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Happy Monday everyone and welcome to week four of this most surreal of election campaigns. The pace has begun to really pick over the last few days, as Julia Gillard was forced to deny that she was intentionally calling her opponent ‘Mr Rabbit’. Meanwhile, Tony Abbott officially launched the Coalition campaign on Sunday in front of a packed house of party faithful.
However, all the media focus was on the awkward soapie-esque moments shared between Gillard and her former leaders, Mark Latham and Kevin Rudd.
So, after 22 days of forced smiles and fake handshakes, Julia Gillard’s Soap Opera Society has covered a tear-jerking 27,599km, while Tony Abbott’s Fair Go Freight Train has rocketed along to a record-breaking 31,048km. Together, that’s a gruelling 58,647km — the equivalent of more than 150 million average-sized rabbits.
Gillard:
- Julia Gillard was in Melbourne on Friday, where she joined Jon Faine for an interview on ABC Radio. Amongst other questions, Faine directly pressed Gillard on her propensity to refer to her opponent as “Mr Rabbit” instead of “Mr Abbott”. “Mr Rabbit? What do you mean,” she said when asked by Faine about her diction. “I’m sorry. I will try and be more precise … having been counselled to do so.”
- Gillard flew to Brisbane and headed for Scarborough in the seat of Petrie on Saturday, where she announced that pensioners would be able to earn up to $6500 a year and keep their full benefits. However Gillard’s pitch for the grey vote, worth $94 million, was overshadowed by her awkward meeting with Kevin Rudd earlier in the day. To make matters worse, former ALP leader Mark Latham also reappeared on the trail, this time as a self-loathing Channel Nine journalist.
- Gillard then put some space between herself and former Labor leaders in Darwin on Sunday, where she announced funding for affordable housing in the Top End, the introduction of a ‘No School, No Play’ initiative and an extension of the national chaplaincy program.
Abbott:
Latham:
- Mark Latham wasted no time getting acquainted with his new profession as a reporter for Channel Nine on Saturday, as he confronted Julia Gillard at a press conference in Brisbane: “Can I just ask you why the Labor Party made a complaint about me working for Channel Nine?” he said as he shook the prime minister’s hand.
Quotable:
- ”This is a national soap opera, not a government. Forget The Bold and The Beautiful and The Young and the Restless, try the Vain and the Ruthless.” — Julie Bishop cracks a gag at the Coalition campaign launch.
- “He’s not a journalist; he’s still full of bile and settling old scores. I don’t really think it does 60 Minutes or the network much of a favour really to have him posing as a journalist.” — Laurie Oakes on Mark Latham’s career change.
Stunt Watch:
- Julia Gillard was all about the games on the weekend, as she happily tried her hand at billiards, hockey and shuffleboard:
(Source: ABC)
Where are they today?
- Julia Gillard has crossed the Nullabor for a second time to campaign in Perth. Today she’ll announce a plan to pay bonuses of up to $100,000 for schools that can demonstrate improvement in attendance and student results. This afternoon she’ll fly to Adelaide for an appearance on the ABC’s Q&A program.
- After yesterday’s party launch, Tony Abbott was hitting the airwaves in interviews for Nine and the ABC and will remain in Brisbane to work that city’s crucial marginals.
- Bob Brown is in Hobart, but will head to Queensland later today to meet with farmers in Toowoomba.
What is the tracker?
Crikey tracks each leader’s amazing race across the country via our Election Tracker. Each day we’ll plot the leaders’ movements, feeding in the key policy announcements and spending commitments, the best media coverage and social media chat, plus the campaign stunts and bloopers. You can also use the tracker as a hub for the best Crikey coverage.
Click on the tabs across the top to watch how many kilometres Gillard and Abbott have clocked up, the movements of other key players and finally our bloopers and stunts bonanza on the right. You can click on each stop to see what they’re up to, with links to extended coverage and detailed electorate information.
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14 Comments
Looking for the knockout blow this week or next, or we could have a hung lower house, with the independants holding power.
