Paul Keating Is The Reason That Bill Shorten Suddenly Got Good At Politics
This makes a lot of sense.
Tony Abbott mightn’t be the most popular guy, but he’s thanking his stars that Bill Shorten is around. Shorten is as dull as Abbott is divisive, and one of the major reasons that Abbott’s Prime Ministerial performance art piece is running as smoothly as it is — which is not smoothly at all, but still, it could be worse.
Shorten might be good with policy. He may even be a policy wonk, which is one of my favourite expressions. No-one knows and no-one cares, though, because he’s a bleedingly dull politician. Grandstanding, rhetoric, name-calling, Shorten never saw the little asterisk next to all these boxes that denoted them as compulsory.
All of which is why Shorten’s budget response was such a shock. Suddenly, Shorten was passionate, bold, theatrical. The coalition expected a nit-picky, tread-water response, and they got a Keating-esque takedown that cut through to the philosophies behind the costings.
Yes, it was Keating-esque, uncannily so. Could Shorten have employed an illustrious ghostwriter for the occasion? Whispers to this effect have been circulating since the speech, but nothing substantive enough for publication in a self-respecting pop culture website. In Fairfax today, though, James Kenny and Mark Massola have confirmed that yes, the spirit of PJK was moving through Shorten when he gave his response. Their source says that Keating had a look at the final draft, tightened it up and then added some Keating-isms, but they would say that, wouldn’t they?
Giving too much credit to Keating would undermine Shorten, leaving him looking like a puppet. Unfortunately for Labor, though, Keating has become an almost romantic figure, a symbol of a time when politicans actually had personalities. You only have to look at John Hewson to see that this idea is a fallcy, but still, it persists.
Labor would probably like to get out from under Keating’s long shadow, but they themselves are true believers, caught in his spell. My advice? Just give the man a gig, guys — for our sake.
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Image via SBS
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