WORDS ABOUND in Canberra. Politicians deliver them with eloquence in scripted speeches, bark them at journalists during press conferences and drone them into Hansard during late night sittings of Parliament.
The casual observer can often miss the underlying themes or messages embedded in this endless stream of prose.
The below 'wordclouds' are designed to help you unravel the rhetoric. Word clouds are a computer generated graphic that represents the frequency of certain words. The larger the word, the more often it was used in that politicians speech.
They allow you to very quickly identify the keywords and phrases used by the Treasurer Wayne Swan, the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and the Greens Leader Christine Milne to communicate their position on the 2013/14 Federal Budget.
Treasurer Wayne Swan’s budget speech, 2013
Key words: Australia (50), economy (29), billion (27), Speaker (23).
Hardly mentioned: Disability (12), surplus (12), carbon (3), climate (1), trust (0)
(Note: "Australia" counts instances of both "Australia" and "Australian".)
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s budget reply, 2013
Key words: Government (56), tax (35), year (38), Coalition (18), budget (18), surplus/es (19).
Hardly mentioned: Future (4), promise (8), disability (2), climate (0).
Greens Leader Christine Milne budget reply, 2013
Keywords: Australia (45), budget (25), Labor (25), Greens (20).
Notable: climate (14), surplus (4), Abbott (15), Gillard (0).
Thumbnail image: @SwannyDPM (Twitter)
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