It’s one thing for Julia Gillard to channel Kath Day-Knight, the mum of that foxy moron from Fountain Lakes, it’s another to do so with the verbosity of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Gillard, like Ahmadinejad, has a penchant for pleonasm.
For example, in response to Jeff Kennett’s claim that he was shot at twice, Gillard states: “What I would say overwhelmingly is this, we live in a wonderful, safe, peaceful country.” That sentence works better as: “We live in a wonderful, safe, peaceful country”. Same meaning, half the words.
Then there’s Gillard’s favourite: now let me say this. That annoying, throw-away phrase peppered her election campaign and her performance in parliament. It did nothing to portray her as either decisive or authoritative.
In her campaign launch Gillard listlessly proclaimed, “Now let me say this: I want to repay that debt. I definitely want to see this nation repay that debt”. It was a statement repeated often during the election campaign.
As a Prime Ministerial candidate there was no need to say “Let me say this”. Did she really think anyone would stand up and say “no, you can’t”? Just say what you want to say without the preface.
Then, if she intended repaying the nation’s debt, there was no need to say “I want to”. Either you will or you won’t. Yoda said it perfectly: “There is no try. Only do.”
Finally, the second sentence repeats the previous only this time the use of the word “definitely” makes her sound even more uncertain.
Simplified, her promise reads: I will repay our nation’s debt. Less words, less ambivalence, more certainty.
There are many similar examples. I won’t go through them all.
Put simply Gillard uses more words when less would be better. Especially when you sound like Kath Day-Knight.
Picture: Nigel Featherstone