What's the government going to do to get the nation ready for the video-cassette age?

The party of the future is always one step ahead of its opponents on the frontiers of technology

Julia Gillard's campaign launch, August 16:

WE will embrace the technology of the future by embracing the National Broadband Network.

Labor health minister Jack Holloway, June 2, 1942:

TELEVISION has been operated in several countries since before the war, but up to the present it has been more of a rich man's toy than a means of public entertainment. Television has no attraction for the woman in the home, who at present may switch on her radio set and listen to a musical program without having to confine her entire attention to it. She could not do this with television because it would then be necessary for her to keep her eyes glued to the set so as not to lose the sequence of the fleeting pictures reproduced on its screen.

Labor MP Arthur Calwell, May 6, 1958:

WE are never certain just what new discovery tomorrow will bring forth. In 1952 we were talking about entering the jet age. We got out of the atomic age into the jet age. Now we are in the space age.

Labor MP Rex Connor, June 4, 1968:

WE are passing through an era of revolution in communications media but the government does not seem to appreciate the fact. I made a particular reference to a device which is being marketed in the United States and which will come to Australia. I refer to the electronic video recorder by means of which, with a cylinder or cassette inserted into the machine, a book, a play or even a 24-volume encyclopedia can be reproduced on a television screen in a private home. Is the general public to be denied the benefits of a device such as this? It is the responsibility of the government to provide for the immediate and urgent needs of the Australian viewing public. The future is left to look after itself. The government's blood will be on its own head because of the consequences of its own neglect and incompetence.

Labor MP Les Johnson, October 16, 1970:

I AM surprised that up to this point in time we have had no indication from the government about the emerging technology in television. I refer to what is known overseas especially, and what will be known here, as the "cassette revolution". It is contended that television broadcasting as known today is on the way out. Soon a person will be able to buy video cassette playback and record machines with television screens. These will replace television. A person will play back with sight and sound and colour by using his own video cassettes or cartridges. A person will buy or borrow cassettes or cartridges in the same way as he borrows books and records. A person will be able to plug in to probably 30 different inlets so that he can invoke a concert, a feature film, a lecture, a play, an educational program or, if it is his choice, things of a pornographic nature. These are great developments which will involve the utilisation of our coaxial cable service. I think that it is time that we had some indication of these new technological developments.

Minister for Immigration Chris Bowen yesterday:

I WILL engage in a sensible and mature discussion, I won't engage in sound grabs, I won't engage in cheap policy, I won't engage in stunts like boat phones and sound grabs like turning boats back.What I won't be doing is engaging in a race to the bottom of stunts and sound grabs, which Mr Abbott and Mr Morrison seem to be intent on doing.

Kevin Rudd interviewed by Dennis Shanahan and Paul Kelly on the eve of the 2007 election:

MR Rudd said Labor would take asylum-seekers who had been rescued from leaky boats to Christmas Island, would turn back seaworthy vessels containing such people on the high seas, and would not lift the current intake of African refugees."You'd turn them back," he said of boats approaching Australia, emphasising that Labor believed in an "orderly immigration system" enforced by deterrence.

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