The 2010 election will be held on Saturday 21 August, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced this afternoon, after visiting the Governor-General Quentin Bryce at 10.40 to dissolve Parliament. A House of Representatives and half-Senate election will be held on the 21st.
The Opposition needs a 2.3% swing to collect the 17 seats that will enable it to form a majority, based on new electoral boundaries.
In her first press conference of the election campaign, Gillard in essence offered a condensed version of what she has already presented in the early days of her Prime Ministership. She discussed what is likely to be one of the key Labor themes of the weeks ahead – a purported contrast between Gillard’s “moving forward” and Tony Abbott’s commitment to “taking Australia backward”. She yet again stressed the mainstream values that have formed the rhetorical core of the early stages of the Gillard Prime Ministership. And she made a point yet again of implicitly attacking Kevin Rudd and his commitment to a “big Australia”.
However, Gillard was, predictably, light on policy details even when challenged to indicate how she would be handling climate change, the third of the three major issues she identified upon becoming Prime Minister as requiring action on. She merely indicated she would be making a statement about it during the campaign.
Gillard also potentially left herself open to being ambushed by soundbite when she answered a question from Michelle Grattan on circumstances in which it is acceptable to break promises, indicating that she thought when “objective circumstances change” then promises needed to be reconsidered, and referred directly to the Government’s change of heart on childcare centres in the aftermath of the collapse of ABC Learning. While an entirely reasonable response, it appeared to create an opportunity for the Opposition to paint her as untrustworthy.
That’s the sort of intense and often unfair scrutiny both sides are under as their opponents, and the media, search desperately for anything that can be labelled a “gaffe”.
Beyond that, it was a polished, if content-lite, performance from the new Prime Minister.
Tony Abbott gave a similarly content-free press conference, using a short – too short – announcement (in a poorly-prepared venue in Brisbane, with no backdrop and bad lighting) to attack Julia Gillard and particularly her apparent obsession with “moving forward”. Abbott faced repeated questions about his commitment, issued this morning, not bring back Workchoices for the life of the next Parliament, which did not rule out the use of regulation (which can be changed by the relevant Minister) to enforce “flexibility” and support the Coalition’s goal of removing small business from unfair dismissal laws. Abbott, still in Opposition rather than alternative Prime Minister mode, was primarily focussed on attacking Gillard’s competence and trustworthiness.
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August 21st! Here we come!
…and we’re off to what? A contest between siblings? Birds of a feather…
Re: circumstances in which it is acceptable to break promises
I guess it would have been too easy to just quote J.Maynard Keynes: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
Well Julia’s presser was fairly content free.
But Tony’s was utterly talent free.
He can’t really get away with that sort of train wreck for the next 5 weeks.
Mind you, if that sort of mindless sloganeering is all we’re going to be served by the major parties for the rest of the campaign, then the Greens can start celebrating already.
The shortest election campaign in living memory. Just 4 weeks – the minimum by law.
Gillard must be scared into too much debate.
Tony Abbott: As a young boy, I dreamed of being a baseball, but tonight I say, we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.
It’s Day 1 of the official campaign period and I’m sick of it already.
Yes, it’s a sad commentary on the state of Australian journalism that most seem more interested in desperately searching for “gaffes” and/or giving a running commentary on the strategy than accurately reporting or analysing the relative policy positions proffered. Most coverage of Australian politics nowadays has more in common with that of competitive sports, celebrity gossip and reality television than it has with what was traditionally been construed as hard news.
