Barry Warms To Task
Newcastle Herald
Tuesday April 10, 2007
AUSTRALIANS like their politicians, particularly state leaders, to be warm.
Peter Debnam was not warm. No amount of running around in swimmers was going to persuade us that Debnam was the kind of guy who would be approachable and flexible in the areas where we prefer state leaders to exhibit such traits like education and health.Even shadow attorney-general Chris Hartcher, whose support for Debnam could have him missing out on Coalition leader Barry O'Farrell's front bench this week, said Debnam was too cool (in the non-hip sense of the word)."He's never been the kind of guy who's going to put his arm around you and say 'well done, good job'," Hartcher said yesterday."There's not a warmth there, and that's a shame. He is quite human. I always put it down to the fact he lives up to the image of the naval officer."He never liked talking about himself, about his background, although he had all the things that people tend to identify with as ordinary, like the public school education and the childhood in Broken Hill."O'Farrell, on the other hand, has warmth and the ability to be everyman, despite his intellect and leadership ambitions.He's the bloke who's battled his weight and dropped 50 kilograms. The biggest loser of politics, and it's helped put him on top.After years of throwing up cold leaders who have bombed with the public Debnam and Kerry Chikarovski and after the nasty, and eventually sad, exit of John Brogden, enough Coalition members have worked out that Australians like their state leaders a bit touchy-feely when the leader at federal level prefers the authoritarian model.Enough of them have also worked out they can keep pushing their own morals campaign within State Parliament on issues like homosexuality, but if they push it too far the community will challenge them on relevancy.And keep them out of government.We like our politicians to at least appear to be moral individuals, but we don't like politicians shoving their moral views down our throats. And that was always the unknown element with the Coalition under Debnam.What were we actually going to be buying if we took him off the shelf?Hartcher, a Catholic, unsurprisingly rejects the notion of a religious right power bloc in the NSW Opposition."I go to Mass each week, but I don't agree with this notion of a religious right grouping. In the Liberal party we have a conscience vote on morals issues."He also rejects the notion that he is Barry O'Farrell's "long time arch rival", as he was labelled in one weekend newspaper article."All these journalists can say that, but they've never spoken to me about him," he said.So I did speak with him about O'Farrell, the man who's going to work hard for the next four years being ordinary enough for NSW voters to want to back him.Asked if he liked O'Farrell, Hartcher, a barrister before becoming an MP, said carefully: "I work with Barry. We have a common objective (gaining government in 2011) and we'll work towards it."Asked if he expected to be dropped in the next few days, Hartcher said he couldn't say. He hadn't talked with O'Farrell about the leader's plans, and O'Farrell has to talk to Nationals leader Andrew Stoner today.Asked if he deserved to be retained on the front bench, Hartcher said he had "certainly worked hard enough".So, if you're dropped from O'Farrell's line-up?"That means I've got more time to devote to my electorate," he said.I asked if we could draw any conclusions if his name didn't appear.It might be a sign O'Farrell is serious about fashioning a different Opposition and has the clout to do so something where the likeably "ordinary" Premier Morris Iemma seems to have come unstuck with the Paul Gibson affair.A clean sweep in the Coalition's senior ranks might be needed to convince the public we have an Opposition that actually wants to challenge an unpopular government and eventually govern under O'Farrell."You will draw your own conclusions," Hartcher said.And so we will.
© 2007 Newcastle Herald
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