from Crikey .....

Sydney's sparkling elite gather to hear Julia kick the bludgers

Margot Saville writes:

ALAN JONES, JULIA GILLARD, THE SYDNEY INSTITUTE, WELFARE CHEATS

Last night 800 of the city's business and political elite, in black tie, packed into the function room at Luna Park to hear the PM deliver a speech along the lines of 'Let's get those horrible dole-bludgers back to work and no ranting shock jocks can stop me from giving you your medicine.'

These were the two themes from Julia Gillard's address at the Sydney Institute's annual dinner lecture, Sydney's premier networking forum.

After the PM, the most powerful person in the room was David Gonski, whose many hats include the chair of the Australian Securities Exchange. He spent a lot of time in conversation with company directors Kevin McCann and Trevor Rowe, no doubt discussing the now-dead merger proposal from the Singaporeans.

Gail Kelly, wearing a rather glam pink and green Diane Von Furstenberg, was there, as were Bob Carr, Tanya Plibersek and her husband, Michael Coutts-Trotter and power legal couple David and Dr Annabelle Bennett. The former head of collapsed bank, Babcock and Brown, Phil Green, did leave rather quickly, no doubt to escape angry shareholders.

Tony Abbott clearly watched the ABC live broadcast, and delivered a pithy appraisal on ABC radio this morning: "What we had from the prime minister was a series of motherhood cliches... Tell me someone who doesn't believe in hard work and the value of education."

At our table, which was admittedly heavy on bankers and miners, there were comparisons made with Kevin Rudd's "gunna do" utterances, most of which failed to materialise. And on a day of much talk about the carbon tax, her failure to utter the C-word was very obvious.

The PM began her speech by referring to the last 20 years of the Australian economy as being ones of "continuous growth": "Growth which has been nurtured by the policy reforms of successive Australian governments ... from internationalisation to domestic competition to tax."

Clad in a great bronze-coloured jacket, Gillard then talked about the "patchwork pressures" in the economy:

"The social and economic reality of our country is that there are people who can work who do not. We know there are 230,000 people who have been unemployed for more than two years. That there are 250,000 families where no adult has been working for more than one year."

At a time of record low unemployment, it seemed odd to spend so much time picking on the dole-bludgers. "And every Australian should pull his or her own weight."

Gillard's final remarks seemed to be aimed at Alan Jones and his cohorts:

"Behind the wall of sound made by the commentators I know Australians do have genuine concerns about politics and government. At the same time, in the face of this culture of confrontation, I will not accept a false choice between listening to our people and persisting with reform."

She then listed the reforms: "Remember when the NBN was going to break us? Or the flood levy? Or health reforms? Each of these overhyped claims ... each overcome by perseverance and patience."

We held our breath, as the words "carbon tax" hovered in the air above her head.

Our table thought that Julia's speechwriter was trying to make her sound like Howard, complete with military analogies:

"A government that is losing to an insurgency is not being outfought it is being outgoverned... Any government which tries to fight an opposition on its own ground of short term media pandering is doomed to policy and political failure."

That sounded just like a Liberal Party speech, said one observer. We all agreed.

and .....

Many people have wondered where Julia Gillard's sudden focus on getting up early, working hard and enjoying the personal value of labour has come from. Following her speech to the Sydney Institute last night, in which the "kid in Kwinana", the "hard cases" and "idleness" all feature, speculation has redoubled over what is driving the prime minister's policy agenda.

Now, Crikey can exclusively reveal the source for this new direction from Gillard.

We have obtained secret footage of the four critical prime ministerial advisers who together are putting the "u" into Labor and making it once again the party of good old-fashioned up-and-at-'em hard yakka. Here they are in the PMO, having a momentary break after preparing one of Gillard's homilies .....

Four Yorkshiremen