Maybe the leaders’ debate wasn’t so boring after all. It’s Tuesday and ‘Notegate’ is still raging.
Troy Bramston has an op-ed in The Australian arguing that Kevin Rudd didn’t cheat. It’s hard to get too excited about the notes, because the more important point that Bramston points to is that, “having notes hardly did him many favours”.
Mr Rudd certainly didn’t do himself any favours when he pooh-poohed the second Sydney airport question. Unsurprisingly the Daily Telegraph is reporting a back-flip on that issue. I suspect 4 million Sydney voters wouldn’t have appreciated being told Sydney isn’t the only city with an airport.
Mr Rudd is couching his back-flip explanation in a “wanting to talk about productivity” type framework. But I think that’s too hard for most voters who, like politicians, have an idea what productivity is but they’re not quite sure. Better to talk about things like airports.
All up, Kevin Rudd and the election are not dominating the tabloid front pages.
But spare a thought for poor young Marcus Rudd - photographed smoking a cigar. Now this does raise all sorts of issues about promoting smoking (probably not, he is just a kid), media coverage of political family members (he is a campaign worker), and the like. The big issue for young Marcus is that his mum will see that photo.