Brilliant letter from Andrew Hastie - on leadership, or Australia's lack of it.
Friday, 24 November 2023
My phone buzzed this morning.
It was a text from an interstate friend. Someone from outside politics.
Working hard. Raising a family.
An everyday Aussie bloke:
“Is it me or does it seem we have a lack of leadership at the moment? Haven’t heard much from anyone recently."
It’s a good question.
Violence and anti-Semitism descends onto Australian streets.
Who is leading us to higher ground?
Another interest rate rise, breaking the spirits of young homeowners.
Who is showing us a way forward?
A High Court ruling sees murderers and rapists free on our streets.
Who is thinking ahead,with new laws?
A Chinese warship uses its sonar, in hybrid war tactics, to deliberately injure Aussie navy divers.
Who is publicly standing up to the bullies?
Yes, these are challenging times. But impossible moments are why we elect leaders to lead.
We’ve expected leadership—but we’re not seeing it.
It gives me no pleasure to say it. But in these moments of crisis, the Prime Minister has been slow to respond, weak or missing in action.
So, too, have his Cabinet Ministers.
Take last week.
The sonar attack on the HMAS Toowoomba divers was a dangerous and reckless escalation by the Chinese navy.
The Prime Minister would have been briefed about the incident as he boarded his flight for San Francisco.
It deserved to be raised with President Xi last week at APEC.
Man-to-man.
That’s what leaders do, right? They have the hard conversations.
Instead, Anthony Albanese dodged the tough moment. It was a test of leadership.
He failed. He took the weak option.
And weakness is provocative.
After weeks of weak leadership, the boats have started up again.
We’ve all been patient with this government. We’ve given them time.
It’s time we saw the leadership our nation needs.
