Gillard's vision: moving forward together

Updated September 29, 2010 12:15:49

If you had any doubt that our pragmatic, centrist, consensus-building Prime Minister was a progressive leftie at heart, then read on - this address to the Per Captia think tank features political rhetoric, progressivism and conservatism, indicated for your convenience:

I'm honoured to be here today, a proud product of Adelaide, home for the first time to the city of my childhood as your Prime Minister.

I now call Melbourne my home - and hopefully after the election, Canberra too - but Adelaide has a special place in my heart and always will.

This weekend I saw my mother and father in person for the first time since becoming Prime Minister.

It was a special moment.

> A bit of humanity injected into the speech up front reminds us that she is not superhuman, just a super human. Flag: political rhetoric.

A moment to be especially savoured coming on the same day as I shared time with the Palmer family as they mourned the loss of their son Scott, a brave soldier.

Our objective in Afghanistan is clear: to combat the threat of terrorism - to prevent Afghanistan again becoming a safe-haven and training ground for terrorists to launch attacks against us and our allies.

The Australian Government and Australian Defence Forces are absolutely committed to maximising protection for our men and women serving overseas.

But there is no doubt that the war in Afghanistan is dangerous, and we may see further Australian casualties. Progress will be hard won and will take time. Across Australia and here in Adelaide we will need to maintain our resolve.

> A clean segue into an issue of topical import, a nod to gravity, to Australian sacrifice and an appeal to "resolve", and then straight back into the positioning, which is the main thrust of the speech. Flag: political rhetoric.

Adelaide is part of who I am. I grew up, went to school, took my first steps into work, university and adulthood here.

Whether it's memories of the fruit trees in our back yard, playing at Brown Hill Creek, being taught to knit by the elderly women who lived at Sunset Lodge where my mother worked or having my favourite teacher, Mr Crowe, correct my grammar at primary school, my recollections of this place and its people are good.

I arrived here, aged four, the guest of a generous nation.

This country and this city, along with my parents, my sister, my teachers and my friends formed my outlook, my character, my philosophy and political purpose.

> Note the reference to the environmental factors that shaped her philosophy and outlook - a classic progressive appeal to external causes of belief and behaviour rather than internal causes, like instinct, will or inspiration, which is a more traditionally conservative line. Flag: progressive values.

Today I want to use this occasion to tell you a little more about how I came to this moment in time and about my beliefs and how I intend to put them into practice as Prime Minister.

I mentioned my parents just now. Many of you will feel like you know them well given they have recently become TV stars. Indeed I meet people around the country who literally say to me 'I'm not sure about you yet but I love your parents'.

I'm standing before you today because of the brave decision they made in 1966 to migrate to Australia. Originally bound for Melbourne, they met and befriended a Welsh couple on the board the ship that brought us to Australia.

Knowing no-one else in Australia, it made sense to settle in Adelaide, the home town of their new friends, who became our Uncle Frank and Aunty Glad.

My parents' story is important because they and millions of others have helped make this country what it is today. It wasn't easy to leave their little Welsh town behind, just as it wasn't easy for people from other countries like Greece and Italy and Vietnam to do the same, and arrive at Pennington Migrant Hostel, without family or friends to greet them and to carry their suitcases to the car.

Being British, it was easier for them than for others. They spoke English - although I guess you could say with a strange accent. Some say their daughter still speaks with a strange accent!

But without higher education, obtaining even their moderate level of prosperity involved a lot of hard work. For my mother it meant cooking and scrubbing pots in a Salvation Army aged care home. And for my father it meant demanding work and frequent nightshifts, as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital. Their experience has instilled in me clear beliefs about the importance and the value of work that I hold to this day.

> First mention of "hard work", which is a typically conservative thing to emphasise, along with the implied notions of personal responsibility and self-determination. Yet Gillard places a progressive spin on it by directing the work not towards the accumulation of wealth or status, but towards the welfare of others. Flag: conservative values (with a progressive tilt).

As the daughter of these two fine people, I know what it's like to have a dad who has to work two jobs and a mum who has to work the afternoon shift to buy a home and educate their kids.

