Interview, article and speech library
Politics and government
Language check: How the slogans let us down
Article | ABC The Drum | 2016
Daggy dad may beat meandering Mal in the language contest
Article | ABC The Drum | 2016
How the federal budget tested the policy sales pitch
Article | The Mandarin | 2016
Shorten's rhetorical rampage fails to convince
Article (PDF) | ABC The Drum | 2014
Limp language masks a tough budget
Article (PDF) | ABC The Drum | 2014
The revealing language of a cut-and-axe leader
Article (PDF) | ABC The Drum | 2014
Is rhetoric dead in the age of the soundbite?
Audio | Sydney Writers' Festival via ABC Radio National | 2013
Local Government Language
Audio | ABC Brisbane | 2011
Spin cycle: is political and corporate spin obscuring the truth?
Video | Sydney Writers' Festival via ABC Big Ideas | 2011
Putting the hard word on impenetrable pollie prose
Article | Sydney Morning Herald | 2010
Language of the 2010 Australian federal election
Video | ABC News 24 | 2010
Pollies in plain English: the language of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott
Audio | ABC Radio AM | 2010
Programmatic specificity we can believe in
Video | Sydney Writers' Festival | 2010
The Guestroom: election language
Audio | ABC Darwin | 2010
Kevinspeak killing clarity
Article (PDF) | Courier Mail | 2009
Plain English please!
Audio and article | ABC Perth | 2008
Shakespeare ... in government speak
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
It is proposed that comparisons be drawn between the recipient and a period of not less than 24 hours commencing on or after 1 June but prior to 1 September, ie summer (refer TAB 1 regarding the UK calendar).
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Following full consultation with relevant stakeholders, the writer is of the view that a greater number of practical and beneficial qualities are inherent in the recipient than the aforementioned seasonal period.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
It has been noted in the course of the writer's research that turbulent airstreams do, on occasion, agitate developing blossoms in the month of May, to the detriment of their physical appearance.
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
It has been further noted that seasonal advantages are oftentimes terminated in an overly precipitous manner.
© Alan Moir