Four minutes and 39 seconds. That’s how long Jess Wilson spent taking questions during a press conference on Thursday.
As the election campaign has ratcheted up over the past week, this has become a pattern, one which illustrates the defensive game the Coalition is playing to hold onto its lead in the polls.
The Liberal campaign bus is still yet to hit the road. When her Suburban Rail Loop policy was put under the microscope last Friday, Wilson’s media event was scrapped. On Saturday, she walked away from a press conference after one question on the issue.
No one cares about the dented pride of journalists. But an election is when scrutiny should be dialled up, not down. And the opposition leader should embrace the chaos of the campaign, rather than go on the defensive.
This is also evident in Wilson’s ongoing reluctance to appear in a three-way televised debate alongside Premier Ben Carroll and One Nation leader Warren Pickering.
On Thursday, she agreed to take on Carroll head-to-head in a Channel Nine- The Age debate next week, with Pickering to respond in a separate segment. Labor has so far knocked back these terms. (Nine is the owner of this masthead.)
In this day and age, the value of these debates for political parties is the clips that can be created after the fact.
Labor’s refusal to change the format shows they have an interest in trying to get Wilson and Pickering on stage together. The prospect of a minority government backed by One Nation is one of Labor’s central attack lines.
But in dodging and weaving and weaving in the debate over the debate, Wilson has missed a chance to call Labor’s bluff and call out the largely untested Pickering, who is trying to pinch voters from her side of the fence.
It would be unfair to accuse Wilson of avoiding the media completely. Over the past week, she has taken part in multiple one-on-one interviews, including one from veteran broadcaster Neil Mitchell which will be published on Friday. Ironically, clips from this interview have been circulating on social media for days.
But these appearances are still largely on her terms – and there are good reasons for a less cautious approach.
Firstly, election campaigns cannot be controlled, just as incoming governments don’t get to choose the problems that define their time in office. Debates and press conferences are pressure-cooker environments by design. They test the mettle of candidates and reveal how they respond under stress.
The very best political operators turn them into opportunities to win over voters, not challenges to be survived.
This is a rare time when oppositions get as much coverage as the government. Minimising these appearances does the Coalition – as well as voters – a disservice.
The second problem is that the current strategy still plays into Labor’s hands.
Two hours before Wilson fronted the media on Thursday, Treasurer Colin Brooks accused the Coalition of thinking they had already won the election.
“They’ve put that [campaign] bus into the shed because they don’t want to be subject to the scrutiny of having journalists like yourselves asking questions during the day,” he said.
Brooks then handed out a glossy magazine titled “Jess Wilson’s Dodgy Costings”, featuring Labor’s guesstimates about what they believe her policies would cost. This is a stunt, to be sure, but there are genuine questions for the Coalition to answer about the amount of money it has pledged and the tax revenue it is forgoing.
By walking away from her press conference while these questions are being asked, Wilson feeds the attack lines Labor have crafted about her.
At its core, Wilson’s strategy is not a small target one.
Policies such as a back-office public service hiring freeze, a cash surplus by 2032, cancelling the VNI West transmission project, running hybrid trains in Melbourne’s west, and shifting elective surgery to private hospitals are all significant.
They should be tested in a campaign environment, and that requires lengthy dialogue from all sides. So far, the Coalition is depriving itself of chances to defend its platform as Labor chews up airtime.
As a classical Liberal, Wilson should embrace the marketplace of ideas, throw the gauntlet back at her opponents, and dismiss the fear of something going viral on Instagram.
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