My father's two jobs helped me secure two university degrees, and I'll never forget the sacrifices he and my mother made. And I say to all those parents doing the same thing now - whether it's to pay the mortgage, bills, or school fees and expenses - I understand your sacrifices and I will do my best as Prime Minister to ease your burden.

> Beyond the fairly blatant appeal to what Rudd would have called "working families" (or Beazley's more passive-voiced "middle Australia") is a hint at Gillard's vision of the role of government: to shape the environment and "ease the burden" of its citizens, a classically progressive idea. Flag: progressive values (and more than a whiff of political expedience).

My parents have thrived in this egalitarian country with its larrikin embrace of informality because they are egalitarian by instinct. They embraced the sense of opportunity and community that they found in Australia and the sense of future possibilities for their children that Australia so clearly offered them.

They always taught me that everyone is equal and worthy of respect. It's wrong to view yourself as better than the person who waits on you in a restaurant. It's wrong to believe that you should defer to anyone simply by dint of them having a title, occupation or background different from your own.

> Hard to miss the repetition of "egalitarian," a signature progressive value, which in this context means 'fairness' as much as it means 'anti-authoritarian' or 'counter-dominance.' Some conservatives, on the other hand, feel that those who work harder not only deserve more, but are genuinely more highly valued and to be revered. Flag: progressive values.

I was a shy child, who through the nurture of my family found the sense of self to face the world with confidence, to look others in the eye and greet them with a firm shake of the hand.

> The word "nurture" is very significant for progressives, particularly in relation to the family, as this is their metaphor of choice for government, which is like the nurturant parent who loves, protects and encourages their children, building an environment that will allow them to flourish, because all that people need to flourish is an opportunity to do so. Conservatives, on the other hand, tend towards a 'strict father' metaphor, where the father instils values of self-determination and self-discipline so its children can survive and flourish in a hostile and competitive world, because what people need to flourish is enterprise, discipline and a measure of ruthlessness. Flag: progressive values.

Though my parents never had the chance to go to university, they are to this day avid readers and my father is given to quoting poetry at the dinner table.

We hear a lot today from commentators that Australians can be sliced and diced into separate tribes with different values, tastes and ambitions, based on how long they stayed in education and where they live.

Those commentators divide us into elites, aspirationals and rednecks, and presume they can predict the views we have and the way we vote. Driven by my own family background, I consider this an insult.

I know that under every roof there are people who love going to art galleries and people who love going to the MCG and people who love both; people who go to church and people who go to protests and people who will do both in the one day; people whose talents lie in their heads and people whose talents lie in their hands and people who rely on different talents at different stages of their lives.

> Reminiscent of Barak Obama's 2004 Democratic National Congress speech - you know, the one that goes: "the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States... Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America." It's essentially an appeal to pluralism and tolerance, two more trademark progressive values. Flag: progressive values (with a touch of political rhetoric).

It's true that there are ignorant and intolerant people in every society, but the overwhelming majority of Australians are far more thoughtful and tolerant and compassionate than the critics imagine.

> The language here is interesting. Note Gillard doesn't declare that there are "ignorant and intolerant people" in Australia directly, but softens the claim by suggesting they're in "every society." The usage of "tolerant and compassionate" is another progressive telltale. Then there's the dismissal of the unnamed and faceless "critics," forming an us-and-them division between her values and anyone who disagrees with them. Flag: progressive values (with a touch of political rhetoric).

I know this because they are my neighbours and friends.

As I said last week we're better than the cynics believe us to be. We're not elites, aspirationals and rednecks. We're simply Australians and proud of it.

> This appears to be an attempt to appropriate the notion of 'Australian pride' in a progressive sense, which is more to express positive sentiments about Australia than to express negative sentiments about others. Flag: progressive values.

So we should be slow to judge and to stereotype each other.

> Yet here she moves from descriptive praise of Australians' tolerance to prescriptive advice, that we "should" be more tolerant. Flag: progressive values.

