What the Libs can learn from scrap metal truckers

Lessons from an unlikely crisis PR masterclass

Late last week, a truck hurtling along the M1 carrying scrap metal, had a mechanical problem.

Something in the back of the truck failed, leading to 700 kilograms of sharp, ragged metal chunks to be disgorged across more than 20 kilometres of highway. Mayhem ensued. Tyres were shredded on over three hundred cars, the M1 was closed, and people suffered through hours of delays.

Had I been that truck driver, or the owner of the responsible NJ Ashton company, I would have quickly organised a private security detail. This was an incredible blunder, and people were rightfully pissed.

But before the angry villagers could walk to their garden sheds and dig out their pitchforks, Daniel Falconer, General Manager of NJ Ashton was on the case.

Falconer took full responsibility. He sincerely apologised, swore to investigate the issue, publicly supported the driver, and assured everyone their insurance would pay for all damages. The truck company then deployed their own people and resources to help with the cleanup.

NJ Ashton caused 300 breakdowns, four hours of delays, thousands of dollars in damages, and still came out looking like the good guys. A trucking company which moves scrap metal delivered a masterclass in crisis management.

But what I really didn’t expect, was that the M1 incident would only be the second biggest public fuck up the country would witness that week.

The next day, Australians headed to the polls.

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There will be plenty of thoughts and opinions about what led to the Liberal Party’s humiliating annihilation. I’ve already written about how they underestimated Millennial and Generation Z discontent – a voting block which now outnumbers Boomers. Others will point the finger at nuclear power, backflips on policies, or choosing a leader whose warmest endorsement can be summed up thusly:

But in the immediate aftermath, it’s been particularly interesting watching how the Liberal Party and right-leaning commentators have reacted to the defeat. I think they could learn a lot from the public relation luminaries in the scrap metal transport industry.

So first, let’s turn to Liberal senator James McGrath and his live unravelling on the ABC’s election coverage.

McGrath began the broadcast with bold predictions – he said the election was unlikely to be declared by the end of the night. It was going to be a knife fight, he said. But they could still find a goat track to victory.

But while the Liberal Party was busy stabbing goats, Labor was charging towards a second term.

I don’t think anyone was expecting to see the Coalition’s extermination as it unfolded on Saturday, but a Labor victory was the likely outcome. Yet somehow, McGrath seemed totally unprepared.

There is no question that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton ran a disastrous campaign, that much was clear even before election night. But McGrath stalwartly defended all of their decisions, including the backflips, and their unpopular nuclear power commitment. When given one word to describe the campaign, McGrath said ‘solid’. I suggest you never buy a house from this man.

Before long, it looked very likely Dutton would lose his seat in the Dickson electorate. McGrath called for calm. ‘Wait for the pre polls’, he pleaded. Historically those early voters are older and more right leaning. His voice had the same tragic hope as a kid who’d invited his estranged dad to his footy final.

“There are a number of seats […] we will not know the results of tonight,” McGrath said.

“Do you think the pre polls will be good enough to reverse a 9% swing?” Annabel Crabb asked, looking at the numbers rolling in, knowing they were not.

“Yes,” McGrath replied without qualification. It would take less than an hour for him to be proven wrong.

McGrath dissociates on live TV.

You could sense how much McGrath wanted to see those pre-polls waving proudly from the sidelines, shouting ‘you did good, son’ as he scored a last-minute goal. But in the end, nothing could save the seat of Dickson, or the coalition’s election chances.

McGrath looked visibly deflated. He had just witnessed a total repudiation of The Liberal Party, their leader, their campaign and their policies in every state and all the major cities. If ever there was a time for some introspection, it was now.

It was nowhere to be found.

On a couple of occasions, McGrath blamed the minor parties. He particularly railed against the Teals forgetting, it seems, that they were a political movement largely born out of his own party’s many (and still unaddressed) failings with women and climate policy.

Then there was Jacinta Price, who gave one of the most unhinged interviews of the night. She made lazy, unsubstantiated allusions to electoral fraud, and then blamed the media for smear campaigns. She rejected any possibility that her overt embracing of Trump and his politics damaged the coalition brand.

On commercial television, two separate broadcasts had Jane Hume and Sarah Henderson angrily blaming their woes on ‘Labor lies’.

“Australians – and they were saying this to me at the polling booths – we are sick of the lies,” sniped Henderson.

It was incredibly presumptuous to speak for Australians while in the middle of a crushing defeat. But voters had the final word.

Over on Sky, former Tony Abbott advisor and now political commentator Peta Credlin said it wasn’t the tiresome culture war stuff that lost the coalition the election. If anything, she said, we needed more of it. Why weren’t there more conversations about trans women, she wondered? Nevermind that this kind of rhetoric is the bread and butter of Trumpet of Patriots and One Nation, two parties who bombed out despite running aggressive and expensive campaigns.

Andrew Bolt then went one step further and blamed Australians. “No, the voters aren’t always right,” were the opening lines to his Sunday column. “This time they were wrong.”

Both Credlin’s and Bolt’s fingers are so far off the pulse, they may as well be checking prostates. If these are the kinds of voices the Liberal Party continues to use as a barometer for public opinion, they will never make Government again.

Here we see the same mistake being made in tandem by the media and the Liberal Party – appealing to an ever-shrinking base, while ignoring the reality of Australia’s centre.

But don’t take my word for it. The Liberal Party has essentially been marched out of Australia’s biggest cities, where much of the population resides. The seats which didn’t go to Labor, were snapped up by a small contingent of impressive Teal women with (largely) centrist views. Once these Independents might have joined the coalition.

Without question, it is the Liberal Party that has blundered. Not the media, not the Teals, and certainly not the voters. They are a party who have been misreading the room for years now, and are consequently facing a terminal crisis of their own making.

They are the driver, the truck company and the scrap metal rolled into one, standing on the side of the road, in the immediate aftermath of their mistake. They should be accepting responsibility, and vowing to make things right for the good of their party, and for the good of the country. Instead we’ve seen a sloppy and disheartening blame game. In doing so, the only tyres they’ve shredded are their own.

There was one person, at least, who has shown some grace at the close of this debacle – to the surprise of many it has been Peter Dutton. His speech was warm and gracious, he took responsibility and he wished Labor well. This scrap of humility, although proffered far too late, helped salvage some of Dutton’s image.

But Dutton didn’t happen in a vacuum – there are foundational problems the Liberal Party needs to address. In the coming weeks, there will be soul-searching, campaign autopsies, and then some attempt to reform themselves into an effective opposition. I hope they do, Australia deserves no less.

But if the past few days have shown us anything, The Liberal Party still have much to learn when it comes to communicating with the public. It’s really not that hard.

Just ask the scrap metal truckers.