It is high time cabinet ministers in the Labour-Alliance Coalition were told some cold, hard facts of political life.
Quite simply, they are making precious little effort to get out and do the hard-sell when it comes to explaining their policies. They are not bothering to convey simple, coherent and easily-digested messages to voters. Overall, the Government is failing to paint a "big picture" of where it is heading.
As a consequence, the Coalition is not bringing the public on side as it embarks on complicated and often-contentious reforms across many fronts.
Its reservoir of public goodwill is emptying fast - as shown by the swift slide in the approval ratings of the Government's performance. Clawing those back will not be easy.
The Government has drifted since the budget. The void has been filled with the sort of self-inflicted sideshows that plagued its predecessor.
The static created by these distractions has made it much harder to hammer the positives. But some ministers are not even trying.
National understood that a government's policy fundamentals must be recited ad nauseum up and down the country for any message to sink in. And that is even truer when the economy is showing signs of a sharp contraction and wallets are emptying at the petrol pumps. Instead, Michael Cullen cracks jokes about people in the business community suffering "post-election traumatic stress disorder" - also a back-handed slap at Tariana Turia for making her explosive midweek speech about the Maori "holocaust."
But Turia is merely the latest example of Labour's public relations vacuum. The "Little Bulldozer" has alienated voters sympathetic to the Government's efforts to close social and economic disparities between Maori and non-Maori. Turia's deliberately-provocative speech has made it that much harder for Helen Clark to get mainstream voters to sign up to the big-money "closing the gaps" programme. Turia risks cutting off her nose to spite her face.
But Turia's lack of political judgment is symptomatic of a wider problem. "Everyone's in their own little bunkers," says one Labour insider, noting ministers are bogged heads-down in their portfolios. Another refers to the "Balkanisation of the Beehive," while another agrees co-ordinating ministers' offices is like trying to get 25 separate companies to cooperate.
Others within the Government are less polite, complaining about the absence of any strategy to communicate or reconnect with voters. They moan about Clark's seeming reluctance to make enough direction-setting, big-theme speeches.
Not all ministers are suffering a communications breakdown. Phil Goff could sell ice-cubes to Eskimos. Jim Anderton remains an effective, if long-winded communicator.
And Clark, of course, is the best purveyor of the well-targeted quip. She is a walking smart bomb, obliterating arguments of foe or fool silly enough to stray across her path. Too often, though, she is having to close down problems. She risks being characterised solely as a problem-solver.
Clark relishes the fray. At times, though, she must stand above it - a point echoed by Cullen, who prefaced a recent speech with a warning that the big picture too easily becomes the first casualty of office.
He urged colleagues not to be strait-jacketed by their portfolios, "becoming absorbed in process at the expense of product." It took sustained effort not to be engulfed by the river of officials' papers and reports which could end up dictating the limit of one's thinking.
"It is essential that the cabinet keep the bigger picture at the front of its mind ... if it is lost, the second casualty of office is the Government's ability to communicate its vision, mission, call it what you will, to the wider public."
Cullen diplomatically pooh-poohed any notion of such "occupational hazards" afflicting this Government, claiming it was communicating "quite strongly and successfully."
Finding examples of effective communication is rather difficult - not least in his portfolio. Defence is one area where the Government's intentions are clear. But Treaty of Waitangi policy has been a communications disaster. Similarly health policy, where Labour's election-winning promise to bring back elected health boards and scuttle National's commercially-driven model has been submerged under the fuss over preferential treatment for Maori patients.
The Government knew it would take big hits on the Employment Relations Bill, but its public relations campaign came far too late to counter opponents' propaganda. It has yet to mount a sustained good-news offensive on employer-friendly policies, such as apprenticeships.
Why is this happening?
First, the Government has moved beyond the easy stuff - the fulfilling of its feel-good pledge-card promises - and is now wading into more amorphous policy territory. Things take longer to happen in coalition governments. Take Cullen's superannuation scheme. The Government has the upper hand in this debate - but Cullen cannot trumpet his scheme until he has the Alliance and the Greens signed up.
Second, the Coalition's honeymoon ended months ago, but ministers have still been getting an easy ride from some commentators. This has lulled the Beehive into complacency. The backlash over Turia's comments - incensed phone calls to the Prime Minister's office and talk-back radio running white-hot - will be a rude awakening, not least for Labour backbenchers perched on small majorities.
Third, Labour was a poor communicator in Opposition. Why should it be any better in Government? However, to be fair, it is far harder to explain Labour's softer "middle way" policies of moderation in short sound-bites, whereas National and the Alliance have more clear-cut, more easily-expressed positions.
Fourth, Clark is short of capable ministers. Her most competent colleagues - Cullen, Goff, Trevor Mallard and Pete Hodgson - are weighed down with huge workloads. They have little time for the kind of strategic thinking undertaken by the Bolger cabinet during all-day retreats at Premier House.
Fifth, senior members of the Beehive press corps need to exercise a stronger hand. But their energies are constantly consumed by damage-control exercises.
What is being done about all this? Not a lot, it seems. But recognising a problem is halfway to a solution. And the problem is recognised. In the meantime, the middle way is fast becoming the muddle way.
Govt needs to give us the big picture
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