You all will have seen it. Whilst "Albo" has had a number of gaffes & "self gotchas" the one on NDIS is a stark red flag thats glowing red with sparks & sirens pouring out.
One of the retorts was Albo was brought up in a housing commission house by a disabled single mother so he doesn't need to explain how he understands the NDIS. For a deflection that was a pretty bad one. The guy earns $380,000 a year, costs tax payers approximately $2,500,000 a year in expenses owns 4 investment homes.
If you're the chairman of the board then you should be well across board business. If you have to refer to a script someone else wrote & you haven't read then you're not only the wrong person to be a leader, you might be the wrong person for most jobs. You're an actor. Get into acting, leave politics.
Now this is not an Albo sledge, this is nearly all politicians from all parties.
Aside from the NDIS gaffe itself, the thing to focus on was the actual press conference. Usually younger journos are trying to get somewhere in the trade & have a very short time to ask questions. They have their one question & do their best to fire it out...then the MP (every party is the same) quickly answers it their way.
A way to either switch to a point they want to make or announce or give a short tactical reply instead of an actual answer....then they pull the hand brake, it abruptly stops & the politician points to another eager journo with their one question and they quickly comply & fire their question to end the previous question completely.
There is no pin down, no supplementary question, no drilling down deeper and absolutely no chance to follow up. This is how highly stage managed its become. Its sharp, short, rapid fire & largely controlled by the politician with a minder standing by ready on the end button so it looks like the MP had to rush away not run away.
The NDIS presser had most of the journos sticking with the dropped ball & actually holding Mr Albanese to account & he struggled and drowned in his own pool of water. This has to happen regularly to all politicians, all of them. Push the red hot poker to the belly...not allow hapless thespians run through their lines, give token opportunity to reporters to shine a light they don't control the on/off button.
Press Conferences will have to evolve or we will continue to get highly controlled, highly staged managed sleight of hand stunts.
Its not just Albo, its all Politicians from all parties.
It has to stop or we risk keeping failing theatre props as legislators
Largely, the name "Scotty from Marketing" is fairly accurate but it's not confined to him. There's some who will roll up the sleeves and punch on regardless of the intensity of questioning...but they're generally not well liked by some. They're hard nuts to crack because they know their job, they know their issues, they can be held to account & they can be regarded as all over their portfolio or position. They are in the minority.
Press conferences have to change & pick up the slack. Otherwise we remain stuck with marketing drones acting out their lines without vigourous scrutiny.
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