Canberra Chameleon: Rudd gets saucy
Experts have branded prime minister Kevin Rudd a linguistic chameleon after his recent attempts to use colloquialisms like "shit storm" and "fair shake of the sauce bottle, mate".
Yesterday Mr Rudd used the slang expression "fair shake of the sauce bottle, mate" three times in a television interview with sky news.
Two university of queensland academics say Mr Rudd is a sophisticated communicator and that his range in language - from intellectual to colloquial - is an attempt to adapt to various audiences, like a chameleon changes colour to suit its surroundings.
But Dr Ian Ward, a reader in politics who specialises in political communication, says the sauce bottle phrase was poorly chosen. "I think the 'fair shake of tomato sauce bottle' line was so out of character that it ... Would appear contrived," he said.
"But if it were more subtly done then it might not be seen as a negative."
Dr Ward says the prime minister's sudden change in tone has probably been prompted by research suggesting the public believes he is out of touch with ordinary Australians.
"Kevin Rudd as prime minister has been constantly criticised by the journalists and others for being a policy wonk and using long and complicated sentences and answering questions in convoluted and boring ways," he said.
"So he probably does have a problem cutting through in the way [John] Howard, his predecessor, did.
"It hasn't damaged his prime ministership thus far, but he's now beginning to think in terms of the coming election and it wouldn't hurt for him to be seen in more of a populist way as the election draws closer."
Professor of Applied Language studies Roly Sussex, a regular contributor to abc radio, says Mr Rudd's success at connecting with ordinary Australians will depend on how genuine he is being.
"If it's part of his natural way of speaking I think it's very likely that he will succeed," he said.
"But the use of the 's' word i thought sounded a little scripted... It wasn't as natural as some of the other things i've heard him say."
Professor Sussex says Mr Rudd is deliberately trying to communicate in a less "egg-headed" way.
"If he wants to make an image that ordinary folks in australia are going to respond to i think he's got a bit of work to do."
Both Professor Sussex and Dr Ward describe Mr Rudd as a chameleon communicator.
Though, they admit Mr Rudd is not alone in this endeavour, saying Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard all used similar tactics.
"Bob Hawke had two or three different styles depending on whether he was talking to the trade union movement or people in the house or a formal dinner, and one of the things good speakers do is adapt their language to suit the occasion," Professor Sussex said.
"But Mr Rudd doesn't have the same interest in talkback radio and the same openness to ordinary voters that Howard did, or indeed Paul Keating did, and his language use isn't as crisp as Keating's," Dr Ward said.
