A graphic look at the PM’s speeches this year

T.C. says:

07:09am | 19/08/09

What? No big fat “working families” in that tag cloud?

Chris says:

07:51am | 19/08/09

hmm - expected to see “Working Families’”, and not surprisinlgy - the word “Billion” does not appear to much.. Go figure.

Eric says:

07:57am | 19/08/09

I would have expected more “environment” and “climate change”.

But then, I never listen to politicians’ speeches anyway. Their actions are the important bits.

Sean Carmody says:

08:22am | 19/08/09

“Working families” only appeared 16 times…it must be a bit last year!

GV says:

08:24am | 19/08/09

I can’t even see the makings of “In Due Season”!?!

Great analysis.  It would be interesting to see the difference between this scripted Rudd and Question Time Rudd (er… although he seems to largely just read prepared statements too I guess).

Di says:

09:07am | 19/08/09

What surprises me is that the Australian people are falling for all his half baked ideas and spin. If you think Labor is the voice of the common man then forget it. Labor is about unions and selling off state assets to pay the bills. Rudd is a rich man via his wife and his policies are union friendly or grand beyond reality (health care reform). At the end of the day the Australian people are going to pay the price. We are on the road for a rocky 10 years ahead.

Andrew says:

11:29am | 19/08/09

Yes, because Malcolm Turnbull is clearly the voice of the common may, what with him being the richest representative in the Parliament and all.

Voxpop says:

11:53am | 19/08/09

Di I think you’ll find it’s the Liberals who have a passion for selling off public utilities - add to that the deceptive means used to ‘force’ people from public to private health care and you can see they were headed for scrapping Medicare in order to boost private insurance companies and wipe their hands of it.

I am so sick of Liberal supporters peddling ruin and scare with BS hypotheticals.  We kicked Howard out for actual wrongs done and am very glad of it.  If any of the crap you lot are screaming about actually ever happens then I’m sure the voting in future elections will reflect so - until then can you just be a bit more rational?

PL says:

11:56am | 19/08/09

Where’s “Aussie battler”  or my all time favourite “mateship” cringe!!!

anony1 says:

12:38pm | 19/08/09

No “Fair”, “Shake”, “Sauce” & “Bottle”?

Joe says:

01:12pm | 19/08/09

See if you put the big three together he is all about GLOBAL GOVERNMENT for AUSTRALIA. Sums him up really and fits in with his expensive ego push to run the UN.

(I see no mention of Labor on there…)

Voxpop says:

01:32pm | 19/08/09

I’d love to see a word cloud on Turnbull

Margaret Gray says:

03:34pm | 19/08/09

“...I think you’ll find it’s the Liberals who have a passion for selling off public utilities…”

Care to furnish your ‘claim’ with any evidence?

“...I am so sick of Liberal supporters peddling ruin and scare with BS hypotheticals…”

Ibid. (you do know what that means, don’t you?)

“...We kicked Howard out for actual wrongs done…”

My experience with adolescence assumes you’re invoking the royal “we” in this regard?

Patrick says:

04:22pm | 19/08/09

@ Di, you’re right, Malcolm Turnbull, with his personal fortune of some $170 million and the Liberal party, stacked with lawyers, bankers and business men, are obviously much more of a “voice of the common man” than the Labor party.

The Magical Liopleurdon says:

04:29pm | 19/08/09

“Labor is about unions and selling off state assets to pay the bills”

Di, I think you will find that privatisation, that is, the selling off of state assets, has always been the policy of the Liberal party, while public ownership has traditionally been the policy of the Labor party.

Do a little reserach on the backgrounds and policies of our political parties and their members before you try to act like you know what you’re talking about.

Jeck says:

05:02pm | 19/08/09

To Patrick, the Howard years made the common man richer and enjoy the consequences of a well managed economy. When the economy tanks and there are no backup funds in the kitty it is not the rich that sufferes it is the common man. I voted Rudd and now am unemployed, water/electricity/private health costs has gone up and my son who is in medical school will not have a job in 5 years because the government won’t fund intern training positions in 5 years. Common man suffering…...

