There has been a lot of build up to, and hype associated with the “Sorry” speech that was given today by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Aborigines were flown in from all over Australia to mark the occasion. News and TV services ran live to cover the event. Much discussion and debate has occurred regarding the content and significance. So what do we get for our money?
Apparently the speech – read the entire speech here – was written by Rudd himself. After his acceptance speech I would have thought that someone would have given him some good advice, like “Do not wrote your own speeches”. No don’t get me wrong, I applaud the sentiment and I feel that Rudd will probably be a good leader, but really, he does need some good speech writers.
This is a very ordinary piece of work. Such an occasion calls for vision and statesmanship but all we got was some hack phrases and clichés. I never ceased to be unimpressed with Rudd’s ineptitude when it comes to the English language. I admit, I am not Churchill, nor am I prime minister. I suspect that Rudd may have joined the Bush school of speech writing.