We have to talk (about) Kevin

I’ve just got back from a fortnight in Vietnam. 

During my trip Singapore airport asked me to rate the cleanliness of their toilets. I just had to jab the appropriate smiley face. Vietnam hotels wanted feedback about whether their staff have served my every need. 

But I still haven’t been polled about my political convictions nor my choice for the upcoming (whenever Kevin calls it) Australian election.

So in the increasingly mistaken idea that someone in the universe is interested in what I think (even if some weeks my most numerous followers are in Romania), here I go again.

 We need to talk, Kevin.

I have only met you once in person, and you were polite, courteous, interested in what was going on at the school you visited, and seemed to connect with the kids and staff. Now that may be politics, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.

I have friends who are public servants and who have nightmare tales about working under your former leadership regime. 

So here is my advice given those two direct experiences:

1. Don’t micro-manage. There are excellent people in the world who can do their job without being watched every minute, or without having to provided inordinate amounts of detailed briefings for no real purpose. Be clear about what you want and let people get on with the job.

2. If you want to work 24/7 then that’s fine. But don’t expect your public servants to do the same thing. Expecting people to be on deck before 7am to provide responses to media items is just unnecessary and absolutely disrespectful. People have families and need to be able to balance the demands of their work with the demands of their children, spouses, partners, parents etc.

By the same token don’t create accountability  and deadlines that required working in to the wee hours of the night either. This is not fair, nor reasonable. 

3. Find advisers who have some life experience, brains and education and will provide real advice about what’s going on out here instead of responding to polls that obviously don’t reach the whole population – ever (have I told you nobody polls me). Look up praxis.

4.Don’t let advisers and staff groom you with blandness to the point of disappearance.

5. I’m over ‘cut to the bone’ and I’ll soon be over ‘negative’ as well. The media may like catch cries – advisers may tell you if you repeat the same message over and over so that it is ingrained in the psyche, but I say forget the tired and trite and talk to us like we are intelligent people who understand complicated English.

6. Don’t resort to abuse – you are a leader – you set the tone. There is a time for spitting the dummy- rarely- and then it should happen with intelligence and wit (sic Paul Keating).

7. Drive policy change with backbone, conviction and sound rationale that doesn’t change in an ad hoc response to unpopular comment.

8. And finally, (and again, I can’t believe I am citing Mark Latham) it’s time to do something about the factional and sub-factional Labour system that determines candidacy and policy direction. I appreciate this is a big one and that you are not God.

There’s a lot riding on you Kevin. What have you got to lose?

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No art work this week - have been too busy enjoying the sights of Vietnam.