The ears have it for Maxine

Maxine McKew knows that the best TV and radio interviewers are those with the greatest ability to listen to their guest. Being able to talk without pausing for breath is often a liability. It fills air time, but does not necessarily engage and win over an audience.

Listening was her winning strategy in Saturday's election. She believed in listening, and was open and honest about its role in the political process. Writing in The Monthly, political commentator Judith Brett described McKew's style as 'the politics of courteous listening and polite persuasion'.

After Saturday's result, we know it works.

McKew was right when she said: 'The campaign is about a prime minister who has stopped listening.'

It seems that the 'he who has the best handshake' style of grassroots campaigning is about as popular as Workchoices, and as effective as all the expensive promises that were made. Maxine McKew knows that the experience of being heard empowers people, and that it is also likely to secure their vote. Leaders who truly listen will know what the people actually need, and will therefore be best equipped to deliver accordingly. It is also decidedly more clever economically than carpet-bombing the electorate with expensive promises.

The longing to be listened to is especially true in the case of migrant populations such as that of Bennelong. Invariably migrants and refugees are long-suffering, and have stories to tell. Many of these people have lived in totalitarian countries where they could be imprisoned for telling their story. What they seek in Australia is the freedom to speak, and the courtesy and generosity of spirit with which it goes hand in hand. Writing three months before the election, Judith Brett was skeptical that a strategy as passive as McKew's would work, especially as it was also evident in Kevin Rudd's approach. She said Paul Keating and Bob Hawke 'thrived on conflict, and they made conflict work for them', while the 'smiling and calm Rudd has been repeating his messages that the government is tired, sneaky and out of ideas'. At that stage, it remained to be seen whether that approach would work. Now that the electorate has spoken, we can say definitively that it does.