Fed: In politics, everything old is new again

AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-2004
Fed: In politics, everything old is new again

By James Grubel, Chief Political Correspondent

CANBERRA, April 23 AAP - When it comes to rhetoric, politicians are the world's greatest
recyclers.

The latest debate about political plagiarism has been sparked by the strange similarities
between Mark Latham's Global Foundation speech and the 1997 State of the Union address
by former United States president Bill Clinton.

Prime Minister John Howard is no stranger to borrowing material. Labor points to his
March 2003 Press Club speech which has a striking similarity to Kenneth M Pollack's book
The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq.

They are not the first politicians to borrow ideas, themes or even phrases.

And it is certain they won't be the last.

Gough Whitlam readily admits his trademark speech opening "Men and women of Australia"

was a phrase he borrowed as tribute to its author, former Labor icon John Curtin.

And the term One Nation pre-dates both Pauline Hanson and Paul Keating by more than 100 years.

But the only politician publicly outed for plagiarism was the former federal Liberal
MP Richard Evans, who admitted in 1996 to copying slabs of a speech from a piece in the
Atlantic Monthly 18 months earlier.

Mark Rolfe, of the University of NSW, believes politicians have been borrowing themes
and phrases since the time of the ancient Greeks.

Dr Rolfe, of the School of Politics and International Relations, says familiar themes
have popped up in political debates since the time of Aristotle.

Since then, politicians in democracies have always tried to copy Aristotle's idea to
focus on the happiness and wellbeing of the people in order to win support.

And the famous funeral oration of Pericles, from the 5th century BC, in honour of the
dead from the first year of the Peloponnesian War, has been warmed over many times throughout
modern history.

Pericles praised the sacrifice and patriotism of the dead in a way that has been copied
in many forms, from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to modern Anzac Day speeches.

US President John F Kennedy also used the broad theme in his inauguration address,
in which he praised Americans and tried to inspire a new generation.

From Pericles, through Lincoln and on to JFK, there was a similar tone.

"There's the theme of appealing to the people, and praising them and girding them for
extra effort," Dr Rolfe told AAP.

Dr Rolfe said the famous Menzies speech about the forgotten people is regularly warmed
over by Liberals, both as a tribute to the former prime minister and also to garner support
from those who feel marginalised by politics.

He said John Hewson used the theme in 1993, and Mr Howard returned to it again as he
made his bid for the battler vote in 1996.

And what of One Nation - the name of Ms Hanson's political party?

The term was first coined by 19th century British conservative prime minister Benjamin
Disraeli, who wrote about the two nations in Britain and the need to bring them together.

Dr Rolfe said the phrase was used by Britain's conservatives in a 1950s policy document
titled One Nation - A Tory Approach to Social Problems.

The Liberal Party in Australia considered borrowing the term for a policy document
of its own in the 1950s.

But it re-emerged under the Keating Labor Government in February 1992 under a One Nation
program to create jobs and bring about social justice.

As the late Australian singer songwriter Peter Allen would say, in politics, everything
old is new again.

AAP jg/lb/de

KEYWORD: PLAGIARISM (AAP NEWS ANALYSIS) REPEAT

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