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When Keating played Mahler to the gallery, the rest of us stood up and slowly walked away

TheAustralian

ABC Radio National Breakfast yesterday:

FRAN Kelly: Some say it's a sign the PM has her mojo back after a tough year; this Julia Gillard unleashed in the house.

Grattan: I think a leader has to be very careful in using the mojo if you like. We saw that with Paul Keating. He could be absolutely brilliant in the house and we were all fans of his sort of rhetoric. But, after a while, the public turned very negative about it and saw that as just nastiness.

Keating's mojo magic. Grattan in The Age, January 30, 1993:

HE has a remarkable range of interests and knowledge, which he constantly refines. The second rate doesn't appeal to him. That's part of his passion for comparing performances -- looking for the kind of insights a great conductor, a great violinist, a great musician can bring to a work. Different moods demand different pieces. If he's tense, there are Chopin's Nocturnes: "It's there, it's nice, but it's not putting pressure on you." But "if I feel confidently cagey -- meaning I'm treading all over my (political) opponent, I'll go with something a bit more robust. I work up to things. Let me mention the work of one composer, Strauss. I'd start off on something like Also Sprach Zarathustra, then I'd go maybe to something like Don Juan. And then I could switch over to something that was much bigger, bigger sound, big and brooding, like the Alpine Symphony. What do I feel like after a thing like that? Well, you've got to keep going up, 'cause you can't then go back to a violin piece. You're too emotionally charged. So then I might get into Mahler's Fifth Symphony or Second Symphony." What is startling when you get Keating on his favourite subject is his command of detail and his neglect of time.

Gay marriage unites? Lenore Taylor in the SMH November 13:

MINISTERS are musing on how the party can glue back together its support bases on the Right and the Left.

Greg Combet began last week advising Labor to rebuild its reputation as the party that cares about people, and this week Penny Wong had a go. The Left cadre Senator Doug Cameron pushed for a more progressive stance on climate change and gay marriage. Right-wingers such as Senator Mark Arbib and the union official Paul Howes called for a more robust debate in general and in particular on gay marriage, which has the advantage of looking inclusive without causing the real political and economic pain of a more ambitious plan on greenhouse gas reduction.

Or divides? Matthew Franklin in The Australian yesterday:

JULIA Gillard is struggling to contain Labor brawling over the party's future. Both its Right and Left factions are in conflict over same-sex marriage and the relationship with the Greens. Wayne Swan, backed by right-wing faction leaders Paul Howes and Joe de Bruyn, said last week the party should reject the "fringe issues of the Left". On Saturday, the Left hit back, with the South Australian Labor Party branch backing a motion from Finance Minister Penny Wong favouring same-sex marriage. Yesterday, Senator [Jacinta] Collins said Labor must ignore "university-educated inner-city professionals. Labor cannot always satisfy both groups and sometimes we must make a choice. . This is one of those times. More traditional Labor voters believe that being raised by a mother and father is what is best for our kids."

Then NSW Liberal leader Peter Debnam launches his election campaign, February 25, 2007:

TWELVE years in opposition is a very long time, and, unlike Morris Iemma, I actually remember the last 12 years.

John Howard at the launch:

THERE is an inarguable feeling in the people of this state that the current government is incompetent.

John Howard on Lateline on Monday:

TEN years is about the shelf life of any government in the modern times, absent of a completely hopeless opposition.

cutpaste@theaustralian.com.au

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