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Wednesday May 23, 2012

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Hinch on Labor's Launch

Posted by: Derryn Hinch | 16 August, 2010 - 4:09 PM

Photo: Andrew Meares, Fairfax Media

INTERVIEW: Derryn speaks to Tony Wright, National Affairs Editor with The Age.

Play Audio - Tony Wright with Derryn Hinch

HINCH EDITORIAL: So. Julia Gillard formally launched her election campaign in Brisbane this morning. A month after she announced the election. It’s a pity she waited so long. It wasn’t a bad speech. Delivered without an autocue and only a few notes.

But we’d heard it all twenty/thirty times before. How she believes in hard work. Her father’s CV. Her thoughts on giving all kids a good education. A lot of it, too much of it, was devoted to attacks on her opponent. The man they are trying to paint as an economic bunny, the man she calls 'Mr. Rabbit'.

They got over the elephant in the room pretty well. Kevin Rudd, the man Julia and her team shafted, was given a warm welcome, by many of the shafters, and cleverly Julia Gillard  combined Rudd and Hawke in a double welcome.

Later she did describe Rudd as a man ‘of great achievements’ who still had more 'great achievements' ahead of him. That Foreign Affairs job looks like a fair price to pay for holding his tongue and showing up.

At least the leaks have stopped.

The Silver Bodgie was in good form. Bob Hawke spoke too long and reminisced too much about his time as prime minister –which was nearly 30 years ago—and at one stage said he took office in 1953. Sometimes it feels like it.

But he used a racing analogy imploring  his ‘fellow Australians’ to study the form. Like a punter does. The problem is that form includes the pink batts disaster and the billion dollar school rorts.

It also gives you the excuse to point out that for this horse race Gillard and Co shot the jockey.

Gillard and her sidekick Wayne Swan rightfully praised the Government for getting Australia through the Global Financial Crisis better than any other country in the western world. Especially when compared to Europe and a crippled United States.

But the leader through that crisis wasn’t Gillard. It was Rudd. And his colleagues dumped him in  his first time in office.

It was a strong performance though from the fledgling PM. She said she was too modest to compare herself with Labor hero Ben Chifley, whose name she stumbled over, or Barack Obama and his clarion call 'Yes, we can'.

But then five or six times she upped the ante on that one to claim:  'Yes, we will'.

The voters, especially in Queensland and New South Wales, will decide on Saturday  whether she’ll get the opportunity.

Labor Party campaign launch

Julia Gillard policy launch The Prime Minister has announced a new health policy and a slight slogan change, while launching Labor's official election campaign in Brisbane. Ms Gillard has promised medicare rebates for people in regional areas to access internet consultations with doctors.

Blog comments Your Say

  • You know why we have dud pollies in Australia, we have no choice because we have to vote no matter what.

    So they just say what they like, and we are just suposed to believe it because we have no choice but to vote.

    Nick Tuesday 17 August, 2010 - 9:53 AM

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