My parents would put this far more simply - they would say don't judge a book by its cover.

Plain speaking is another one of their virtues which I strive to maintain.

You might say that, along with an apprenticeship in straight talking, I inherited two unshakeable beliefs from my upbringing.

> "Plain speaking" and "straight talking" are other ways of saying 'anti-elite,' although in Gillard's case it might genuinely mean "plain speaking"... Flag: progressive values.

First, I believe in the importance of hard work; the obligation that we all owe to ourselves and others, to earn our keep and do our best.

Life is given direction and purpose by work. Without work there is corrosive aimlessness. With the loss of work comes a loss of dignity.

> Return of "work," with the somewhat bold claim that "life is given direction and purpose by work." Karl Marx would heartily agree. As would many conservatives (ironically enough). Flag: verging on Marxist values.

Second, I believe in the transformative power of education. Education is the route to opportunity and self improvement; in today's Australia more so than ever.

With my parents' support and encouragement, I attended local schools, excellent schools here in South Australia. They were the places I discovered my love of learning, my enthusiasm for correct grammar and punctuation, my respect for discipline, even my liking for my school uniform! I think I still have my prefect's tie to this day.

Whatever else young people may encounter in life, a sound foundation of excellent, rigorous education ought to be their entitlement.

> Back to some core progressive beliefs, namely that education is not just a luxury for those who can afford it, but a right. This is because the external world - experience, education, community, luck etc - play a leading role in directing our lives, according to the progressive worldview. Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to value strength of character and the desire to reward success - even if that success was your parents' such that they can afford you a private education. Flag: progressive values.

These beliefs are my inheritance. How I have pursued them throughout my adult life has been my own responsibility.

Moving from Unley High School to the University of Adelaide did open up a new world for me.

In those heady days of campus life and university politics I began my own journey. It has taken me on different paths and to different destinations than those of my parents. But it has been driven by the same values and aspirations.

Where my parents put the working effort of their lives into moving our family forward, my efforts have become focused on efforts to move our country forward.

> The beginning of the 'forward' section. In fact, the word "forward" appears nearly as often as "Australia", and only twice less often than "work." Progressives, virtually by definition, believe in the benefits of change, where conservatives are suspicious of change. Moving "forward" is essentially a synonym of encouraging change, reinforcing Gillard's old school progressive values. Flag: progressive values.

My sister, Alison, chose her own path, devoting her care and skill to being a mother.

As my own career developed - starting in the student union movement, through my years as a lawyer, then into my time in Parliament - I increasingly became both an activist and an optimist. I became someone who believes that tomorrow can be better than today if you strive to make it so.

And as that attitude matured in me, it found its expression in a commitment, even a passion, for public service.

Australia's history contains great moments and unrepeatable achievements. But that does not stop us from looking forward, or from having a positive obligation to make the future even brighter than the past.

We can be proud of our past. And we can be confident about moving forward. The best way to strengthen that confidence, to reduce fear and anxiety, is to recognise the need for change and take deliberate steps forward together.

> It's actually a little uncharacteristic of a progressive - although apparently core to Gillard's brand of politicking - to give a nod to conservative concerns, particular the "fear and anxiety" over change. Stressing the "need for change" might not sway many conservatives, but terms like "deliberate steps" is more in line with a conservative approach of cautious change rather than radicalism. Flag: progressive values (and a touch of bi-partisan political rhetoric).

And so, as I come here to my childhood home, I am reminded that at the core of so many of Australia's problems and opportunities today is a fundamental choice.

It is really a variant of the age-old question every nation has faced: whether to resist change, or master it; whether to condemn new ways of thinking or welcome them; whether to defend the way things are, or to declare 'we can do better'.

In the simplest terms, it is a choice about whether we move forward or back.

> Textbook false dichotomy fallacy; there is a spectrum of choices between metaphorically "moving forward or back." Flag: fallacy.

I passionately believe that at our very core as Australians is an instinct to move forward - to summon our courage, think through our plans, and shape our future.

Going back is simply inconsistent with the Australian character.

