AMBUSHED

David Lipson, Sky News Political Reporter

4 August 2010

It's hump day. All downhill from here… I hope. Wow. This campaign stuff is intense.

And now that I've swapped to the side of “Feisty” Julia, the insanity rating is off the Richter.

I found this out first hand today.

Recording a piece to camera, with Julia and the local candidate over my left shoulder for effect, the PM changed course and snuck up behind me.

She put an arm around me and said “How are you going?” then answered a few questions off the cuff, before moving on.

This is Julia breaking the script. And it broke my script too.

It made good TV and for the PM, it's a good look. Just as she did by catching the bus with the media yesterday, Julia Gillard is showing us more of her warmth and spontaneity. She's playing on her strengths, in an area that she knows Tony Abbott is afraid to go.

By talking about the “real” Julia, the PM is implicitly pointing out that the Abbott we see isn't the real guy.

And having seen both campaigns from the inside, I can say that Tony is much more restrained.

For a start, he averages one picture opportunity and one press conference. Today, Gillard did four events. Two were purely picture opportunities. The other two had pictures and a press conference.

It was a big risk for Julia Gillard to tell us that the “old” Gillard was essentially a fraud.

But at a time when many people are sick to death of the scripted politician, it might work in the long run.

The problem she faces: There's only two and a half weeks to go.

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tony mullen, parramatta (13 August 2010 8:32AM) wrote:
what a cheek you have, showing so much that you are abbotts man following the PM around. you snigger so much you should be releaved of your duties. abbott is a loser yet you support him you need to find a new job.

Kim Luong, Inala (5 August 2010 1:57PM) wrote:
Want to see a practical application of the both after hours GP policies in action. Ask the people of Inala in SW Metro Brisbane. Their busy after hours clinic funded under the previous government closed in June 2010. The clinic was open 365 days a year up to 11pm and fully bulk billed. The current government took away the funding and gave it to the University clinic across the road as part of the GP Superclinic program . The university clinic only opens Monday to Friday and closes at 5pm. So the people of Inala now have nothing...sorry expect an after hours telephone hotline.