Is Kim Beazley trying to prove that he is out of touch?
And if so, doesn’t that just prove the point that he is out of touch considering that he, therefore, does not recognise it?
Anyway, the point I am getting at here is Kim’s visit to ACTION’s belconnen depot yesterday where Kim, in a very foolhardy manner, thought that he would be talking to his grass roots supporters, and would get his head on the TV news having a cup of tea, slice of cake and a chuckle with his comrades of the automotive transportational variety…preferably with him blowing out a candle and making some silly joke about it which brings applause and laughter from the bus drivers.
Instead (as this Canberra Times article shows), he encountered some opponents. The details in the articel are mildly interesting, but they are off topic in this discussion. The point is that Kim not only doesn’t catch buses in Canberra, he doesn’t listen to talk radio in Canberra, and neither do his media advisors. Kim waltzed into the bus depot thinking that everybody in their would want an autograph from their somewhat trademarkedly bulky hero, and was shocked to find that they weren’t. Admittedly he had some responses to the criticism from the bus drivers, but that probably has something to do with him having many similar experiences.
If Kim had bothered to check with his media advisors, or even caught a bus in Canberra lately, he would have soon realised that many bus drivers do not support him. In fact many drivers listen to 2CC which does tend to have a lot of anti-Beazley/Labor speech, and many of them ring in to express such opinions. In fairness there are some who ring in to support Beazley/Labor, but they are vastly outnumbered by the anti-Beazley/Labor camp. As a fairly regular bus traveller I really can’t recall the last time I heard a driver listening to a non-News Radio ABC station, although FM music stations are relatively common.
I don’t think anybody doubts that Kim Beazley exists, we all see him on the news and in the newspaper, but I think it is about time that he stops the silly social visits for air time, and actually produces some policies based on what the people he meets actually say to him. If he does that, then maybe, just maybe, Labor will stand a chance at the next election.
Samuel
19 comments March 30th, 2006 at 02:27pm