Great Labor leaders are usually good communicators, persuasive, with a commanding presence.

Invariably visionary with bold ambitious agendas or some policy innovation. Usually, they claim expertise in one area or another, such as banking and finance, sport, or state planning, infrastructure or education or health or perhaps a strong belief in Indigenous rights and multiculturalism.

Gough Whitlam was a visionary, an orator, an intellectual with a legal background. Paul Keating is witty, combative, a strategic thinker and an economic reformer with a vision for Indigenous rights. Kevin Rudd, is a diplomat, bilingual and a decent public communicator. In NSW, Neville Wran was a legal mind and a charismatic leader with a progressive reform agenda and a master in party unity, bringing stability and electoral success. Bob Carr is a skilled media tactician, policy pragmatist with a deep knowledge in American policy and international affairs.

What about Premier Chris Minns? What does he bring to the table?

To succeed, Labor leaders require two skills. Those skills are a must. One, the ability to read the room and understand the needs of the party’s rank and file, the union movement and the aspirations of the parliamentary Labor caucus, and two, understanding Labor’s electoral base and responding to public sentiments.

Sadly, Minns appears to lack these skills. He has shown himself to be either stubborn or lacking flexibility. He has shown his capacity to dismiss the needs and concerns of his colleagues.

Minns has shown disregard for MPs, MLCs, unions and to a large number of Labor branches moving motions of concern about the slaughter/the starvation/the destruction/the genocide taking place in Gaza. The Bexley branch of the ALP NSW in the premier’s own electorate of Kogarah is a case in point, unanimously adopting a motion “calling on the premier of NSW, the member for Kogarah, not to stand in the way of the anti-genocide rally that seeks to highlight the slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza and to oppose Israel’s policy of starvation.” Minns is totally out of touch with their concerns. A leader not in sync with his party faithful.

Parliamentary members privately report on members challenging Minns and taking him head-on in caucus and across party rooms. His attempt to gag members from speaking on matters of conscience has backfired. MLCs, such as Stephen Lawrence, an experienced barrister and former mayor and Anthony D’Adam, another conscientious MLC with genuine concerns for justice in Palestine, will not cower.

Parliamentary members have now openly snubbed Minns by participating in the pro-Palestine Sydney Harbour Bridge protest he sought to block.

The participation in the protest by Stephen Lawrence from the right-wing, Linda Voltz from the soft left, Sarah Kaine (right wing), Anthony D’Adam (soft left), Peter Primrose (MLC hard left), Julia Finn (soft left), Cameron Murphy (MLC soft left), Kylie Wilkinson (MP soft left), former general secretary of the NSW branch ALP, now MLC and government Whip in the Upper House Bob Nanva, and other MPs including Jihad Dib MP, and Penny Sharp, hard left, minister and leader of the government in the Legislative Council and others, have brought together a rare cross-factional parliamentary coalition united in humanity. A switched-on, skilled leader in tune with his colleagues would not have allowed this to happen. It’s Minns’ stubbornness or failure to read the room that has permitted this cross-factional dissent.

The participation in the protest of former premier Bob Carr, current federal MPs, Ed Husic, former Minister for Industry and Science, Alison Byrnes MP, and TWU representative and chief government whip in the Senate NSW Senator Tony Sheldon, representatives of Australian Unions, and Unions NSW have also sent Minns a strong rejection of his dogged position on the right to protest. This, in turn, has prompted the powerful Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey, to lash out at Minns’ failure to respect the sentiments of the rank and file and importantly his failure to read the room.

“When there’s a strong public hunger to protest against violence and humanitarian crises, the government’s role should be to facilitate peaceful expression, not obstruct it,” Morey said in a not-so-veiled direct criticism of the decision. Morey went further, arguing that “political leaders should listen rather than look for ways to silence them".

Minns’ stance appears have begun to adversely impact unity among the party’s rank and file and its leadership. Instead of being conciliatory and a co-operative statesman, Minns has doubled down, locking horns with protest leaders and sought to rebuff his Labor colleagues by claiming “public safety” was his sole concern. Nobody believes this. In fact, they see through it as an attempt to divert attention from the historic 300,000-strong Australian peaceful anti-genocide protest on Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge. As Graham Richardson used to say, in words to the effect, that the electorate is always smarter and the mob will always work you out. And work him out they did.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.