A number of disastrous missteps – a holiday in Hawaii and a forceful handshake – have played into a view that the prime minister is out of touch

Death of the salesman? How Scott Morrison's PR nous deserted him in the bushfires

“You are watching the destruction of a political leader,” the former Hawke government press secretary, Barrie Cassidy, said after watching the prime minister, Scott Morrison, in the bushfire devastated NSW town of Cobargo.

Leaders are often heckled. In the partisan business of politics, plenty of handshakes have been refused.

To experts in public relations, Morrison’s dramatic visit to the bushfire-ravaged village of Cobargo felt like something else – the political death of a salesman, a snowballing of anger at the way Morrison has dodged, dismissed and downplayed the unprecedented natural disaster.

“Those images would be devastating for a leader of any political persuasion,” says David Marshall, the former head of Canberra Tourism and Events and a communications strategist who wrote a PhD thesis on the Howard government’s media management.

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“The prime minister has really got to re-look at the rhetoric and the messages, particularly his New Year’s message when he [downplayed] the fire situation. People don’t like that. This is devastation, and that messaging from him has been completely off-putting.

“That has characterised the snowballing of this issue.”

Time and again, for better and worse, crises have defined political leaders. After the September 11 attacks, George W Bush registered approval ratings of 92%, the highest ever recorded by pollster Gallup. After Hurricane Katrina in 2006, Bush’s approval ratings plummeted after a photograph of him surveying the devastation from the window of Air Force One contributed to a belief he was disconnected from the reality of the unfolding humanitarian crisis.

Marshall said John Howard’s reputation was defined by his response to the Port Arthur massacre, which marked him as a strong national leader in a way that transcended party politics.

“The Port Arthur massacre and the initiative he took in the gun buyback certainly were the foundations of [Howard’s] prime ministership. It happened so early after he was elected.

“Scott Morrison has unfortunately through his policies on climate change, his refusal to meet with the former fire chiefs ... and then him going to Hawaii, the combination of those events have put him on the back foot in relation to how people would assume a leader should react and act in a situation of crisis.”

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Morrison’s unannounced holiday to Hawaii itself became a public relations disaster, partly because of denials issued by the prime minister’s office when rumours began to circulate.

On his way home, slightly earlier than expected, Morrison gave a radio interview and said: “I know Australians understand this and they’ll be pleased I’m coming back, I’m sure, but they know I don’t hold a hose, I don’t sit in a control room.”

Morrison, a former head of Tourism Australia had been lampooned on social media as “Scotty from Marketing” for his spin-heavy turn of phrase. Most notable of those expressions are the notion of the “Canberra bubble” and the implicit message that he is better connected to real people, the “Quiet Australians”.

Marshall said Morrison’s decision to hold a garden party at Kirribilli House for the Australian and New Zealand cricket teams highlighted “the remoteness of that experience to what tens of thousands of Australians were experiencing, the devastation of the bushfires”.

The visit to Cobargo on Thursday evening would have been an attempt to reconnect with citizens, but it backfired.

Cassidy remarked on Twitter that Morrison had been unravelled “not by his own party but by his own hand”.

Barrie Cassidy (@barriecassidy) You are watching the destruction of a political leader and this time not by his own party but by his own hand. At least you @vanOnselenP saw it coming before most. https://t.co/3uXOaqifbx

Marshall said the images, which have now been broadcast around the world, could be difficult for Morrison to shake. Much of the reaction has focused on the way he forced two unwilling people – a young woman and a volunteer firefighter, who both lost their homes – to shake his hand.

Play Video 0:39 'I don't really want to': Scott Morrison's attempts to shake hands in Cobargo rejected – video

“The shouting and abuse that went on surrounding those visits. Rather than sitting down and facing the situation that he turned and walked towards his car and drove off. If you’re a leader you need to lead,” Marshall says.

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“He’s certainly now trying [to reverse that impression]. He’s been out there trying to talk to lots of people and trying to take the initiative. That’s to be commended, because he needs to do that as prime minister. But the damage has already been done.

“If you look at how Daniel Andrews has handled the situation in Victoria, and Gladys Berejiklian in New South Wales, they’ve been very proactive at a state level, people have been watching them and that’s leadership.”

The footage of such focused rage in regional Australia will also dispel a narrative that anger towards Morrison is a social media phenomenon, not one that existed in the real world. Criticism, such as from NSW minister Andrew Constance, a fellow Liberal, has crossed the political divide.

The situation has unmade Morrison’s two most successful marketing phrases. The Canberra bubble has become the Kirribilli bubble, with the prime minister firmly inside. The quiet Australians credited for Morrison’s election win have found their voice.