> Characterising Australia as progressive isn't necessarily going to convince many conservatives that the "good ol' days" weren't that good. Flag: fallacy.

We are a people who are descended overwhelmingly from newcomers; people who have lived in and settled a rugged land; people who constantly embraced innovation in order to build modern farms and cities.

Australia was not built by people who sat still, closed their eyes, or shied away from new terrain.

We are not a people who nourished our ambitions on a diet of nostalgia, indifference and denial.

My own life is rooted in that sense of forward motion that is at the core of our nation's story.

It reflects that underlying promise that you can see in so many Australian life stories; that if you work hard, play by the rules, treat others with respect and do your best to contribute then you can move forward, but more important, so can our nation move forward.

> Note that 'hard work' again isn't the conservative notion of work for personal wealth, but work to aid the entire nation, an individual endeavour for the collective good - more closet Marxism? Flag: progressive (Marxist?) values.

As your Prime Minister, I intend to start and lead the discussions and debates that we must have to shape our future for the better.

I will speak plainly about the challenges, truthfully about the risks and methodically about the steps we need to take.

As I said on my first day as Prime Minister, there will be some days that I delight you and some days that I disappoint you.

But every day I will be working my hardest for you.

Some of the challenges that face our nation are daunting.

They will take a long time to overcome.

> We're nearing the end, so some tempering words about the difficulty of the task ahead are in order. Flag: political rhetoric.

That is why I believe that, alongside the practical action that will be necessary, we must make the effort to have the honest conversation, to bring people with us, to make it clear what we actually have to do in order to get things right.

In the days to come I will be putting forward more detailed arguments about some of the biggest challenges facing our nation. I will be explaining the steps I think we need to take and asking for people's consideration of those steps.

I will ask for the Australian people's trust to move Australia forward.

Without listening respectfully to the public's views, I do not believe it is possible for politicians to earn or hold the trust of the people who elect us. Leadership requires listening and persuading, understanding and bold action.

> A cynical listener might remain unconvinced that Gillard, or the Labor party, embody the kind of courageous leadership that dares to persuade the people of a view they don't already hold rather than polling them to exhaustion and following the mob. Flag: political rhetoric.

As I said, some of the challenges are daunting.

But my overwhelming sense in coming into this job is one of optimism.

Optimism because of what has already been achieved by the people who have made Australia what is today.

Optimism because of the capacity and decency of the millions of Australians who now contribute, in their own way, without thanks or praise, to making it a better place.

> The repetition of optimism is no accident; one of the key differentiators between progressive and conservative outlooks is that the former is generally optimistic about human nature and the world, while the latter generally sees human nature as bad and nature as hostile. Flag: progressive values.

Australia is a wonderful country, the greatest country on earth.

We should not fear the future. The best days of our nation lie in front of us not behind us.

> A final rhetorical flourish reminiscent of, oh, almost every politician speaking about the prospects of their nation during their term in government. Flag: political rhetoric.

We are privileged to live here and we best respect that great privilege by working together, shaping a better future, going forward not back.

Thank you very much.

> Overall, laced with subtle reference to contemporary progressive values - optimism, equality, right to education, a nurturant family worldview, responsibility to others and the community etc. - with a nod to conservative values of work and personal responsibility, although still clearly tilting more to the left than right. Although, overall, the speech was likely intended to ground Gillard as a typical (if, perhaps, exceptional) 'working Australian' who values a 'fair go' and the trademark 'Aussie larrikinism' and who 'straight talks' - i.e. not Kevin Rudd or John Howard. One notable feature of Gillard's rhetoric is also the acknowledgement of conservative perspectives, even if she then argues against them. It's all-too-easy to just dismiss the other side as wrongheaded, but then the ensuing argument tends not to change any minds. By at least acknowledging that others feel differently, Gillard hopes to engage them, and then turn their opinion. Whether it'll work or not, well, that's yet to be seen. Didn't work so well for Obama...

Tim Dean is a science journalist and philosophy PhD student.

Topics: government-and-politics, elections, person

First posted July 13, 2010 11:30:00