Australian political language

Mention of former Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, today brought to mind his successor as PM, Paul Keating.  Journalist Mungo MacCallum’s great book, How to be a Megalomaniac, includes a list of the terms of abuse which Keating had used against his opponents during his time in politics (pp. 68-9):

harlots, sleazebags, frauds, immoral cheats, blackguards, pigs, mugs, clowns, boxheads, criminal intellects, criminals, stupid crooks, corporate crooks, friends of tax cheats, brain-damaged, loopy crims, stupid foul-mouthed grub, piece of criminal garbage, dullards, stupid, mindless, crazy, alley cat, bunyip aristocracy, clot, fop, gigolo, hare-brained, hillbilly, malcontent, mealy-mouthed, ninny, rustbucket, scumbag, scum, sucker, thug, dimwits, dummies, a swill, a pig sty, Liberal muck, vile constituency, fools and incompetents, rip-off merchants, perfumed gigolos, gutless spiv, glib rubbish, tripe and drivel, constitutional vandals, stunned mullets, half-baked crim, insane stupidities, champion liar, ghouls of the National Party, barnyard bullies, piece of parliamentary filth.”

As MacCallum notes, this listing is only of terms which Keating used in Federal Parliament, which of course has rules of decorum not applying in the rougher world outside.
Reference:
Mungo MacCallum[2002]: How to be a Megalomaniac. Sydney, Australia: Duffy & Snellgrove.

0 Responses to “Australian political language”


  • No Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.