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:
Thanks, Crikey, I haven’t seen that classic sketch for years. I still utilise the line “a shoebox in the middle of the road” if it can be worked into context.
However, these four chaps had things easy – at least they didn’t have to set their alarm clocks early.