Watching Question Time, one of my favourite parts has been the back and forth banter between the two men of numbers, Treasurer Peter Costello and Shadow Treasurer Wayne Swan. When I first started to take notice Wayne Swan was jibbing Costello about the dinner he had with some press gallery journalists three years ago (see my previous post)
Yesterday, however, Mr Swan was having a go at the Treasurer for not giving the Prime Minister his public backing. In response, the Treasurer brought up the point that Mr Swan didn't back Mr Rudd when voting for the new Labour leader. I believe there were a few rooster calls in there somewhere as well...
It just became obvious to me that Question Time isn't a space to get any real answers (it's not called Answer Time)... it's more of an arena for politician to try to bring up dirt on their opponent and see how well that opponent can swing it back round on the person who asked the question in the first place.
From my point of view Mr Costello is much better at this than Mr Swan (this is probably due to the fact that the Treasurer has had more experience). It's actually quite a good example for budding PR professionals, to see how the big fish play the game. It reminds me of the film Thank You For Smoking... As Nick Naylor says in the film, "Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk. Everyone has a talent."
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