Politics & Power Quote by Jay Weatherill

Weatherill is doing the politician’s favorite magic trick: renaming power as manners. By promising a government “less focused on personalities,” he signals a break from the soap-opera logic of factional politics - the grudges, the cults of leadership, the media bait. But it’s also a quiet rebuke to people in his own orbit who mistake internal drama for public purpose. The phrase is a reset button: stop litigating egos, start selling outcomes.

“Treated with respect” is more than a civility pledge. It’s a strategic repositioning that implies respect has been lacking - from government toward citizens, and from political actors toward each other. Respect becomes a proxy for legitimacy. If voters feel dismissed, no policy brilliance will land; if stakeholders feel bulldozed, reform turns into resistance. He’s implicitly acknowledging that style is not superficial; it’s the delivery system for substance.

The sharpest line is the one about “complaining about the community not being able to see the wisdom of our ideas.” That’s a slap at technocratic self-pity: the temptation to blame the public for not “getting it.” Weatherill is arguing that persuasion is part of governing, not an optional extra, and that arrogance reads as contempt. The subtext: if your ideas are wise, prove it in the language of people’s lives, not in the smug comfort of the policy bunker.

Contextually, this is leadership rhetoric aimed at cooling political temperature while tightening discipline. It invites the public to judge him on tone and trust, even as it warns his team: stop whining, start listening.