
Issue No 32		24 September 1999

News

Kennett Nose-Dive: Botsman Picks It

Brisbane Institute director Peter Botsman may be the only political commentator to have picked Jeff Kennett's spectacular fall from grace in last week's Victorian state election.

Botsman made the brazen prediction in an April speech, reproduced in the July-August issue of Australian Quarterly.

In the speech, titled "How Media Killed the Political Star" Botsman argued that "in the era of John Howard and Bob Carr, charismatic leaders or those leaders who have an ad hoc or opportunistic approach to the media never survive much beyond one time.

"Based on this theory, then" he went onto say," my prediction is that Jeff Kennett will lose the next Victorian election."

Botsman told Workers Online his theory is based on a law of diminishing returns politicians who enjoy being in the public spotlight.

"The problem is that the public don't want to see their leaders in the spotlight all the time," Botsman says. "They don't want show ponies and they don't want the emperor."

he contrasts the success of Howard and Bob Carr with the Kennetts and Keatings. It is the more low key leaders who are finding success. ""Both are nerds," Botsman says, " but this has worked to their advantage."

"Populist politicians need a wake-up call - Kennett style politics is a recipe for disaster".

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Issue 32 contents

Interview: His Daily Fix
Graham Richardson talks of his transition from national politics to talkback radio and his ongoing jobs as a fixer.

Politics: Requiem to the Third Way
The swing to Labor in Victoria shows clearly that once again Australian voters have rejected economic rationalism. The result, and the reasons for it, should worry John Howard.

International: A Common Struggle for Freedom
It may not get the headlines, but Western Sahara has some chilling similarities with East Timor.

Unions: Woolscour Workers say No to Peter Reith
Workers at Canobolas Wooltopping - a woolscour plant near Orange, in central west New South Wales, have just sent a message to Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith: thanks, but no thanks.

Legal: Outlawed Acts of Consicence
The recent boycotts in support of East Timorese indepndence highlights the extremism of Reith's second wave.

History: Was Manning Clark A True Believer
A Canberra history conference shines the spotlight on Australia's most famous historian.

Review: Paranoid Echoes
The calls to examine the Australian–Soviet documents in the Moscow Literary archives have grown in volume over the past year.

Labour Review: What's New at the Information Centre
The latest issue of Labour Review - a resource for officals and students.

Satire: Kennett Boosts Chances: Two More Independents Dead
Caretaker Premier Jeff Kennett today admitted that voters perceived him as arrogant and out of touch, but insisted that they were wrong.

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» Powerful New Years Eve Deal for TransGrid

» Banks Grill Staff on New Fees

» Off the Rails - Workers Gagged

» Staff Frustration Boils Over at Sydney Water

» Kennett Nose-Dive: Botsman Picks It

» Academics Fail Non-Union Deal

» Nike in Indonesia: Military Employed to Intimidate Workers

» The Laugh’s On Barry