I think people should vote Labour/Greens because Julia has signed an extradition agreement with United Arab Emirates to send Australians to be tried under Sharia Law. So if an Australian girl reports rape by Muslims males to police she may be sent to UAE and executed for having sex outside marriage. Also because Bob and Penny openly practice homosexuality and Lesbianism respectively and support paedophiles early release and protection, building School fraud, communism, and this is good for Australians along with the $100,000,000 a day debt they are running up.
I can’t think when a federal campaign has bored me more that this one has.
@ Socratease
I think this one is more interesting that most, with all the infighting and leaks and the closeness.
Aussie ??? WTF Turn down the Dog whistle abbot sent you mate and stop reading Murdoch’s rags , its all lies and half truths and don’t forget to take your red tablets.
Thought Provoking: In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. — Voltaire (1764) And on that note all I can say (since 1764) seemingly - not a lot has changed.
http://just-me-in-t.blogspot.com/2010/08/let-us-provoke-thought-or-two.html
Justmeint - great site you’ve got there. Climate change denial, anti-flouridation and of course you’re a Christian…
Just a guess - you’re a crank?
So why didn’t you, you stupid halfwit ineffectual laissez-faire lying turkey.
Handy that — having “mostly” Labor state govts to blame around the country.
Oh sweet baby Jeebus, what next. Performance pay for teachers if they visit students at home to drag them to the school by the ear? What kind of populist drivel is this mad Lib/Lab complex going to propose next?
TOM COWIE - Typical journalist, you write all about banal little anecdotes without a single word about policy. Then you call the campaign “surreal” so everyone rightly complains it’s boring.
Meanwhile one of the parties is planning a fresh look at the Henry tax review, including a huge simplification of income tax to improve economic efficiency and let taxpayers keep a lot more of what they earn.
JUSTMEINT - It’s a cute theory, but the art of government consists of getting re-elected any way it can. Increasing revenue for porkbarreling purposes is typically a means to that end, and it certainly is for the current government, but that’s not always the case.
@POWER If you have been following the tracker, you will know that I detail the policy announcements made by both leaders every single day. I only say it is surreal because you have one ex-leader parading around as a journalist confronting politicians and another ex-leader being asked to help out his party because the polls are flat lining. If you don’t agree, then I would like to know why.
Also, over at Policy Watch we are endeavouring to maintain a list minus the fluff (granted it does need a little updating): http://www.crikey.com.au/2010-federal-election-policy-watch/
But anyway, how about those leaks….
Questioning the need for an ex-leader to be called in for help is fair enough. Some might read it as a sign of weakness, while others might see it as a proper handover of command (which contrasts with Labor’s chronic backstabbing problem).
But for you to draw attention to Latham’s theatrics displays the shallowness of a child who cannot sit through a serious lesson without being distracted by a clown at the back of the room. Gillard barely broke stride, she handled the short non-event very well, and you know it.
There’s only one thing about Latham’s stupid stunt that’s worthy of attention, and that’s the way in which Rudd and Beazley used a tsunami tragedy to stick the knife in his back in 2004. You people didn’t even notice the level of skullduggery in 2004; whatever Latham’s faults, you all thought one way of getting rid of an unwanted leader was just as good as any other. So it’s a bit late for you lot to start acting clever about Latham’s embarrassing outbursts now.
The fact that you’re just one of many journalists so distracted does not let you off the hook. When you report on gimmicks, you become a merchant of gimmicks, no matter how wearily you affect to sigh about it all.
Gillard may have handled the event well but regardless, it was still surreal to see Mark Latham back in an election campaign, once again giving his aggressive handshake. Especially considering many feel it was the “Latham-shake” that gave the ‘04 election to Howard. Will a Latham handshake engender the same sympathy and boost Gillard across the line?
See, the whole emphasis is on whether it was a big trauma for Gillard, enough to say: “Aw, did the nasty man scare you? Here, take this gun to put to my head, and take the keys to my wealth and future, it will make you feel better.” More like an annoyance because once it happened, she knew anything else she said that day would be ignored in the papers. Which is what happened.
Something else that none of you hacks even noticed: it’s the first time Gillard has ever given a direct answer to a direct question.
@John64:
… goaded presumably by the 60 Minutes producer on the shoot. That’d be true to the style of that execrable program.
I’m no lover of Oakes, but his bagging of the Latham stunt was a welcome read.