But if Mr Shearer is determined to be his own man, to dampen expectation, to play the non-politician's politician, then it has to be said he made a pretty good fist of it. The speech was sentimental, aspirational and vague. He delivered its feel-good assertions with about as much passion as a man eating cold porridge. Sincere and pleasant he may be. Barack Obama he is not.
That is the problem with major set speeches concerning themselves with an elusive "vision thing", that essentially have nothing specific to say: unless they are delivered with real fire in the belly, it all too soon becomes self-evident. This is an issue for all politicians in opposition who, after all, are not in a position either to implement policy or who are cautious about announcing details for fear they will be stillborn amid a deluge of criticism. Traditionally, opposition leaders tend to make traction as much by exposing the flaws in the government-of-the-day's policies as in setting out their own.
A key theme of yesterday's speech was for the need to build a "new New Zealand". It will take considerably more than a series of anodyne speeches to achieve that. For the Government of the day is indeed getting on with creating its own vision of a "new" New Zealand. Just a few hours after Mr Shearer made his speech at the Wellesley Hotel in Wellington, Prime Minister John Key was making his to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. It was delivered with the confidence that comes from office. Mr Key and his party have a plan; they have detailed priorities.
Like it or not, by the day they are implementing them.
Yesterday, Mr Key spoke mainly about delivering "better public services to New Zealanders within tight financial constraints" - and gave specific examples. He made three announcements: a new results-driven focus for the public service; resetting the cap on core government administration (i.e.
reducing the public sector) at a lower level; and the establishment of a new "business-facing" super ministry - the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
This is roll-your-sleeves-up government. It will not be perturbed by Mr Shearer's earnest talk of his vision of a new New Zealand. For there is nothing really new in it. Most New Zealanders do want to belong to a society in which everyone gets a fair go; they do generally believe in an excellent education for all; many agree that investment in science, technology and innovation can help achieve this; they do want to believe in a clean, green and clever society. But, better still, they want to believe in a leader who can take them to that promised land; and they want to know, in some detail, how he or she is going to achieve that.
Mr Shearer confirmed that Labour would stick to its 2011 election platform of a capital gains tax on the premise that this would help direct capital away from property and into more productive sectors of the economy: there is plenty of evidence for this and advocates of it but none were referenced in this speech. He conceded the party would likely shed its first $5000 tax free for all, but said little else about likely tax policy. He mentioned the touchy subject of bad teachers, but that was about as brave as he got.
There was nothing in this speech to ruffle the image of the new Labour leader as a softly spoken, well-meaning moderate with a full armoury of good intentions but with as yet ill-defined plans on how to deploy them.
The problem is the political jungle is full of cacophonous, exotic and competing sounds.
Sometimes you have to raise your voice just to be heard.
