Keating: Since we’ve been together, baby, what a ride we’ve had
A J-Curve is a line on a graph that dips and then rises. Keating often claimed that the Australian economy was following such a curve during his Prime Ministership.A rollercoaster J-curve through the good times and the bad
Now maybe you got the blues
But if you have to choose
Well choose me

The Liberal narrative at the 1996 election was that Keating had abandoned ‘the battlers’ to pursue his big picture agenda (i.e. the policies sung about in this musical). This was a hard accusation to refute.Howard: You gave him your devotion and he treated you so cruel
You took him to the top and now he takes you for a fool
Why don’t you break it up?
It’s time to shake it up
and choose me

Howard: Dislocation, deprivation, well it’s more than you should stand
Working Nation was the name of Keating’s policy statement going in to the 1996 election.Keating: Working Nation, transformation, needs a sure and steady hand
We’ll be smarter, it gets harder, but we’ve got to push on through
‘What’s your country done for you‘ neatly inverts JFK’s call to ‘ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country‘ and encapsulates an unearned sense of entitlement all too common during the Howard years.Howard: Don’t believe it? You don’t need it! What’s your country done for you?

I’ll pick you pretty flowers, babe, and bring ‘em to your door
Howard famously attempted to explain a broken election promise as a ‘non-core’ promise. It is indicative of the cowardice of both politicians and media in Australia that Howard was not brought to a screaming halt every time he opened his mouth in the subsequent election campaign by being asked whether the promises he was making were core or non-core.Keating: Am I the only one to whom that promise sounds non-core?
Howard: No, I always tell the truth
Keating: I think we need some proof
Keating/Howard: So choose me
Keating: We had trouble, burst our bubble, but recovery is here
Howard’s line going into the election was that Keating had delivered “five minutes of economic sunshine”.Howard: I don’t trust it, he’ll just bust it, gonna prick your brick veneer
Keating: Honest Johnny, later we’re all gonna see that GST?
Howard had promised never to introduce a GST:
Howard: There’s no way that a GST will ever be part of our policy.
Journalist: Never ever?
Howard: Never ever. It’s dead. It was killed by the voters in the last election.Howard: No I swear it, I declare it that will never ever be!
Keating: So tell me truly, people, is it him or is it me?
Howard: Take a lolly, baby, think it over carefully
Keating/Howard: ‘Cos now it’s up to you
whatever you want to do…
but choose me.
Choose me
Choose me
Choose me
Choose me
Choose me
Choose me
Choose me
Choose meeeeeeeeee

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