ON a lighter note, fresh evidence has come to hand on traditional Labor folkways of the late 1980s from Bob Ellis in his book Suddenly, Last Winter: An Election Diary (Penguin Viking).
He recalls a dinner with, among others, Bob Carr and the actor Stephen Ramsey. They were discussing Julia Gillard’s accent and Ramsey, who went to the same high school, said: “I never heard a voice like hers in my six years there. We all sounded like Don Dunstan.”
Carr said: “Gillard’s accent , and I have some knowledge of voice-training, is acquired. It is learned. It is trained. It is the required house accent of Slater & Gordon, solicitors. They all talk like that.”
