Political Corrections

with Mungo MacCallum

Everything new is old again

Mark Latham is too canny to say directly that John Howard is a political geriatric overdue for euthanasia. But he is making it as easy as possible for the voters to pick up the message.

He does not dwell on the 22 year gap between himself and his opponent; to do so would be ageist and crass. But he talks about old ideas and stale policies, a vision - if there ever was one - which is way past its use by date. The unspoken slogan is: Let's put the old fella out of his misery.

And it's getting a reaction: at the weekend Howard was searching the graveyard of history for other ancient - well, mature - statesmen whose careers flourished at 60 or over. He came up with just two: Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan. Inexplicably, he failed to mention Mao Zedong and Kim il Sung, to name but two of the many senile dictators who appointed themselves to lifelong incumbency.

And of course, he and his acolytes hit back with the tag of "inexperience" - why, Latham had never even been a minister. Nor, of course, had Gough Whitlam or Bob Hawke; leaders who come to power after a long period in opposition tend, by definition, not to have spent much time on the treasury benches.

But that and the predictable cry of "Where's the money coming from?" was about the best the conservatives could muster as the Latham bandwagon continued to roll around the electorate and, more importantly, the media. Even the indefatigable Piers Akerman, personally selected by Howard to join his foray into Western Australia, was reduced to accusing Latham of endangering the lives of kiddies through his terrible example of standing in the back of a ute.

Meanwhile Howard indignantly denied that he was following Latham's initiative by being photographed on the floor with schoolchildren; he'd been doing it for years, he said, and there were pictures to prove it. A search by both News Limited and his own office failed to come up with any and no-one was in the least surprised.

Latham's follow up line is that his own open, no-holds-barred public meetings ("community forums" as he somewhat pretentiously styles them) are the new politics; Howard's stage-managed, control freak approach where no one is allowed near him without an identity check and a body search represents the past.

But in fact, standing at the back of the overflow crowd at last Friday's meeting at Banora Point, I was overcome by a fit of nostalgia. Deliberately or not, Latham is harking back to the Whitlam years, to those legendary crusades of 1969 and 1972.

He does not have Whitlam's sense of drama or rhetorical flourish; Latham is laid back to the point of horizontality, and so low key that at times be becomes almost subsonic. But he exudes the same sense of conviction and optimism that allowed his mighty mentor to capture the public mood a generation ago. Seeing him in action, and watching those who had arrived out of curiosity leaving in a glow of enthusiasm, I had the feeling for the first time that he just might make it.

Certainly, he has an empathy with the crowd that Howard has never had, and for which most politicians would kill. For over 90 minutes and then for another half hour as stragglers refused to leave the hall, he dealt with questions, gripes, diatribes and the occasional madness directly and succinctly. Interestingly, the vast majority were on a domestic, even personal level; a lot were really state or local government concerns rather than matters for the alternative prime minister. But all were treated seriously, and even when Latham either couldn't or wouldn't promise to help, the complainants seemed grateful that at least he was listening.

The only real worry was that he is still inclined to make it up as he goes along; the week has produced yet another swag of policies which may or may not be achievable or even sensible. Latham has added the caveat that nothing can be ruled firmly in or out until the figures become available in the May budget, but this will not stop Peter Costello and others from predicting bankruptcy, poverty and universal starvation from a Labor government. Still, Latham has shown an encouraging ability to brush aside his critics and stick to his own agenda. If he can hold his nerve for the next three months things will get really interesting.

Howard, meanwhile, had yet another photo op with the navy, which must be almost as sick of him as the army, air force and cricket team. But it may be that his own blanket of security is starting to wear a bit thin. Our Man of Steel is of course unrepentant: he will never, ever, change his mind about the decision to go to war, he protests, in the manner of a hack journalist refusing to let the facts spoil a good story. But with Iraq rapidly becoming the kind of four-letter word best avoided in polite company, and the public showing every sign of becoming cynical about military posturing, Howard could find himself forced back on the Latham's turf and end up in a messy fight over health and education.

He is, of course, still quite capable of manufacturing another Tampa-type crisis. But in view of the now proven mendacity of the last few years, it will need to be a real shockeroo to overwhelm the more direct and positive appeal of Latham's ladder.