Linda Reynolds pips Bill Shorten for greatest interview ever

It was the moment Linda Reynolds edged out Bill Shorten for the greatest interview ever.

Change to believe in

Late next month we will mark the seventh anniversary of one of the greatest political interviews of all: the Bill Shorten-David Speers encounter that yielded: “I haven’t seen what she said, but let me say I support what it is that she’s said.” Shorten set a new standard and it was justly celebrated as an instant classic. But it’s lonely at the top and we’ve long wondered if anything would ever approach it. There have been many noble (and ignoble) attempts, but in terms of replicating that hairs-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your neck magic, it’s been slim pickings. Until, that is, yesterday. Step forward Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds, who went on Sky News to chat with … you guessed it … David Speers. Settle in, enjoy the ride.

Speers: “Do you agree with the sentiment that flexibility in wages and keeping wages at a relatively modest level is a deliberate feature of our economic architecture to actually drive jobs growth?”

Reynolds: “No, I don’t believe that, absolutely not. And for Bill Shorten to suggest that, I think is … shows a fundamental lack of understanding about economics.”

Speers: “Well, I’m actually quoting Mathias Cormann, the Finance Minister here. Your colleague minister. He says that wages flexibility is quote, ‘a deliberate feature of our economic architecture’.”

Reynolds: “He’s absolutely right.”

We have before posited that a Speers interview can act like a Bermuda Triangle for pollies’ brains. But only now can we write the thesis.

The endarkenment

Not that Michael McCormack was a slouch yesterday. Pondering the coming Labor/Greens apocalypse (we think), the Deputy Prime Minister’s face darkened from its default expression of good cheer to ponder the end of night footy, the end of night cricket, and the beginning of the terrifying spectre of pensioners melting in the summer. Quite rightly MickMack concluded, “We may as well pack up and leave the country.” We really don’t see how Barnaby Joyce can top that.

Bubbling along nicely

The battle of the bubble is finally starting to heat up. Let’s start with Scott Morrison’s response to a question we suspect will become a theme over the coming weeks.

Journo: “Back to Malcolm Turnbull’s comments, are they helpful this close to the election?”

ScoMo: “I’m not really distracted by them at all. See, I’m focused on what I need to do for the future of the country. I don’t get distracted by all the bubble noise on these things. I know others do. I know it’s terribly interesting to all of those who write inside the bubble. Australians don’t live in the bubble. Australians live out here where you want your roads upgrades, where you want jobs, where you want to ensure small and family businesses have a future. These are the things that are outside the bubble. I’ll leave what belongs in the bubble, in the bubble.”

If only he could end one of these routines quietly unwrapping a Bubble O’ Bill ice cream. Not to be outdone, meanwhile, Penny Wong responded to the government reversing its position on granting a visa to a British blowhard: “It really demonstrates just what a bubble the Liberal Party live in. I often think that. Mr Morrison often talks about the Canberra bubble. Well there’s a Liberal bubble and the Liberal bubble is one where women don’t have equal representation, where women aren’t afforded equal rights, where women can’t afford to put anyone out and where right-wing commentators decide who should get visas to this country. That’s the Liberal bubble.” If we go by the word count, ScoMo is speaking 5.77 per cent bubble, pipped by Wong on 7 per cent.

Principled stanza

It’s not quite poetry, though. For that we look to Turnbull who, after his latest assessment of the ever adaptable Tony Abbott, turned to Twitter: “Reflecting on some of today’s news I am reminded not for the first time of WB Yeats.” Then he gave us The Second Coming, the one that has: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity.” He could have also ticked a box with Death: “A man awaits his end/ Dreading and hoping all / Many times he died/ Many times rose again …”

Deja vu all over again

The NSW Labor election slogan “Putting People First” was, in its last life, Bill Clinton’s 1992 slogan. In that same campaign, Ross Perot had it both ways: “Ross for Boss”, and “I’m Ross, and you’re the Boss!” George HW Bush and Dan Quayle tried, “Don’t change the team in the middle of the stream.” Which is not a patch on Thomas Dewey’s in 1944: “Dewey or don’t we.” And 100 years earlier: “Hurrah! Hurrah! The Country’s Risin’, for Henry Clay and Frelinghuysen!”

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