While Albo stumbles, Tanya has gift of the gab
Unlike most of her tribal peers, Plibersek is an excellent communicator and a confident campaigner. She has a powerful media presence, is skilled enough to capitalise on the 10- to 15-second daily grabs while also capable of encapsulating her message into the other formats. Labor has not had this in a leader for a long time.
Anthony Albanese has many attributes. He is intellectually sharp enough and a good, decent person (for a politician). He’s disciplined and to his credit behaved beautifully for six years as heir apparent to Bill Shorten. His trust-ability rating is probably his best electoral asset but his communication abilities are below par. I used to think that his authenticity spoke louder than his flaws. I was wrong.
This is not a new problem, and that goes for both major parties. Reforms to Labor Party rules were painstakingly designed to stop history repeating itself and, though appearing good on paper, they failed to achieve the most important objective of all — to ensure the best leader is selected. In fact, the guidelines inadvertently raise the possibility of installing the wrong leader. Leadership stability is a virtue only when the leader is worthy.
True believers laud Paul Keating and Bob Hawke as Labor’s best leaders of the past four decades. Both were astute with very different political and leadership skills and both were highly skilled political communicators who seized their opportunities. Keating’s Redfern speech is commonly regarded as the finest of all. He astutely read the times, spoke from the heart and electrified the crowd. Hawke was a resonant communicator who was comfortable in his own skin and a natural leader who knew how to converse with Australians. There is a wide gulf between these two giants and their successors.
In politics, short grabs require an ability to get to the point without appearing laboured. Long speeches require the ability to hold the attention of audiences and build information transfers that enable understanding, clarity and persuasion.
Albanese’s problem is more than compromised articulation. It’s that his communication and leadership package is not as potent as it needs to be. He can speak with clarity but it takes an awful amount of effort for him to do so. Even two minutes is a long time for public speakers under pressure; Albanese must be exhausted after making long speeches. He is more of a thinker than a natural speaker. Listening to him speak is a challenge that requires extra focus — a problem for a leader.
Every year political leaders are required to give more than 500 press conferences and be capable of condensing their messages for broadcast on the news. It is an art mastered by few (Kevin Rudd had an ability). They need to appear natural while reading their scripts (Hawke) and perform well in Q&A town hall settings, which require quick tuning and crowd skills (Bill Shorten). They need the ability to connect — which Albanese has — and they need to stimulate the imagination of voters, which Albanese does not have. They can’t afford to waffle away their precious media time (Kim Beazley) and in an era of gotcha politics they need to be precise.
The impact of modern politics is that leaders live in more of a cocoon than ever before — which affects judgment. They are inclined to overestimate the importance of policy in the minds of voters. To a large section of voters it is a contest between two candidates, with the better candidate being the more persuasive. The old cliche that actions speak louder than words may be outdated.
So who is the best leader in the Labor team? If political communication is part of the job description, then Tanya Plibersek appears to be the natural choice by a distance. Federal Labor cannot afford not to have its best talent as leader.
The choice for Labor is whether to give Albo his fair shot at contesting an election or be led by the person who will give it the best chance of forming government.
Dean Frenkel is a consultant speech and communications expert.
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