Let the intellectual bloodsport begin and let’s hope that the least cynical strategy wins
The lady has spoken and the election battle has truly begun. I am calling it Julia, just the the octopus – the white pearled suit is a winner, Abbott can’t beat that one!! Poll at: http://wp.me/pXIwk-47
Prime minister Julia Gillard You Say In your speech move forward , how can many of us move forward when both goverments and all the states and territories are still corupt, im a real forgotten australian who was raped and abused made a slave , tortured starved , mentally and physically abused , yet your goverment and tony abotts goverment , and the states and territories premiers still cover up about us victims whom were raped tortured and abused in the childrens homes that these states and teitorries goverment had control of and the commonwealth of australia had resposabilty for as well, we victims can not move forward until you or your state leaders give us victims justice and closure ,and hold those resposable for their crimes that victims like myself suffered whilst in institutional care as a child , its not only the forgotten australians this has happend to it is the child migrants and the stolen generation as well, if the states and territories had nothing to hide about us victims why have they destroyed the log books of many of these girls and boys homes and orphanages through out australia,and you ask us australians to move forward when your own goverments won’t be held accountable for the crimes that we victims suffered whilst under the care of the state and the commonwealth of australia,both labour and liberal are accountable for the crimes we victims suffered and the many victims of which their are 500.000 hundred thousand many now passed away but still many many alive can not move forward until your goverments give us justice and closure and stop the coruption and cover up about us victims we are real people whom were sodimissed raped abused ,tortured, made slaves starved , bashed, force to work , no education, and used as sex objects for those who worked at these institutions , i have no need to lie , as the new south wales goverment has already done that by destroying the very vital log book records proving victims cases where is our justice for what happend to us victims the perpertrators still roam free and we victims still suffer till this day , and if you do not beleave me that the goverment of new south wales is protcting these perpertrators , in my own court case of appeal of which the state lawyers for d.o.c.s. stated these log book records have been destroyed lost or misplaced, now that is pure coruption in the goverment it self and stop the victim like me getting justice, so how can anyone in the australian public trust any goverment body in this country unless you hold the goverments accountable for these crimes we suffered as children whilst under goverment care, these boat people are getting more justice and closure than any of us forgotten australians ,child migrants or stolen generation, so why are we victims not being given the justice we desrevre what we suffered as children are the most worst crime that could ever happen to children and you allow these state and territories goverments get away with these crimes against those of us victims who still fight for justice till this day from a real forgotten australian micheal brown
posing as a sodimist
@Astro – “Just 4 weeks – the minimum by law” – actually, it’s 33 days after the dissolution of the House and the issue of writs – generally these are on the same day, today.
But at least we’re blessed with a short one this time and not the 68 day max. allowed version!
A risky slogan in the circumstances.
Too easy to paste add-on stickers…
MOVING FORWARD
To Compulsory Internet Censorship
MOVING FORWARD
To 1984
MOVING FORWARD
To Conroy’s Brave New World
__________________
Key dates:
Deadline to enrol to vote: 8pm Monday, 19 July 2010
Deadline to update your electoral roll details (Close of rolls): 8pm Thursday, 22 July 2010
Close of nominations: 12 noon Thursday, 29 July 2010
Declaration of nominations: 12 noon Friday, 30 July 2009
Election day: Saturday, 21 August 2010
I want huffnpuff to know that I reject victim mentality belief systems foisted on me by condescending gits……….
The late Sir Winston Churchill was right – Democracy is the worst for of government there is – except for all the others…
You can contribute to letting Australians know the real Tony Abbott at Tony Abbott Revealed: http://tonyabbottrevealed.org.au/wiki/
“…we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward,
and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.”
- Kodos, “The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror VII”,
I wish the backroom boys would at least google these inane slogans before they make the poor clueless politicians repeat them ad nauseum
Oh my God! ….you mean we are going to have to put up with 5 weeks of this stuff !!!
Damn attention whores.
How much of our money do they spend for the public good???
all those Abbott non core promises, between the um’s and ah’s and the untruths too late for the mad monk to join toastmasters. So let the games begin
Whereas I want huffnpuff to learn what a sentence is and what the full stop (or period) means.
BEWARE AUSTRALIA
@ Alexander White. Will take your advice and contribute
at http://tonyabbottrevealed.org.au/wiki/
We must stop T.A. and his gang of extremists and climate deniers. Whatever happened to the small “l” liberals? T.A. is simply unelectable for all the obvious reasons.
Hi CocomSys
Good stuff. There’s a lot of statements made by Tony Abbott that should be raised with voting Australians before 21 August.
Register here: http://tonyabbottrevealed.org.au/wiki/wp-register.php
Cheers
Alex
Alexander, I’ve bookmarked the site and will take a closer look tomorrow.
We also need a site about the bad press coverage of the election.
Everyone I’ve spoken to has said Abbott’s performance today was appalling — yet the press have give him the usual leave pass.
They should have picked him up on the ‘trust’ comment — how can anyone trust a pollie who has admitted on national tv that he lies?
How can we believe press coverage that attacks the PM because she said moving forward too many times, yet don’t bat an eyelid at “Great Big New Tax”?
There are heaps more and I am getting fed up that the average voter is getting a raw deal. I don’t care who rupert murdoch thinks he is — he does not control our democracy and shouldn’t attempt to control the agenda.
