MARK RILEY: Why Anthony Albanese’s call for calm amid mounting fuel crisis may have backfired
The meat of Anthony Albanese’s message has been lost in his nothing-burger national address.
Psychologists know it as the pink elephant paradox.
It is the cognitive phenomenon whereby telling people not to do something inevitably leads them to doing it.
Tell them they should not think about a pink elephant and all they can think about is a pink elephant.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.It’s more formally known as ironic process theory.
The irony being that employing this tactic has the exact opposite effect of the intended result.
It’s exactly what Anthony Albanese risks doing as he continues to tell the nation not to panic. And, particularly, not to panic-buy petrol.
Doing that through his first official “address to the nation” as Prime Minister and then a speech to the National Press Club might simply convince people that there is something to panic about.
That is why getting the message and the tone right is crucial.
The general response to his national address on Wednesday is that he achieved neither.
It was a corollary of all the messages he had delivered in the Parliament and at news conferences over the past several weeks with the added warning that the coming months would be challenging.
The curious nature of its emptiness immediately overshadowed the considerable something of the 26-cents-a-litre fuel excise cut that had been the day’s big, positive news.
FM radio is a pretty good guide on such matters. It is what many motorists listen to as they pass service stations offering poisonously expensive fuel on their way to and from work.
And the view on FM on Thursday was that Albanese’s address was a nothing-burger. It was all bun and no meat.
The kindest reflection would be that it was part of a two-phase strategy to grab the nation’s attention and appear to be in control at a time of crisis.
The first stage would be the nationally televised address, assuring the people that his Government has got this and that there is no reason to freak out.
That is the bun.
The second phase would be the Press Club address, detailing his Government’s $1 billion in interest-free loans to those most affected by the petrol crisis — fuel producers, truckies and fertiliser manufacturers — and his plan to roll out additional cost-of-living relief in next month’s Budget.
That is the meat.
The strategy might have looked good on a white board in the Prime Minister’s office but in reality, a lot more Australians tuned in to the address to the nation and got very little, than those who watched the National Press Club for the detail.
But once it came, that detail was impressive.
Albanese delivered a cogent narrative, laying out the key principles guiding his Government’s priorities and its approach to building national resilience and sovereign capabilities.
He said next month’s Budget would elevate those priorities by laying out long-term reform objectives aimed at making Australia more resilient in times of crisis.
The central aim was to “empower every Australian with the opportunity to be their best as a matter of national pride and in order to realise our national potential”.
Voters would like the sound of that. And appreciate the detail that came with it.
But they’d like the extra six-cents-a-litre petrol price cut Albanese announced even more.
After days of bickering, the premiers and chief ministers finally agreed to paying motorists back the hundreds of millions of dollars they’ve raked in through bigger GST receipts from higher fuel prices.
That will take the average petrol price cut to about 32 cents a litre, which will make a real difference.
No doubt that announcement is something he would have preferred to have done in his address to the nation to give it some oomph.
Albanese says the address was designed to cut through the mess of misinformation being spread on social media about the fuel crisis.
And to do that he turned to “mainstream” media because we are reliable and take our responsibilities to accuracy, fairness and objectivity seriously.
It was about easing people’s minds but being straight with them that the next several months — at least — are going to be tough.
But without the detail most people thought they were going to get from the address all they can do now is think about pink elephants.
Mark Riley is the Seven Network’s political editor
