Sometimes leaders are afforded an opportunity to step up. We are witnessing Queensland Premier Anna Bligh doing just that.
Yes, community sentiment tends to fall behind the government of the day in circumstances as dire as the current situation in Queensland. Think the Victorian bush fires — Premier John Brumby handled the immediate aftermath admirably but that didn’t save his government come election day.
But that doesn’t detract from the fact that Bligh is doing an outstanding job.
Sometimes it’s easier to assess the true measure of a leader during times like this. After all, it wasn’t Iraq that finally undid George W Bush in the minds of Americans. It was Hurricane Katrina and a cake. More recently, Pakistan’s President Zardari was heavily criticised for visiting flood victims — more than 4 million Pakistanis were left homeless — over a fortnight after the monsoon rains struck.
But true leadership requires more than just simply showing up.
Bligh has led the state over the last three weeks by being across everything and communicating vital information calmly, clearly and compassionately.
The latest quarterly Newspoll has Anna Bligh’s personal ratings at what Poll Bludger calls “terminal” levels.
Queenslanders may be looking at their leader in a different light after this.
ditto!
She has really handled this crisis admirably and with great compassion that is obviously heartfelt. On the other hand, Julia Gillard has been rather wooden and scripted. Haven’t felt anywhere near the same level of empathy from her.
Agree wholeheartedly. You can see the tiredness in the Premier’s eyes but she handles the sometimes silly questions from the media with aplomb. Her level of detail in providing off-the-cuff answers in the 2 hourly updates is most impressive and one gains a great sense of confidence in listening to her.
I doubt that anything can save the Bligh government, but my views on Ms Bligh have changed enormously in the past few weeks. She always struck me asa try hard without any real leadership credentials. Well, cometh the hour, cometh the woman. Bligh has been truly magnificent.
I’ve always thought Anna Bligh has shown those qualities and have been mystified at her low polling.
Whoever previously encouraged her to front every media appearance in hard hat, safety goggles and hi-vis vest hopefully will realise they don’t have to try and fool the public.
With such an incompetent rabble of a divided opposition, she should be streets ahead, and hopefully this might help, but a huge pity it took something like this for people to actually look at a competent politician with some respect.