now presents as the ­alternative to a Morrison Government that might not have done great things, but has managed to run the country effectively, and if you listen to Albo you will certainly be getting your money’s worth.

He has said that if elected he would take his lead from former prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and former Liberal prime minister John Howard. Why stop there? Why not throw Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy into the mix?

I’d like to look like George Clooney, but it’s not going to happen.

We might all harbour a desire to be possessed of the strengths and ­talents of others, but wishing for it doesn’t make it happen.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese in Brisbane last week. Picture: Sarah Marshall/NCA NewsWire

On hearing of Albanese’s remarks, Mr Howard put them in perspective.

“Has there been an election where someone has said don’t elect me, elect a lookalike? It’s not really a vote for him, but someone else. It suggests a lack of confidence in himself,” he said.

“The real question for someone standing for election as prime minister is what you intend to do and how you intend to do it. You don’t cite others unless you are sensitive as to how people see you as a leader and what you intend to do.”

Albanese has had the presidential makeover: new glasses, new haircut, new wardrobe, new partner, new diet. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

The focus is on image, which leaves us with the unenviable task of looking behind the visuals and being able to define what it is that the ­person stands for.

You can look at the two individuals and find that you are personally drawn to one or the other, but beyond the name-calling and mud-slinging, when it comes to separating the parties on policy, it’s a game of spot-the-difference, one side morphing into the other in a bland contest to stand for nothing other than getting elected.

There are no Hawkes or Keatings or Howards or the vision, authority and presence that they projected.

Instead we’ve go ScoMo and Albo. Maybe in the end it will come down to whose glasses you prefer.

Originally published as Opinion: Image is everything in politics, good luck finding substance