It was the only slightly uncomfortable note at Labor’s polished official launch in Geelong almost two weeks ago. I won’t say it was a false note, but it just made me feel a little awkward.
In the slickly produced video that played before Daniel Andrews took the stage, the Labor leader said: “When my dad told me he had a rare incurable cancer, it knocked our family about. We all go through something like this and we forget how much the state of our hospitals matter until we need them. The health budget isn’t just numbers, it’s real lives … as premier, health will be my number one priority.”
Andrews is seen walking into a chemotherapy unit, sitting by the bed of his father, Bob, whose arm is covered in bandages and tubes.
It just seemed – and I say this tentatively because it’s so personal – that the campaign ad could be seen as using your father’s illness in some way for political purposes. There is no suggestion in this clip that Andrews’ father hadn’t had the best of care or that he had been let down by Napthine government’s policies, but somehow it was linked with a political stoush over health promises.
But it was just a moment, a touch of humanity, perhaps, or a slight misjudgment of tone, depending on your point of view. Politicians are asked about their personal lives and use their backgrounds to show how their values were forged. Andrews’ video was all about how his parents – beef farmers Bob and Jan – taught him the value of hard work and looking out for others.
But on Friday Andrews launched his “Big Red Bus”, a campaign roadshow to take journalists and staffers to his childhood home in Wangaratta in Victoria’s north-east. The idea of a campaign bus has an American feel to it, with journalists trapped and forced to tweet every piddling announcement, and these days, endless selfies.
Andrews reportedly told journalists that he needed to be with the family on Friday because his dying father’s cattle were being auctioned, but he didn’t want to cancel the day’s campaigning. “Today is not an easy day,” his mother reportedly said. Andrews was seen watching his father’s stock being sold off and announcing his party’s agricultural policy.
The auction has begun. "Today is not an easy day," Andrews' mum tells the crowd #springst https://t.co/3wZKCIASCA
— Henrietta Cook (@henriettacook) November 7, 2014
I’m not suggesting in the least that Andrews is anything but desperately upset about his father’s illness. He spoke warmly of Bob in a Good Weekend profile earlier this year.
“He is a very passionate and very determined person who has spent his entire working life working extraordinarily long hours, and has the broken knees and the bad back and looks 20 years older than he is because he sacrificed everything for his kids,” he said.
But to take a busload of journalists to the family’s property for such a painful and personal event just, again, seemed off-key. 3AW’s Neil Mitchell said that nobody would blame Andrews for taking the day off. The scene felt “opportunistic and tacky”.
Andrews’ wife, Catherine, has proved one of Labor’s best assets. She’s smart and articulate and friendly. His three children were at Labor’s campaign launch, too, and Andrews’ spoke of his love for them. All this is familiar from political leaders of all stripes. Politicians try to allow voters to understand them a little personally, however much they try to control which bits we get to see. We demand it and sometimes it helps them politically, too.
But this seemed a moment when privacy was warranted and would have been respected. Journalists are often accused of being intrusive, but this time, they really shouldn’t have been there.
