In our Covid crisis, we are lacking great leaders like Keating, Hawke and Kennett

As Australia battles Covid and Victoria locks down again, we are missing the great, strong leaders we once had, like Paul Keating, Bob Hawke and Jeff Kennett.

Steve Price

@StevePriceMedia

4 min read

May 29, 2021 - 11:21AM

1993: 'A victory for the true believers'

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Standing outside the Hotel de Crillon in Paris back in June 1994 with a radio microphone and recorder in hand waiting for Australia’s then Prime Minister Paul Keating to appear, I wondered what sort of mood he’d be in.

As PM, he and then wife Annita had represented Australia at the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings on Omaha Beach in Normandy.

The couple seemed to relish being in France — antique clocks and all that stuff — so I was hopeful the legendary Labor leader might be in a cheery frame of mind.

Keating had just completed a diplomatic meeting with French President Francois Mitterand and had deigned to give the travelling media pack that had covered his D-Day activities some sound bites.

Being the nineties the normal Canberra press pack who were travelling with the PM were staying in the thousand dollar a night hotel we were standing in front of.

As “rude and threatening” as Paul Keating was, “in the trenches”, you’d want him with you, says Steve Price. Picture: Supplied

As an outsider I was in a budget joint down the road and not used to the normal protocols for such media events.

As Keating arrived, I nervously made sure my tape recorder was running — it wasn’t — and I launched into a long-forgotten question. What I have never forgotten though was Keating’s response.

Staring down at me with an impervious grin he said, “I thought you’d do better than that.”

As he would have known, it was a perfect put down in front of a bunch of Canberra regulars already wondering who I was, and why was I there. After answering a few other questions, he turned on his heel and disappeared back to his lavish suite.

As acerbic, rude and threatening as the legend remembers he could be, and with a great capacity to call and abuse you on a regular basis. There was, though, still something about Keating you admired.

If you were in the trenches, he was the bloke you’d want with you.

During this time of national crisis — the biggest economic and mental threat since WWII — Australians must be asking themselves: Where are our great political leaders? The sort of national and state leadership once delivered by strong political leaders like Keating, John Howard or Bob Hawke.

Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard with the Queen. Picture: Andrew Meares

Even the states in the past had strong leaders like Jeff Kennett, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Bob Carr, Don Dunstan, Steve Bracks or even Peter Beattie.

Gladys Berejiklian aside, the current crop of State leaders to me are flaky, poll driven, obsessive light weights.

Canberra after Keating had Howard and Peter Costello, Tim Fischer, Kim Beazley, Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard. So where has that inspirational, no-nonsense nation building leadership style gone?

What’s up with the recent crowd of federal, state and local government leaders? Why are they so unable to inspire, motivate, emotionally engage and take the nation, state or cities with them?

Watching Victoria’s Acting Premier James Merlino fronting an hour-long media conference on Thursday to break the depressing news of another Covid lockdown, it struck me that he seemed like a nice bloke.

Much shorter and less domineering than his boss Daniel Andrews — who is still on sick leave — he seemed bemused rather than angry at the barking media pack.

‘Cheery’ James Merlino looks like a nice bloke, but is not a leader like we have had in the past, while Daniel Andrews often comes across as angry. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Announcing such an unpopular retreat - back into lockdown - was never going to be easy but Merlino presented like a younger brother, telling you he wasn’t coming to your wedding.

It was bad news delivered with a grin that meant even though you hated what he was saying, you knew it wasn’t really his fault.

The cheery Merlino gets away with it because deep down you know he’s not the real boss and the decisions aren’t really his.

Don’t shoot the messenger. Nice bloke, not a leader.

So who else do we have?

MICHAEL O’BRIEN STATE OPPOSITION LEADER – the sort of bloke you’d avoid at your local Rotary meeting.

EX-LIBERAL LEADER MATTHEW GUY – you’d hope you weren’t paired with him at your local golf club.

LORD MAYOR SALLY CAPP – all sunshine and smiles when the going is good but folds and allows herself to get bullied on tough decisions like drug injecting rooms.

PREMIER DANIEL ANDREWS – an overbearing control freak.

TREASURER JOSH FRYDENBERG – like your talented younger brother, who never gets in trouble.

OPPOSITION LEADER ANTHONY ALBANESE — a political spear thrower dressed in a nice suit who isn’t sure why he has his job.

TANYA PLIBERSEK — like a shark circling the blood in the water, waiting to strike.

You wouldn’t be convinced any of that lot could help you cross the street let alone lead a nation or State. Leaders have failed on bushfires, Covid, drought and even China.

Melbourne has been failed by both state, federal and local government leaders.

Victoria is back in a seven-day lockdown with dodgy controls of Covid outbreaks and hotel quarantine and with a CBD looking like a bombed-out shell of its former self.

Victorians are crying out for leadership and will again have a long seven days to think about why it’s lacking for them in Canberra, in Spring Street and City Hall.

A day of reckoning is coming soon, and one can only hope a leader is coming from somewhere soon.