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Rudd says ocker sound bites fair dinkum

Posted 10 hours 41 minutes ago
Updated 10 hours 12 minutes ago
Academics say Mr Rudd is using colloquial lanuage in an attempt to reach a broader audience.

Academics say Mr Rudd is using colloquial lanuage in an attempt to reach a broader audience. (AFP: Jim Watson, file photo)


Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has laughed off criticism about his use of ocker language.

Media commentators have accused him of trying too hard to appear like an ordinary bloke after he used the expression "fair shake of the sauce bottle" three times in an interview with Sky News.

During a speech in Sydney this morning, Mr Rudd poked fun at himself.

"Well, I was having a Dad and Dave this morning, that's a shave, and picked up my copy of the Oz," he said.

"I saw - is it George Megalogenis having a go at me? I thought, fair crack of the whip, don't come the raw prawn with me George.

"Or coming from Queensland I'd say you'd get the rough end of the pineapple."

Several months ago Mr Rudd used "shit storm" on Channel 7 while speaking about the Government's decision to spend billions stimulating the economy.

Academics have described Mr Rudd as a sophisticated communicator and that his range in language - from intellectual to colloquial - is an attempt to adapt to various audiences,

Rudd says ocker sound bites fair dinkum - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australia urged to approve plain-packaged cigarettes


Plain cigarette packaging can be a way of reducing advertising and of increasing health warning messages.

Plain cigarette packaging can be a way of reducing advertising and of increasing health warning messages. (stock.xchng - the leading free stock photography site Arjen Doting, file photo)

* Video: Health taskforce recommends plain cigarette packaging (Lateline)
* Video: Cigarette packaging decision may set world standard: expert (Lateline)

A Canadian expert says the time is right for the Government to pursue the introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes.

A recommendation to begin selling cigarettes without advertising logos is expected to be handed to the Federal Government by the preventative health taskforce.

Moves towards implementing plain packaging in Canada were unsuccessful.

But the executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, Cynthia Callard, says tobacco companies no longer have the same influence they had 10 years ago.

Australia urged to approve plain-packaged cigarettes - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)