(First publish on LinkedIn in April 2022)
Sunday, 10th April 2022, Australian Prime Minister called the federal elections after visiting the Governor-General in Canberra. In a country where voting is mandatory, every eligible person is expected to cast their vote come May 21. Obviously, Scott Morrison's Liberal-National Coalition (LNP) coalition and Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party (LP) have already jumped on the campaign trail to canvas the votes.
What I want to keep observing is how the reputation game will continue to play out in this election, aside the issues and policies. The policies of the two big daddies in elections have always been founded and will always be grounded on the philosophical underpinnings of their establishments. The centre-left leaning LP will lean on their vote niche 'philosophy', and so will the centre-right LNP - leaning on their policy bedrock. In simple terms, both camps have always articulated their policies based on their establishments’ genetic mapping, unless if any of them take the risk of mutating in the short space between now and May 21. Mr Morrison is already preaching a warning message for voters not to ‘risk a change to an “uncertain” future,’ while Mr Albanese, is encouraging the message of hope asking voters ‘to seize the opportunity for better times ahead’.
Political fundamentals aside, I am keen to keep follow that laser-sharp light cutting through their leadership reputation in their expected execution of duty, as Prime Minister, and how that will impact on who forms the next government. Whilst Mr Morrison still leads as a preferred leader for the job, the LP has a better aggregate as a preferred camp in recent NewsPolls. How much will leadership reputation influence the polling, going forward?
Pre-election season, Mr Morrison has been working on mending fences, to save his leadership reputation, partly damaged by his absence when parts of the country were up in smoke - experiencing one of the worst bush fires in history. He had to cut short a family holiday, to Hawaii, after receiving an avalanche of criticism for the behaviour. It is still evident how much the communities continue to feel disenfranchised, today. This is still weighing and will constantly visit to haunt him in this election. His team has tried its best to help douse the leadership reputation damage his absence caused, including placing his wife as the front and family’s spokesperson when addressing the matter, on a television program on Channel 9, a couple of months ago. A credible crisis and reputation management tactic. Mrs Morrison even took responsibility for their being away, in that difficult time. Lately, the public labelling of Mr Morrison as ‘a hypocrite and a liar’ by his deputy and coalition partner put pressure on their candidate’s leadership reputation, and the entire LNP product’s reputation, in an election season.
While Mr Morrison and the LNP is on its last-minute reputation cleaning, the LP campaign bus hit a pothole on the very first day of starting the campaign off, when Mr Albanese stumbled to answer a question on the country’s unemployment rate or official interest rate, in a televised interview. Issues that matter a lot for a country in an election year, and for a team going into a campaign. That alone has the potential to negatively impact on his leadership reputation, as not being ready to lead, from day one. Having offered an apology, he will be lucky if the LNP will not milk and continue to capitalise on it.
We cannot decisively call it out if leadership reputation ramifications plays out strongly, in this election, simply because their issues approach is based on the philosophical underpinnings of the political establishments – speaking to a voter that resonates with those ideologies. Regardless, for an election coming on the back of a few tough years of dealing with a global pandemic, devastating bush fires, flood waters, and the associated collaterals, leadership reputation demonstrated could be the x-factor in this election - especially for the vote swingers.
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