What's the deal with this Assistant Minister and his transcripts?

This is somewhat of an ‘inside the beltway’ rant but stay with me here because the Assistant Minister to the PM and the Assistant Minister for the Public Service and the Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General (all the same person) isn’t quite like the rest of his colleagues – for better or for worse.

When ministers and assistant ministers, as well as their shadows in opposition, hold press conferences or appear in broadcast media interviews, transcripts of those encounters are usually distributed to journalists on their respective media contact lists.

It’s a win-win situation where the ministers concerned can distribute their messages far and wide, and the media can get copies of what was said even at events they do not attend.

With so many media opportunities for politicians these days, there is no way any organisation, let alone individual journalists, can get to them all.

They are also helpful tools for checking quotes and the accuracy of your own notes.

So transcripts are great! They’re very welcome in the inboxes of journalists around the country.

In an effort to be even more helpful (to both sides of the exercise), transcripts are sub-headed with a few words about the subjects discussed in the transcript.

A typical subject line might read like this – Subjects: Labor Candidate for Durack; Lobster Exports; Royal Visit; Australia-China Relationship; Housing.

That’s not just a typical example; it’s an actual sub-head to a transcript Prime Minister Anthony Albanese put out over the weekend.

Here’s a recent one from Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher – Subjects: Financial Budget Outcome; cost-of-living; protests relating to the Middle East; domestic violence perpetrator access to super.

And one from Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus a couple of months back – Subjects: National Terrorism Threat Level; Middle East conflict; threats to Members of Parliament; gambling advertising policy.

All straight to the point, informative, dignified and respectful.

Now let’s talk about Mr Gorman’s transcripts.

The Assistant Minister has, for the past two years, taken to being much, much more descriptive in the subject lines of his transcripts sent out to the media.

And it’s gone on too long because it’s all a bit too undergraduate and silly.

Here’s one of Mr Gorman’s from August (I’ve bolded the more flowery bits) – Subjects: Labor’s cost of living relief is already benefiting Australian families; Peter Dutton is gutless for failing to visit Collie; Peter Dutton does not respect the people of Western Australia; Peter Dutton’s failed leadership on extreme comments by his senior party members; the benefits to Australian families as a result of the Albanese Government’s investment in childcare; the Albanese Government is back to Parliament and back to work on key legislation; Peter Dutton needs to come clean on his plans to cut essential services.

Here’s one from this week (Monday, 21 October) – Subjects: Royal Visit; Former US President Donald Trump visits McDonald’s; the upcoming United States presidential election; the Coalition’s sneaky trick of announcing a policy without detail; housing in inner-city areas.

Another from earlier in the month – Subjects: Newspolls; Peter Dutton’s Opposition has no plan for Australia; Does Peter Dutton need a personality pivot?; the Queensland Labor Government’s election policy of free lunches for school students; school holidays comes to an end.

And my ‘favourite’ from 10 October: Parliament; Hurricane Milton; The Coalition’s ridiculous plan to cancel Parliament for the Melbourne Cup, so that they can go and sip champagne in some fancy marquee in Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup, with their fascinators and top hats on.

All pretty funny, I guess. A bit cutesy, even. More like far too pathetic.

It’s very hard to take this Assistant Minister seriously when he sends out this garbage almost on a daily basis.

It wastes his time and that of deadline-driven journalists who want to get to the point and find the news in his transcripts.

It’s also more than a tad disrespectful that he thinks he must tell the media what slant they should be putting on their stories.

Gorman’s a dyed-in-the-wool true believer and Labor boy through and through, so he might believe it’s only natural to put the party spin on all his material.

He’s certainly a hard worker and keen to be in the media as much as he can. He’s probably a nice young fella. A good kid.

He used to work for former PM Kevin Rudd; he was the State Secretary of Labor WA and is the current Member for Perth.

But maybe there’s a reason he’s still only an Assistant Minister.

He’s just too juvenile.