Life as Prime Minister: A Genre Study of Speeches Made by Australian Prime Ministers Following Leadership Spills

Abstract

<p>Between 2010 and 2018, four Australian prime ministers were removed from office outside of a federal election, by leadership spills initiated by their party colleagues. Each of the prime ministers-Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull-delivered a televised speech shortly after the leadership spill. The speeches provided an early opportunity, long before the preparation of any book-length political memoir, for each departing prime minister to narrate their political life and affirm their political legacy and identity. The speeches can be conceptualised as a rhetorical genre of life narrative in an Australian context. Applying Carolyn R. Miller's theory of genre as social action ("Genre as Social Action." <i>Quarterly Journal of Speech</i> 70: 151-167. 10.1080/00335638409383686.) confirms the speeches as a rhetorical genre, not because of their similarities in form and content but because they respond to the same recurring rhetorical situation-the leadership spill-and have shared social functions in their assertion of the rhetor's (speaker's) achievements, integrity and authenticity. All address the past, present and future; project a defining aspect of character; refer to significant others; and place life as prime minister in other contexts. In doing so, the speeches resemble but differ from some other forms of life narrative.</p>