No story moves without a potent cast of supporting characters, and Bill Shorten was surrounded by so many top-tier extras on Sunday it was hard to decide who was the star of the show.
There was Shorten’s wife, Chloe, dazzling with her declaration of love for the man she described as caring, sweet, funny, gentle...and yes, “a wonderful dad”.
There was the Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, Labor's leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, and the deputy leader of the opposition, Tanya Plibersek.
Bill Shorten, introduced by wife Chloe, spoke at the Labor campaign launch in Brisbane.
All women, no one could fail to note, all powerful, confident enough for one of them, Senator Wong, to cruelly dismiss the luminaries of the Coalition, Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison and Michael McCormack, as “small men with small ideas”.
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And there was Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, almost comfortable in the company of the prime minister with whom she once was locked in a dance of political death, Kevin Rudd.
A prime minister of an earlier, more stable age, Bob Hawke, was missing, consigned to home by the shortening years. No matter. Shorten declared: “Bob, we love you, and in the next 13 days we are going to do this for you.”
And then there was Paul Keating.
Former prime minister Paul Keating arrives at the Labor campaign launch in Brisbane.
When Shorten had finished promising an Australia returned to its sunlit uplands, it was Keating who took a seat in front of the ABC’s TV cameras and reminded anyone watching that he never was a mere extra.
He was always the leading man with the best lines, whether the audience saw him as hero or villain or both.
The old saw that elections were all about the economy was too limited, he insisted, flipping every question into an opportunity to scorn the Coalition government.
“No, no, it's about the economy and society,” said Keating.
“The economy is there for society. The Liberals have nothing to offer. You know, I'm surprised how threadbare their program is. If you look, there is no panorama. There's no vista. There's no shape... And what's their plea? Trickle down economics and a tax cut five years away.”
As for the Coalition’s reliance upon coal for future power production...
“Look, coal is the fuel of the industrial revolution 250 years ago,” pronounced Keating.
“It's all over.
“There's the Prime Minister walking around with a lump of coal. Coal is a fossil. The Prime Minister is a fossil himself, a fossil with a baseball cap, but a fossil.
Burying the hatchet: Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Paul Keating at Labor's campaign launch on Sunday.
“This is the land of sun. So this is the place, perhaps first in the world, where renewables could be the primary source of energy. Yet, we have the Liberals going back to Mr Stephenson's steam train of 250 years ago.”
There was a lot, lot more. There always is when Paul Keating has run of the script.
Labor leader Bill Shorten rouses the party faithful at its official campaign launch in Brisbane.
Labor pledges tax breaks for small business and crackdown on multinationals at campaign launch
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Still, he was there to support another Labor leader, Shorten, and he did his best to pay a form of homage when asked whether the success of the Hawke-Keating period could be repeated in today’s on-line world.
“Big ideas are always winners,” Keating advised.
“The Twittersphere prospers when there are no ideas out there. But once you shape the debate and you put the big ideas out there, like Bill Shorten has done today, what it does - it gathers followers. You know, you become the Pied Piper.
“And when you become the Pied Piper, you pick up adherence. But if there's no Pied Piper, the Twittersphere takes over.”
There was Shorten’s wife, Chloe, dazzling with her declaration of love for the man she described as caring, sweet, funny, gentle...and yes, “a wonderful dad”.
There was the Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, Labor's leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, and the deputy leader of the opposition, Tanya Plibersek.
Bill Shorten, introduced by wife Chloe, spoke at the Labor campaign launch in Brisbane.
All women, no one could fail to note, all powerful, confident enough for one of them, Senator Wong, to cruelly dismiss the luminaries of the Coalition, Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison and Michael McCormack, as “small men with small ideas”.
Advertisement
And there was Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, almost comfortable in the company of the prime minister with whom she once was locked in a dance of political death, Kevin Rudd.
A prime minister of an earlier, more stable age, Bob Hawke, was missing, consigned to home by the shortening years. No matter. Shorten declared: “Bob, we love you, and in the next 13 days we are going to do this for you.”
And then there was Paul Keating.
Former prime minister Paul Keating arrives at the Labor campaign launch in Brisbane.
When Shorten had finished promising an Australia returned to its sunlit uplands, it was Keating who took a seat in front of the ABC’s TV cameras and reminded anyone watching that he never was a mere extra.
He was always the leading man with the best lines, whether the audience saw him as hero or villain or both.
The old saw that elections were all about the economy was too limited, he insisted, flipping every question into an opportunity to scorn the Coalition government.
“No, no, it's about the economy and society,” said Keating.
“The economy is there for society. The Liberals have nothing to offer. You know, I'm surprised how threadbare their program is. If you look, there is no panorama. There's no vista. There's no shape... And what's their plea? Trickle down economics and a tax cut five years away.”
As for the Coalition’s reliance upon coal for future power production...
“Look, coal is the fuel of the industrial revolution 250 years ago,” pronounced Keating.
“It's all over.
“There's the Prime Minister walking around with a lump of coal. Coal is a fossil. The Prime Minister is a fossil himself, a fossil with a baseball cap, but a fossil.
Burying the hatchet: Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Paul Keating at Labor's campaign launch on Sunday.
“This is the land of sun. So this is the place, perhaps first in the world, where renewables could be the primary source of energy. Yet, we have the Liberals going back to Mr Stephenson's steam train of 250 years ago.”
There was a lot, lot more. There always is when Paul Keating has run of the script.
Labor leader Bill Shorten rouses the party faithful at its official campaign launch in Brisbane.
Labor pledges tax breaks for small business and crackdown on multinationals at campaign launch
Add to shortlist
Still, he was there to support another Labor leader, Shorten, and he did his best to pay a form of homage when asked whether the success of the Hawke-Keating period could be repeated in today’s on-line world.
“Big ideas are always winners,” Keating advised.
“The Twittersphere prospers when there are no ideas out there. But once you shape the debate and you put the big ideas out there, like Bill Shorten has done today, what it does - it gathers followers. You know, you become the Pied Piper.
“And when you become the Pied Piper, you pick up adherence. But if there's no Pied Piper, the Twittersphere takes over.”
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