THE PRIME Minister, Kevin Rudd, has used a major pre-election speech to declare that he is, without apology, an “optimist” about Australia’s future.
Mr Rudd addressed the National Press Club in Canberra alone, having earlier challenged Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to a debate on the economy.
Mr Abbott declined, and in his absence Mr Rudd directly attacked the Opposition Leader for being “formidable in the art of negative politics”, which he concluded is “bad for national confidence”.
But despite declarations of positivity and targeted expressions of negativity, Mr Rudd's speech did largely focus on the economy.
The below image — based on a full transcript of today's speech — highlights the words and concepts that were central to Mr Rudd's presentation.
Election Watch will update this page with a similiar analysis of the next major economic address by the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott.