Today both potential PMs waisted a lot of our time talking with out saying anything. Gillard and Abbott are both past, and it seems current, experts on rhetoric and selling their product (ie Gillard “I am passionate about education”, who ain’t? or at least who would say they are not) but are yet to provide any substantive difference on issues.
So if they are both are selling the same old tired products (which are close to their used by dates anyway) while just using different sales pitches, what Astro describes as the shortest election campaign in living memory could seem agonisingly long.
I hope, but am not confident, that in the next 4 weeks we will see substantive discussion on important issues.
Huffnpuff — I don’t know whether you said anything of value there — your style and presentation are like a steam of consciousness rant and unfortunately few will read it that way.
If you can separate your ideas into sentences and small paragraphs, your contribution might be appreciated. No offense intended.
I think we will Slyman.
Any announcement would have been lost today in the melee over the calling of the election.
Both had merely to set the tone.
Gillard: Positive
Abbott: Negative
As expected.
@jenauthor: I wish I had your lack of cynicism and confidence. I think, with a lazy and stupid press, more interested in gossipmongering and ‘personalities’, and two leaders who no-one seems to like much (the ALP went from a sure thing to a ‘thank god we’ve got incumbency, that 2% will mean the 1.5% win rather than a loss of .5%…
Under Rudd (not that I was a particular admirer), the ALP would have gained seats.
I can’t wait to see the spin of ‘Thank goodness we changed: we’d have never got a 1 seat majority under Rudd’ or ‘Julia made the loss a bit better.’
Days you seem to be agreeing with the rusted on libs are depressing days indeed.
I love how Abbott is attacking Gillard for her slogans. This from the master sloganeer himself.
@Sacratease
Abbott is the “master sloganeer” you claim.
Slogans such as……… well what precisely that give him this supposed claim to fame/infamy?
Perhaps a few examples otherwise it might seem that you are the one guilty of empty rhetoric and disingenuous slogans rather than the pollies……
Oh no, I just saw the first Abbott ad
it’s got a jingle! a bloody jingle for chrissakes
I don’t know about ‘moving forward’, but launching an ad with a jingle off a seventies soap commercial is hardly cutting edge.
he criticizes Gillard for slogans and he’s got a jingle?
‘Stand up Australia, stand up, stand up for Action!’
unless you’re in a bloody wheelchair as a stunt.
Tony Abbott as Action Man? with realistic hair and gripping hands?
what were they thinking?
Astro said “The shortest election campaign in living memory. ”
Don’t think so Astro. The 83 election was shorter – just 30 days from announcement to polling day. This election is 35 days from announcement to polling day. The 2007 election was (according to Wikipedia) 38 days from announcement to polling day.
Nothing really unusual this time around.
I can only vaguely remember it, but I think Hawke had a really long election campaign (1984?) and by the time of the election everyone was so heartily sick of it that he nearly lost what should have been an unloseable election. I think since then election campaigns have usually been pretty short.
Like many journalists, BK appears to misunderstand what the Liberal Party is all about: “Tony Abbott gave a similarly content-free press conference … to attack Julia Gillard and particularly her apparent obsession with ‘moving forward’.”
Labor is the progressive party; more progressivism is the last thing Liberal voters want. Liberal voters will be those who think Australia is over-governed, over-taxed, over-borrowed, over-regulated, and over-reliant on Canberra to solve all our problems for us.
A more aggressive second-term Liberal campaign might offer a lot more pruning of the legislative overgrowth. But for this year, I read Abbott’s message as more along the lines of, “First, do no harm”.
That may sound like a negative campaign to some, but it’ll do me.
@JamesK
You want examples of Abbott’s slogans, here are a few for starters:
we’ll stand up for real action
we’ll end the waste
we’ll repay the debt
we’ll stop the new taxes
we’ll stop the boats
And in the same breath he has the gall to accuse Gillard of sloganeering.
But then, as he himself admitted on national television, if it isn’t written down he’s lying.
“Standing up for real action” is a slogan – a bad one. The rest are not slogans, those are just simple policy planks to end the waste, repay the debt, stop the taxes and stop the boats. If you can suggest more straightforward ways to say those, you’re better at English than I am.
Sloganeering sounds like this: Moving forward; Working families; Fair work Australia; Building the Education Revolution… and so on.
Former Labor speechwriter Don Watson doesn’t think much of Gillard’s “Moving Forward” brand: “This is how to train a dog. You just keep saying ‘sit’ all the time.”
