Influencing the Influencers

Only in Australia  can an acting Prime Minister give a speech to praise a state Premier and calmly say he has ‘worked his guts out’ for the people he governs. 

At an extraordinary Labor Party conference in Sydney this weekend, Australia’s darling and favourite acting Prime Minister ever,  the Welsh-born Julia Gillard, said it all when she supported and praised the NSW Premier, (a former garbage collector and greenkeeper with a degree in Literature) in her speech to the conference yesterday.   On Saturday, Premier Nathan Rees – who has endured 14 months of ridicule as a bit of a lame-duck with a knack for the vernacular - took the powerful conference delegates by their collective throat and demanded extraordinary powers to choose his own ministry (rather than have factional leaders tell him who he has to have).   He got what he wanted and created Labor history.  It was followed with stunned applause inside and outside the conference hall.

Within hours two ministers once considered unassailable were mere back benchers.   I’d watched them both that morning in the Business Observers centre displaying their cocksure bonhomie.  The normally tuned in duo clearly had no clue what was about to unfold.   The rest of us were glued to the action that followed the Premier’s speech, as ministers clearly stunned by the audacity of their youthful leader wandered about in a daze and checked their Blackberries to ensure they still had a job.

The Premier did it all with great style – testament to the mastery of his chief of staff, Graeme Wedderburn (who does work his guts out).   The speech began as the typical leader’s speech to the political wing of his government – the rank and file members of the ALP.   About two paragraphs in, after laudable announcements regarding Indigineous literacy,  employment, and transport links, he dropped the first big change; banning donations from developers to the Party funds.  That sent a loud murmur of incredulity amongst my fellow business observers.  Then a little later came the biggest announcement – all neatly and elegantly woven around the terms, ‘trust’, ‘integrity’ and adding the ghastly term ‘cleansed’.  ‘Cleansed’ is a word I loathe when it is used to describe filthy acts of murder in places like Kosovo and Sudan.  Now the Premier was demanding the right to ‘clean’ his ministry.  That said it all for me.  I quite liked it.

And so the afternoon of long knives set in.

We took up ours, literally.  At lunch with the Premier immediately after his speech there was  a palpably different  tone to the many I have sat through recently.  At those luncheons it was clear the business community wanted to be polite and afford the likeable young man from Sydney’s western suburbs some respect.  Quietly they’d mutter over their bread rolls that he hasn’t a chance and can’t rule some of the powerful factional leaders who exert real influence over the government.  This time there was no muttering.  Just applause and nodding.  This guy has guts, we said.  I told him that personally (yes, I used the ‘g’ word).  He nodded and said, ‘It had to be done.’

The next day the conference was anything but lethargic.  Word had got around, that this was the best show in town.  The Business Observer Centre was buzzing.  The PM, who had not been shy about distancing himself from Mr Rees, sent a video statement from Singapore (APEC meeting), praising the Premier for his bold decision and offering support.  Then Julia arrived and added to the applause.  The message is now clear, the very popular Federal government likes the new look NSW government now it has chopped off some heads – one from the left and one from the right.

This afternoon some new minister’s were announced to replace those who had been cleansed  – the first lot of ministers to be installed without the meddling of factional leaders.  Guess what?  One comes from the left, and one from the right.  All on merit, of course.