Saturday, November 10, 2007

The speech about which the Prime Minister is apparently not proud.

So curious.

On Thursday the Prime Minister addressed the Institute of Public Affairs. His speech never made it to its website, or to his, and unlike the rest of what he does it wasn't emailed to journalists. Although I did get a paper copy of the draft.

It has been days now without an electronic copy.

The Labor party has suggested some possible reasons why, quoted below...


STEALING FROM STEVE BRACKS

Page 2 of draft speech:

"So this remains the best country in the world to live, to work, to start a business and to raise a family.”

The 2006 re-election slogan for the Bracks Labor Government in Victoria:

“The Bracks Government is working hard to make Victoria the best place to live, work and raise a family

"help keep Victoria the best place in Australia to live and raise a family.”

source: last line in direct mail letters from Bracks to voters)

“Friends, Ballarat – like Victoria – is a better place to live and work and raise a family in than it was seven years ago.”

(para 3, of campaign launch speech)


NOT THE BEST COUNTRY TO WORK?

The draft speech circulated differed from the final delivered by Mr Howard (see below)

"So that this remains the best country in the world to live, [to work], to start a business and to raise a family.”


BORROWING FROM BLAIR

Page 4

"And, very importantly, it’s about continuing a great national project we have begun - the transition of Australia from a Welfare State to an Opportunity Society."

Blair Speech 11 November 2004:

"I want an end to latch key kids as we move from the traditional welfare state to an opportunity society that helps families with the daily problems they face"


GORDON BROWN

page 4:

"so we harness the talents of every individual"

"A society that unleashes the potential and talent of every single Australian"

From Brown’s speeches as Chancellor of the Exchequer:

Unleashing the potential of every individual in the country is key to the economic success of the whole country.

"I want a Britain where there is no cap on ambition, no ceiling on talent, no limit to where your potential will take you and how far you can rise. A Britain of talent unleashed, driving our economy and future prosperity"

"what matters is that the talent, ingenuity and potential of people is harnessed to drive performance”

“our first priority, and this is the theme of my final speech to you as Chancellor, must be to use the talents of every individual in our country far better than we do today.


FULL EMPLOYMENT

Page 4

"Full employment is the cornerstone of an opportunity society because it helps support individual advancement, stable families and strong communities”

From an Alan Milburn speech:

“There are lessons, even in this, the sixtieth anniversary of the 1945 Labour administration from the greatest reforming government in British history. The Attlee government forged a progressive settlement that for thirty years no party dared touch - full employment as the cornerstone of economic policy; universal education the route to personal advancement; and a new welfare state with its jewel in the crown, the NHS.”


WELFARE

Page 5:

"There is still work to do to get more people into jobs and to replace passive welfare with active participation in work.”

From “The Global Economy, National States and the Regulation of Labour” by Paul K. Edwards, Tony Elger:

“The challenge is a greater one: to reform welfarist principles as well as practices, to transform incentive structures as well as institutional structures, to replace passive welfare with active ‘workfare’


Blair spokesperson 4 July 2001

"The purpose of the welfare reform changes we were putting through was to move from a passive welfare system which paid out benefits to an active system which helped those able to work back into the labour market.

From UK’s 2007 Budget:

"transforming a previously too often passive welfare state into a pro-active, personalised and work-focused service

And from Mark Latham’s Civilising Global Capital (p. 204):

"Policies aimed at social capability, however, need to replace this passive relationship with more active forms of welfare.”