Anthony Albanese at the wedding of Kyle Sandilands and Tegan Kynaston. Photo:: Twitter (Geoff Field).
Back in April 2008, newly elected Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd was photographed walking into a Sydney hospital holding a present for Hollywood actress (and Australian national treasure) Cate Blanchett and her newborn baby.
Nothing wrong with that, except it was the same day ALP stalwart John Button was being farewelled with a state funeral in Melbourne.
Rudd didn’t make the Button funeral – something pretty much unheard of previously; a PM no-showing a funeral (state funeral, even) of a legend from his own party.
That was possibly the first inkling Australians had that their prime minister was a little obsessed with courting celebrity.
It didn’t go down well with the public. Some say that moment was the beginning of the end of Rudd’s soaring popularity.
Did Anthony Albanese just have a similar moment on Saturday by attending shock jock Kyle Sandilands’ Darling Point wedding?
Sure, the current Prime Minister wasn’t snubbing an important state funeral, but he was attending a high-profile celebrity wedding where among the guests of honour were well-known (former) underworld figures.
That’s not a good look for a PM.
It’s not about Sandilands’ questionable on-air antics and whether Albo should be partying with him.
Sandilands is a shock jock, that’s what they do. Some just take things to further extremes than others.
Politicians need to be on shock jocks’ radio shows because they have a huge audience.
There was a long list of Labor MPs who hated going on Alan Jones’ show but did anyway because his reach was so extensive.
And Sandilands, like the rest of us, can invite whomever he wants to his wedding.
He firmly states the figures in question are his rock-solid honest mates who deserve a fair go.
There’s some honour in that – standing by your mates and all.
For all we know, these are top blokes, be they reformed or wrongly maligned. No judgement here. But that’s not the point.
Neither is it a matter of whether Albo was going to deejay at the wedding (he didn’t).
Having a music-loving rock star tragic for a prime minister is actually a good thing. Aussies can relate to that. We all love music, and when it comes to rock music, he’s from the right generation (that’s not even debatable).
What most Aussies can’t relate to, however, is the criminal world.
It’s simply a matter of perceptions, and there are some events where a nation’s leader should avoid being seen.
Any gathering with even a hint of criminal association should be an absolute red flag for a political leader.
That he had no control over the guest list is no excuse at all.
Attempting to use that as an excuse, as the PM did, makes him look arrogant.
He knew who was going to the wedding. That should have been all the PM and whoever was advising him needed to know.
There is a growing inventory of political careers and aspirations being cut short by inadvertent attendances, photo opportunities, reference writing even, with and for people deemed to be – rightly or wrongly – of questionable character.
A couple of years after the Rudd-Blanchett episode, when the then PM’s tenure was well and truly on the rocks, Rudd’s former adviser publicly took the blame for sending him to the movie star’s hospital bed rather than the state funeral.
That’s how much damage control Labor was still in and Rudd couldn’t pull it back – enter Julia Gillard.
Rudd is a mate and somewhat of a confidant for Albanese.
Albo has learned a lot from the former PM.
But maybe there are some things he shouldn’t try to emulate.
It’s entirely possible that much of Rudd’s policy progress was thwarted by his need to be seen with too many high-profile people.
Is the current Prime Minister making the same missteps?
Guilt by association is a very real thing. So too, it seems, is poor judgement when there are stars in your eyes.
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