Gillard speaking but few listening

JULIA Gillard's pitch for the hearts and minds of western Sydney is designed to stem the flood of voters who have deserted her government in droves.

But not even the promise to raise Warragamba Dam will stop voters leaking away from Labor.

Despite the carefully crafted rhetoric to show that the Prime Minister understands voters' concerns, few are listening.

For a speech to succeed, the speaker must be trusted. If nobody trusts you, they won't listen to you.

One of Gillard's challenges - amid broken promises, policy blunders and political stunts gone bad - is that few voters believe anything she says.

Trust is a political commodity that is hard to gainbut easy to lose. To persuade an audience, even if it is filled with true believers, it must have a compelling argument.

The most promising part of the speech was the pledge "to deliver five things to make your life easier".

They were: supporting "Aussie" jobs, broadband, improving education, better health and disability services, and "help" to manage the "pressures of modern family life".

Along with a "plan" to tackle crime, it was a back-to-basics pitch.

It was also overlaid with values: recognition and respect, hard work, families.

The problem is that it is to launch a poorly conceived and badly executed stunt.

The western Sydney "blitz," including a sleepover in Rooty Hill, has undermined anything Gillard says or does.

Gillard, however, paid a worthy tribute to Labor great Neville Wran, who won NSW state seats in the 1970s and 80s, from the (then) battlers in western Sydney to the silvertails on the north shore.

No political leader has ever been more popular or more successful in winning seats than Wran.

But Wran never needed a western Sydney blitz prefaced with an address to the diminishing Labor faithful to reacquaint himself with voters.

Wran knew what working-class life was like because he had lived it in hardscrabble depression-era Balmain.

Wran also understood how to nurture opportunity, prosperity and aspiration.

Unfortunately for Gillard, 18 months ago Wran told me that Labor had "lost its way" as the party no longer represented Labor voters. Labor's failure, he said, stemmed from its inability to field candidates with real-life experiences who reflected their communities.

Voters want leaders who understand them and their concerns, respect their values and govern competently with integrity. No amount of speeches will make the voters listen to you if they don't believe in you anymore.