Playing A Master At His Own Game

by Karen Middleton - Canberra Times

When Prime Minister John Howard first took office, he was fond of quoting Latin. It drove journalists nuts, especially those schooled when it was no longer routine to learn ancient languages.

Even for those who could carpe diem with the best of them, Howard's phraseology was sometimes challenging. Deciphering and quoting him with correct spelling became a bit of an extreme sport (if not an extreme headache) both for those trying to report his words and his own staff who had to transcribe them.

With the elevation of former diplomat and fluent Mandarin speaker Kevin Rudd to the Labor leadership, it's getting like those old Latin days, ad infinitum. There's probably a line here about old ways versus new ways, looking back versus looking forward, where things have been versus where they might be going.

But this week, Rudd's language proficiency provided a different kind of metaphor. With a few words in Mandarin one local Chinese teacher says it's the best he's ever heard from a foreigner he demonstrated how quickly he's learning to play Howard at his own game.

Conscious of his image as a bookish intellectual since assuming the post in December, Rudd has kept his Chinese lantern under a bit of a bushel. On Thursday, he was ambushed by garrulous Sydney radio hosts, Mike Carlton and Peter FitzSimons, challenging him to say something "for our Chinese listeners".

Reluctant, he tried to deflect with a joke.

"Do you have any Chinese listeners?"

(Interestingly, that comment has been omitted from Rudd's official transcript. Wonder why.)

Yes, they insisted, pressing him, with some hilarity. But what should he say? Carlton noted that Chinese New Year was approaching.

"Just say ... wish them, to all our Chinese listeners a happy New Year," Carlton suggested.

We non-Mandarin-speakers have to take him on trust but suffice it to say, there came about five seconds of very impressive-sounding Chinese in response.

Having jokingly doubted the existence of any Mandarin-speakers tuned to 2UE, Rudd was most interesting by what he did next.

"I think ... more important for your Chinese listeners is Chinese New Year's coming around," he said, before the short attention span of commercial radio could move him on. "So [and then more Mandarin, self-translated] ... which is 'Happy New Year' but also 'may 10,000 things go your way'."

Having made what French listeners might have called a "faux pas", Rudd was making sure that if there were any Chinese-speakers tuned in, they knew that he knew their custom, not just their language. And to translate that to the language of politics, he's learning very quickly how to see even the smallest aside as a political opportunity and how to fix mistakes quickly and move on.

They are skills he acknowledges he'll need in spades.

Amidst the salvos from the Government, Rudd's even winning the odd early plaudit. Howard's praise for his capability is perhaps slightly stronger than for his predecessors, even Beazley whom he held in high personal regard.

Rudd's mate across the divide, the also recently promoted Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey, calls him "a formidable opponent".

Engaging in his own bit of flattery as well as imitation, Rudd described his prime ministerial opponent as "the most clever politician" he's ever encountered. "In terms of the skill craft of politics itself, he is an exceptionally clever politician," Rudd said.

But again ... he took the opportunity to turn the conversation.

"[He's] very good at day-to-day political issue management," Rudd continued. "How do I get this issue off the front page? He is superb at that. When it comes to, however, the long-term challenges to the nation. Education. Climate change. As well as getting the balance right on workplace laws. I've got to say, he's missing in action."

These have become the three tactical battlegrounds ahead of Parliament's resumption next Tuesday and the manoeuvring on both sides has gone on all week.

After his "education revolution" promise, Rudd followed up with talk of upgrading learning for pre-schoolers and promises to slash the Higher Education Contribution fees for university students. Something for everyone. Pretty appealing.

Howard responded, via Education Minister Julie Bishop, with his re-packaged and attractive plan to standardise school curriculums across the states. On environmental matters, Howard headed to South Australia's Coorong and the mouth of the Murray River to provide the televisual backdrop for round one with the states on his $10 billion water plan.

Rudd sidestepped demands for a detailed response, turning the debate back to federalism and "the blame game" between the Commonwealth and states.

And on workplace relations, Rudd gave a dinner speech to the Business Council of Australia on Thursday night but refused to let the cameras in, preferring not to have the prying lenses present as he kick-started his bid to soothe big employers worried about Labor's planned industrial overhaul.

When Rudd's publicly-released text did not specifically mention the elephant in the room the planned abolition of Australian Workplace Agreements Howard was on the airwaves as soon as the listeners were awake, trying to turn an argument over WorkChoices into one about word choices instead.

He declared Rudd was trying to squirm away from predecessor Kim Beazley's vow to "rip up" the nation's one million AWAs or at least trying to butter up business, while his deputy and shadow workplace relations minister Julia Gillard, from the "hardline, union-dominated Left", was calling the shots. Hogwash, said Gillard. Ditto said Rudd.

Whether Rudd really is planning to temper the policy detail as well as the rhetoric isn't yet clear.

He's certainly trying to pre-position, moving to establish personal credibility with important constituencies, inside as well as outside his party. Not least, that's to minimise any damage from a coming uranium-and-assorted-issues showdown with the Left at the party's April national conference. There's an election expected just a few months later, after all.

As for the tactics game, it's a bit like watching chess masters on steroids, a political Bobby Fisher with a would-be Gary Kasparov breathing down his neck. As a bloke called Sun Tzu once said: "If you know yourself and you know your enemy, you will come out of one hundred battles with one hundred victories".

Ah, the Art of War. You can bet they've both read it. And one of them doesn't need the translation.


Karen Middleton is chief political correspondent for SBS Television.