Patrick says:

05:35pm | 19/08/09

And I suppose you think a re-elected Howard government would somehow be immune to the effects of a global economic crisis Jeck?

If you had voted for Howard and Howard won in 2007, we would still have been hit by this shitstorm, some $215 billion in tax revenue over 4 years would still have collapsed and we would have gone into deficit even WITHOUT any stimulus, and without proactive government monetary policies you would be seeing more people then just yourself losing jobs.

Despite that, I strongly suspect even if Howard had won re-election in 2007 that he and Costello would have implemented stimulus measures of their own, and Liberal condemnation of it now is nothing more then political posturing.

Anybody with a basic grasp of economics knows that there is absolutely no point in holding onto a surplus in a downturn, and anybody with a brain knows that maintaining Howard’s surplus in this downturn would have been impossible regardless of whoever was in power anyway.

Voxpop says:

06:14pm | 19/08/09

Way to go Margaret…

“Care to furnish your ‘claim’ with any evidence?”
I don’t need to it’s been part of Howard’s and the neo-liberals ideology and agenda since the 80’s so therefore common knowledge.  Yes Labor have done their share but only with a conspicuously complicit opposition (in other words the Liberals would have done the same if in power and didn’t even see fit to oppose it - something they currently do at the drop of a hat for anything and everything simply for oppositions sake rather than any real policy concern).  And if you’re talking about State Govt then you need look no further than Kennett who led the charge and has the longest list.

“Ibid. (you do know what that means, don’t you?)”
Yes I do Margaret but do you?  Because you haven’t used it correctly – unless, you’re only referring to the fact that you lifted my quotes from the same post.  I think what you are trying unsuccessfully to say though is that you would level the same criticism at Labor supporters - hint you need a different word to describe that

“My experience with adolescence assumes you’re invoking the royal “we” in this regard? “
Yes, I can see you’re a die hard Liberal supporter as you like to play the man and not the ball.  Are you trying to say that I’m immature by calling me adolescent? LOL because that would make you a geriatric so I guess I’ll just put your ramblings down to dementia

Gee that was a bit of fun - just posting quotes with biting replies as a way of trying to discredit an opposing view.  Thanks for that Margaret.

Sean Carmody says:

09:27am | 20/08/09

I have now posted a word cloud for Malcolm Turnbull’s 2009 speeches: http://www.stubbornmule.net/2009/08/malcolm-turnbull/

Voxpop says:

10:19am | 20/08/09

Thanks Sean they do provide an interesting snapshot and when you compare the two you can see themes and backgrounds as well as Govt vs opposition stance.
““Now” is as prominent as Rudd’s “also”. Does this reflect a constant sense of urgency from a man of little patience?”
I’d add petulance to that

But really I would have to say the most interesting thing about all of it is that so many other words and phrases didn’t figure into it.  The examples that people have posted above - all those cliche’d quotes that make us cringe.  It just goes to show how big a part the media plays in affecting the perception of public profiles.  They’ve replayed add-nauseum those sound bites and now we can see that it’s a fixation of the media and not something Rudd is responsible for.

Logan says:

12:36pm | 20/08/09

Patrick is so in love with Labor he has missed the point. It is not about spending the stimulus but what you are spending it on and the whole role of borrowing and not investing current funds. Think about why a country like Singapore with no natural resources can be as rich or richer then Australia (granted Aussies are paying them their hard earned money via Optus). Let federal and state government deliver results and not excuses and spin and we will give them credit.

Solve the health issue, just focus on this and get it right. Bet you we’ll be worse off 2 years from now mate : )

Sean Carmody says:

06:38pm | 20/08/09

Voxpop: most of those phrases (“working families”, etc) do appear in the speeches, just nowhere near often enough to be visible in the cloud.