For Berejiklian, front-foot attack is the only way to stop going backwards

Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

There is a way back for Premier Gladys Berejiklian in this campaign but she has to go on the front foot and “own” the issue she is trying to avoid.

Tellingly today, after being asked more than 10 questions about the impending demolition of Allianz Stadium at her press conference, the Premier avoided the words “demolition” or “stadium” and continued to repeat that things were “business as usual”.

You cannot introduce an elephant to a room — in a $2 billion stadiums policy, including the demolition of a stadium just prior to a March 23 election — and pretend the elephant is not there.

Berejiklian’s strange avoidance of the stadiums issue gives the sort of vibe that she basically hopes it goes away until polling day. It also seems to indicate she is not comfortable with her policy … almost as if she felt she had to do it to please powerful interests, such as broadcaster Alan Jones.

Meanwhile, the Premier continues to visit schools and hospitals and point out that the government is spending on other things as well. That’s fine — but the elephant ain’t moving.

This would be funny if the future of a state weren’t so serious. Under siege from Labor and Michael Daley, what Berejiklian has to do is go on the attack; defend her unpopular stadiums policy to the hilt and paint Daley as a wrecker who will tear the state’s economy and infrastructure program down.

This is not hard, given the record of the last few years of Labor, last time it was in government. Yet Berejiklian and her strategists continue to opt for the “small target” approach, hoping to somehow sleepwalk over the line, although there were signs of movement when she went on radio station 2GB to finally talk stadiums and attack Daley on the issue.

At the 2015 election, Mike Baird ran promising the highly unpopular sale of the electricity industry to pay for infrastructure to “transform the state”. He won with 54.3 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote — 4.3 per cent more than Berejiklian had in the last Newspoll. And he won because he owned what he was selling, popular or not, and made himself out to be a strong leader. Several polls at the time showed there was only 38 per cent support for the electricity sale.

All Berejiklian’s team do is slag off Baird but at least he knew how to take an unpopular proposition to an electorate and fight for it.

The Premier’s campaign launch in Penrith on Sunday could be critical. She needs a circuit-breaker now momentum appears to be going Labor’s way.

Given she has adopted the slogan “taking the pressure off you”, one would expect a big cost-of-living announcement.

But she also needs to address the stadiums issue front-on and try to convince people of its benefits and that she is building schools and hospitals as well.

Otherwise the slogan will come to define the pressure on Berejiklian in the final days before March 23.