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I thought I'd wait a week to see how the first seven days of the Australian Election campaign played out to make sure I wasn't seeing things. But sure enough, the TV evening news confirmed I was living in the moment.
Let me give you a quick recap.
A speedo wearing heckler, TV programme Masterchef burns leaders, Politician felled by Paris Hilton, Kylie Monogue and Opposition leader on a talent show and a protester busting through the Prime Minister's security lines.
I wonder what the Australian cricketers think who are currently on tour in England.
So let's start with Masterchef. It just so happened that the one and only televised leader's debate clashed with Australia's most popular reality show. That meant more than two million people would have missed the leaders talk fest in favour of watching a custard and creme tart. So, in a win for common sense the political staffers brought the debate forward an hour, making everybody happy.
Now, to the budgie smuggler. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was campaigning in a local shopping centre when he was accosted by a young bloke wearing nothing but red speedos, Abbott's favourite choice of swim wear. The bloke heckled Abbott, stealing the headlines and leaving no room in the news items that night for any policy speak from the Opposition leader. As it turned out, speedo man is actually a Labor party employee. Ms Gillard denied deploying the bare chested man on his spoiling mission, but you never know, politics can be ugly.
Then there was the gaffe from the Opposition's shadow treasurer Joe Hockey who compared the lack of Australia's surplus to a lack of celibacy from Paris Hilton. This male attempt at humour back fired and left Mr Abbott tongue tied when he was called upon by a female reporter to explain where his shadow treasurer was coming from.
The following day, in a bold move for the Opposition, Mr Abbott appeared as a talent judge on a variety TV show with pop queen Kylie Monogue. At one stage Mr Abbott likened the accent of a guitar playing clown to that of Prime Minister Gillard.
And there was the circus act from a passionate climate change protester who busted past security into Ms Gillard's climate policy speech in Brisbane, yelling "save the children". It took two police officers to wrestle the activist to the ground and drag him away.
It sure has been an interesting week of politics.
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