Editorial: Leaders showing little inspiration

It is a commentary on the present crop of political leaders that a few persistent hecklers can command attention at National's rally and the pre-match entertainment for Labour and NZ First can feature in the reviews. There was a time, before television, when hecklers were meat and drink to a confident hustings performer. These days, fear of unscripted footage can drive the life out of election campaigns. Let's hope a few more challenging voices will enliven public meetings in the weeks ahead.

This is an election of unusually familiar faces. Among the five out front, only one has not led a party campaign before and she is Prime Minister. Yet familiarity need not be fatal to anybody's performance. Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark share one obvious advantage when it comes to commanding the country's attention. Never before have we seen women lead both major parties to an election.

Women will not be alone in looking forward to a more feminine style of debate, but not if it becomes a passionless pretence of politeness. Both women are strong-minded advocates of quite different political principles. The electorate needs them to distinguish their policies and abilities under the pressure.

Both probably have the ability to succeed simply by being themselves. Politicians who feel the need of extensive coaching and grooming for an election campaign are probably not up to the highest job. They do not have to look very far back to find that the prime ministers who survive have been those with a healthy disdain for the safe, sanitised mode of politics urged on them by supposed experts. The public is quick to sense pretence and just as quick to respond to someone they sense is real and capable.

Personalities do matter. Elections are as much about choosing people as policies. The bulk of a party's programme is deliberately imprecise, leaving most decisions to the judgment of those elected to govern. If television debates, such as that screened last night, are memorable more for the visual impressions of the people involved than anything they say, the visual information is valuable, too.

The assessment of political leaders is no longer simply a measure of their qualities in isolation. Whomever is in a position to lead a government after this election will almost certainly need to deal with one or two leading personalities. Written and verbal indications are one thing, but in television contests it is sometimes possible to see the demeanour of leaders towards their potential supporters and to put that into the assessment of the likely stability of various coalitions.

Had more notice been taken last time of Jim Bolger's overtures on television to Winston Peters, for example, their eventual coalition might have been less of a surprise.

Again, unfortunately, it has become important to watch Mr Peters' inclinations and, no less so, those of Jim Anderton and Richard Prebble. None of them this time seems anxious to enter a coalition.

Even the Alliance, bidding to be the "heart" of a Labour Government, is reluctant to accept collective cabinet responsibility for all decisions such a government might make.

Mr Prebble's party says it may enter a coalition with National but not if Mr Peters is at the table, too. Mr Peters, once bitten by coalition unpopularity, sounds twice shy of repeating the experience.

It all adds up to unstable government unless National or Labour wins a majority on its own. Inspiring leadership could just do it but there is precious little sign of it so far.