Rudd must renounce “banjo” comments
15th May, 2008
The Prime Minister must deny that he is fond of using the phrase “once you leave Brisbane and cross the Pine Rivers you can hear the sound of banjo music”, or immediately apologise.“This is an astonishing comment for a man born north of Brisbane, in Nambour, to make,” said the Leader of The Nationals, Warren Truss.
“It shows just how far the Prime Minister is now removed from the people who live and work on the land, and in our regional cities and communities.
“It is a frankly disgusting comment. If correct, Mr Rudd is suggesting that the majority of people living in Queensland are just like the duelling banjo-plucking hillbillies from the famous scene in the American movie Deliverance.”
Mr Rudd’s alleged remarks were revealed today by former Labor Leader Mark Latham, who had plenty of meetings and discussions with his then frontbench colleague in 2003 and 2004. Previous claims by Mr Latham about the Prime Minister – such as him being ‘addicted to leaking’ – have been borne out numerous times since then, as another former leader Kim Beazley can attest.
“Labor has plenty of form on this sort of bush bashing. The last Labor prime minister, Paul Keating, used to say that ‘if you’re not living in Sydney, you’re just camping out’.
“Just this week, Labor’s first Budget cut more than $1 billion out of funding for communications, infrastructure and agriculture in rural and regional Australia.
“The Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, who both represent inner-city electorates, used Parliament during the week to scoff at the many valuable projects which have been funded under Regional Partnerships.
“I’d like to tell them that the little projects that the Coalition funded, largely in little country towns, might seem hilarious in nature to Labor, but the communities and the people who fought for them know how important and vital they are to their futures.
“I call on Mr Rudd to clear the air immediately. If he does not, millions of his fellow Australians will know exactly what he and Labor think of them,” Mr Truss said.