A more humourous person might think of a dog moving forward from what it leaves in the park. Slogans are great targets for pisstaking, and I urge the ever-humourous Crikey readers to hammer the slogans on both sides for all they’re worth in the coming weeks.
That’s pathetic Socratease. You have no shame. Your “few for starters” “examples” are not are not slogans.
powerisnotstrength reckons “real action” might be a slogan, and in isolation it is, but here’s the quote:
“We’ll stand up for real action. We’ll end the waste, repay the debt, stop the new taxes and stop the boats.”
The “real action” is alluding to the incessantly over-the-top “take action” rhetoric of Rudd which led to inaction or facsimile of action on a variety of issues.
But what’s laughable is Socratease calling what Abbott said he would specifically do slogans. Moreover he called him the “master sloganeer”.
Socratease is badly caught out with his version of leftist over-the-top rhetoric.
JamesK,
Abbott’s rantings in the shape of empty slogans are nothing until and unless he says exactly how he’s going to do any of it.
Bu then, he’s already admitted on national TV that he doesn’t tell the truth, so who gives a rat’s rectum what he says.
One of the funniest slogans for me is “Fair Work Australia” because it is the name of a workplace. So some people now have to carry a slogan on their business cards, and recite a slogan when asked where they work.
Tony Abbott’s “gospel truth” quote was just a clumsy way of saying something is not a policy until the whole Coalition caucus has gone over it. The wording was sloppy but I don’t have a problem with trust over it. Maybe Kevin Rudd has caused people to forget that some PMs involve their cabinet in decision making.
Peter Garrett responded to that one with another banal Labor slogan: “Mr Abbott has revealed himself as the emperor without a script.” Brilliant; what slogan can we reply to that? Don’t give up your day job, Peter. Too late, he already did.
@ JamesK or MPM or whatever your name is…..
Just go to the Liberals website and their *slogan* is for all to see. You’re just too ignorant to blatantly see it for what it is, a *slogan*. Who gives a spanner if it’s alluding to jack? It’s still a *slogan*. Personally *great bix tax* is a quality Liberals slogan. Oh, read the dictionary first before preaching about what *slogan* means…..
Yes Socratease rant on, foam-in-the-mouth-anti-Howard style as if that reflects well on you.
It doesn’t.
The criticism was leveled against you and you seem quite incapable of either conceding the criticism or of defending your silly position.
Apparently ranting inanely is your forte.
@ mook shanker.
I know I was here long before you turned up you rabid moronic leftist.
Using your pathetic rationale perhaps your alter-ego is ‘Socratease’ because apparently “ranting inanely is your forte” too?
Ah, if only insults could win elections. Then I could put my money on the French sentry from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
“I fart in your general direction” is the subtext.
@JamesK,
Who, apart from you, mentioned Howard?
I am talking about Abbott, the guy who outed himself on national television as a liar.
Yes and I’m talking of you calling Abbott the “master sloganeer” and your steadfast engagement in anything but that criticism I leveled against you.
Fascinating that I characterise your anti-Abbott rants as “foam-in-the-mouth-anti-Howard style” and your response is yet again irrelevant to the point made.
Is the English language only unreasonably complicated when you’re nailed on your abuse of it?
Socratease, as I said above, he didn’t call himself a liar. It was just a clumsy way of saying the whole Coalition caucus decides policy, not just him by himself. But go on, keep repeating that one for the next five weeks. I have a feeling you will anyway.
JamesK, there was a Monty Python book whose title I don’t recall, but it recommended the final, definitive insult: “pooarsebumbastardfacefascist”
Spin it any way you like. The Mad Monk has confessed to the nation that he and the truth are strangers.
As famously quoted of George Bernard:
“I don’t know if there are men on the moon, but if there are they must be using the earth as their lunatic asylum”
Spin that any way you like.
Here’s what Abbott said:
Now what about this, would you call this an absolutely calm, considered, prepared, scripted remark by Gillard?
Actually, it was. That was in a prepared speech on 6 July. Oops. So Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres had to remind her who speaks for East Timor. Then we get a slightly less considered, prepared, scripted remark:
Which later had to be clarified:
Well, did she or didn’t she? Is she, or is she not, well acquainted with speaking the truth?
And is this really the type of central question on which you’re going to choose your government? Maybe Abbott was telling the truth: everyone makes slips. The difference is, some party leaders are members of a team, while some are lone rangers.
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