"Ditch the Witch"

Throughout my professional life I had been privileged to hear many terrific speeches.

From school assemblies to life member presentations and from political speeches to community volunteers receiving acknowledgement, they have a level of commonality that resonates.

However, the style that reverberates may be different to the style enjoyed and recognised by those reading this column.

For me, it's authenticity and vulnerability which connect.

A great written speech is a terrific start, but you also need a great orator.

In political circles, great speech writers are a small group deeply sought after who are connected to their leader.

It is essential that the speech writer knows and understands their subject to ensure that important speeches are authentic, capturing not only the views of the government or opposition, but the individual's voice in the debate or decision.

And for speeches in less formal settings, the importance of understanding your audience remains vital with a skillful raconteur who can add humour, wit, context, or vulnerability, depending on the audience, recognised as a gifted communicator.

The most famous speeches are often associated with US presidents and UK prime ministers such as Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama and Winston Churchill, however, there have also been significant moments in time captured by great writing and outstanding orators.

Martin Luther King, General Douglas McArthur, Malcolm X, Virginia Woolf, Hilary Clinton, Aung San Suu Kyi, Michelle Obama and Nelson Mandela have all left a mark on the world with their words.

From an Australian point view, there are three speeches which have deeply resonated with me over time, and they were all delivered by prime ministers:

1. Paul Keating, December 10, 1992, the Redfern speech.

2. John Howard, June 16, 1996, gun reform.

3. Julia Gillard, October 9, 2012, the misogyny speech.

It is 30 years since Prime Minister Paul Keating's Redfern speech, penned by Keating and his formidable and eloquent speech writer, Don Watson. Keating was visiting Redfern to mark the International Year of the World's Indigenous People.

The speech, which can be readily accessed on YouTube, is fascinating because of the reaction of the predominantly Indigenous crowd.

Initially, they are circumspect, but as Keating begins to describe the impact of British colonisation and the whitewashing of our history, the crowd took note.

And by the time the PM moved to recognition, he had an engaged audience who felt they were being heard.

Paul Keating said:

"It begins, I think, with that act of recognition. Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion."

One of the bravest speeches in Australian history belongs to former prime minister John Howard following the devastation of the Port Arthur tragedy and the implementation of the gun buyback scheme.

To put the speech in perspective and to acknowledge the ferocity of the debate, Howard wore a flak jacket to protect him from bullets and shrapnel following receipt of death threats.

John Howard told the hostile crowd at Sale Football Oval: "But there come occasions for any government to take decisions which can only be effectively implemented in the interests of the overall national good if they involve some disproportionate inconvenience and some disproportionate deprivation for one section of the community. I'm sorry about that but there is no other way that we can achieve the objectives. And it is always, my friends it is always the responsibility of a national government to weigh up the gains and to set them against the losses. And the gains to the Australian community of there being fewer weapons of great destruction in the community are, in my view and in the view of all governments throughout Australia very, very significant indeed and that is why we have taken the decision."

In more recent times, the speech by Australia's first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, has been lauded and criticised in equal measure, and is now a great subject for social media.

I am still moved by this speech because of the treatment Ms Gilliard received based upon her gender.

Criticism should forthrightly be offered for the reason the speech was given in the first place, but not the subject matter nor the empowerment of a generation of Australians with whom the words so strongly resonated.

Julia Gillard said: "And then of course, I was offended too by the sexism, by the misogyny of the Leader of the Opposition catcalling across this table at me as I sit here as Prime Minister, "If the Prime Minister wants to, politically speaking, make an honest woman of herself...", something that would never have been said to any man sitting in this chair. I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition went outside in the front of Parliament and stood next to a sign that said "Ditch the witch."

And on a brighter note, Merry Christmas one and all. I hope you have a raconteur in your life.