My chat with Walkley award-winning journalist Latika Bourke.

When I was due to interview PM Julia Gillard during the election campaign in August, at the last minute I realised I did not have a pen. Latika Bourke – the political journalist who I first became aware of via Twitter and then her Walkley award, came to the rescue. With a pen. And a hug because she’s lovely like that.

We had sparked up a Twitter friendship which I converted into lunch and an interview. We were due to publish it later this week but then today it was announced that the ABC have poached Latika to be their social media reporter.  Smart move. The girl is ridiculously switched on.

So here is our catch-up at Bills where we discussed her career, the election and that Kevin Rudd fedora scandal……

Latika wrote this address about what makes a good politician:

The most common question my normal acquaintances ask of me (and by normal I mean anyone not 100 per cent obsessively involved with, or slave to, news, politics or public policy) is what certain politicians are really like. The immediate follow up query is which politicians I like and who are the absolute bastards – and I’ll leave it to you to determine which is in the majority.
Most are really seeking reinforcement of their own preconceived views on a particular politician and an even greater majority are simply astonished to learn Tony Abbott is actually very approachable, never inquires about your womb and is easily one of the most affable and conversational politicians currently working in Parliament House.

I’ve worked on the Hill for just over two years. A whippersnapper I think they’d call me.

Tonight, I’m not going to pretend I can nominate for you the most interesting, fascinating, worthwhile politicians of the last five decades, I can’t so I won’t, in fact, I think you might all be a bit more qualified for that task.

I can only speak to you about my impressions of political leadership in a period of government when the face of the two parties has changed five times over three years.

So we must ask ourselves what makes a good politician.

Of the MPs I’ve come to know a bit better than the rest I would nominate the following three, Nick Minchin, John Faulkner, and Barnaby Joyce as effective, good politicians.

Happily there are others including Bob Brown, Greg Combet and I have my eye on a couple of the new entrants in the Lower House, namely the first Indigenous Lower House MP Ken Wyatt and Ed Husic from Western Sydney and the son of Bosnian migrants.
Back to our case studies, though, policy-wise, there is much if not vast difference between Nick Minchin, Barnaby Joyce and John Faulkner. However, as politicians and I’d argue effective ones, they share many similarities.

First Faulkner: it’s easy, in fact pretty much obligatory for any lover of politics, to rate John, with his trademark Clark Kent spectacles and careful way of speaking, he is the true politician for whom policy, rather than politics is priority; but shows a command of the latter, with a gentleness borne from working with disabled students, a fierce commitment to respecting confidences and wise intelligence combined with a devilish wit that lurks never far from the uniform grimace he carries about.

In fact a well developed sense of humour is a trait common to the three. It is easy to gauge Barnaby’s sense of humour, even if it does involve rather ill-fated quips involving Productivity Commission reports and toilet paper. Actually it’s not altogether their ability to have you clutching your abdominals in laughter induced pain it’s more their own wonderful ease in laughing at themselves that makes them so likeable, and admirable. This I believe is the result of their self confidence; they all possess a certain degree of it and are comfortable with who they are and what they stand for. Should we consider their confidence ‘ego?’ In this instance I’ve no doubt because a healthy dose of it really is essential for life in politics, in fact it is their self belief which propels them to lead.

Nick Minchin; he’s a man who recently encouraged smokers to keep up with their habit because they’ll die early and subsequently save us taxpayers money. He certainly is divisive. Type his name into Facebook and you’ll receive back a link to join a group entitled ‘Nick Minchin is a weirdo right wing nutjob,’ as well as the ‘official senator Nick Minchin Fan Club.’ (For the record, the latter had 126 more members than the former at last check.)

When Senator Minchin’s son was involved in a near fatal boating accident as part of a military training exercise, John Faulkner, who was then Defence Minister, according to Minchin, showed immense ‘support care and compassion’ for his political foe. So much so, that when Faulkner stepped down from Cabinet – Minchin was inspired to pen a gushing press release in tribute, which could easily have been dispatched by a Labor MP – praising his ‘utmost integrity and good character,’ adding that he was a ‘formidable opponent.’
Both men are very principled, although so was Kevin Rudd who in one single moment managed to crack his extraordinary public support with his catastrophic deferral, but ultimately perceived as the dumping of, emissions trading.

What led the former Prime Minister to that moment, and of course, although not completely to his demise, was his failure to fight for his principle – something Barnaby Joyce does relentlessly.When he decided to oppose Emissions Trading, it was well before the worldwide sag in momentum for carbon pricing. But day by day he chipped away, for months, raising enough concerns, sowing the amount of seeds of doubt needed to lead the charge to have the policy defeated and a Leader toppled. Whether or not you agree with his views there is no doubt he was effective.

Julia Gillard’s right, politics is like geography – it does require you to ‘know your way,’ but a good leader provides those it hopes will follow with a map – otherwise, why would they bother following into territory they do not know and cannot imagine.
Kevin Rudd never gave us a map, he could not in the end, lead us to his vision; his other shortcoming was his desperation to be all things to everyone. ‘To thine own self be true,’ was the motto of my Primary School in Bathurst – I recalled it often during the Rudd years.
While the media has much to do in allowing politicians to be comfortable in the leaders they are, I do not subscribe to the belief that the media beast has killed off all room for creativity, individuality and personality. Try as it might, it’s failed to force Barnaby Joyce to talk in coherent sentences. He steadfastly refuses to change, despite those who will poke fun at his colourful way of speech, tendency to confuse the millions and billions and okay, outright gaffes.

Of course there’s a difference between creative and just downright bizzare, turning up in a bottle suit for instance, never did one particular ‘leader’s’ career any great favours.

In finishing, earlier I mentioned ego. I do believe politicians need a rather good quantity of it – if nothing but as a necessary buffer between themselves and all the criticism and personal attacks they’ll sustain during political life. But it does need to be tempered. Earlier this week I told my Twitter followers about this speech, one implored me to answer this – who leads the leader? Here I turn to literature, because as another Twitter follower wrote to me ‘good leadership is more prevalent in fiction than life.’

I believe the best leader is led by humility, the recognition that everything they do affects another and is in the interests of the greater. Professor Dumbledore recognised this, telling Harry Potter that curiously, it is ‘perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it.’ Less idealistically though, is the other JK Rowling conception Sirius Black,who tells Harry that ‘if you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.’

You can follow Latika on Twitter here and I recommend that you do.