Smithson: Meet ‘Pete the 5-minute brickie’ talking big picture… opportunity

Words of warning from Mike Smithson as he tells Ashton Hurn to throw some pizza dough or climb Mount Lofty if she wants to catch the premier’s picture perfect campaign.

Let the games begin and don’t hold back the theatrics.

Whether voters like it or not, state election campaigns are four-yearly events which drive our party leaders and others into photo opportunities they either relish or would rather forget.

Daily stunts, including the occasional kissing of babies, are unavoidable unless they want to miss their spot in the nightly news cycle or in popular online or press publications

Peter Malinauskas and Ashton Hurn have both been campaigners at the front line and behind the scenes, so they know how this complex game works.

How they’re portrayed to the public is often the result of which bright spark in their campaign team comes up with the best theatrical opportunity or how far they’re prepared to go in sticking their necks out.

For instance, the caretaker-premier made certain he looked the part arriving at a construction site this week wearing faded chinos and a pair of well-worn steel cap boots.

He volunteered to lay some bricks at the new high-density housing project, which would rarely happen outside the campaigning period.

He greeted every worker, young and old, with a “g’day I’m Pete” as if they had no idea who the bloke with the camera entourage was.

A large part of his Housing Skills policy was the visuals of him getting his hands dirty.

With the help of a veteran brickie, he attempted to trowel mortar onto a brick........

© InDaily