The goal of the segment was always to link thematically to a news item or a current part of Melbourne cultural life and connect the Speakola archive, which is now over 4000 speeches.
Given it was a goodbye for our last segment, the theme of the morning was goodbye speeches.
A list of great goodbye speeches:
Babe Ruth: 'You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth', Dying Babe Ruth Addresses Fans - 1947
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
You know how bad my voice sounds -- well it feels just as bad. You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys.And after you're a boy and grow up to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in your national pastime, the only real game -- I think -- in the world, baseball.
George Washington: 'A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils', farewell address - 1796
I actually found it quite poignant to hear this famous speech in these days of American turmoil. The notion that a man with the ability to remain president would voluntarily cede power, would set that precedent for a nascent republic stands in contrast to an insurrectionist criminal who won’t even pen a concession speech when he loses an election, who has committed during all stages of a political career to self above country and never conceding defeat.
Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
In the Sammy J segment, we played the ‘One Last Time’ from Hamilton, which features the above snippet:
Margaret Thatcher: 'So long as the gap is smaller, they'd rather have the poor poorer', On Socialism, Last Day in the House - 1990
Sammy and I had a laugh at Margaret Thatcher’s farewell to Westminster, the fact that on her last day in parliament she went out swinging at socialists, in very much the Thatcher way.
All levels of income are better off than they were in 1979. But what the honorable member is saying is that he would rather the poor were poorer provided the rich were less rich. That way you will never create the wealth for better social services as we have. And what a policy. Yes. He would rather have the poor poorer provided the rich were less rich. That is the Liberal policy. Yes it came out. He didn’t intend it to but it did.
Opposition questioner: The Prime Minister is aware that I detest every single one of her domestic policies…
I think the honorable gentlemen knows that I have the same contempt for his Socialist policies as the people of East Europe who have experienced it (rest of sentence drowned out by cheers). I think I must have hit the right nail on the head when I pointed out that the logic of those policies are they’d rather have the poor poorer. Once they start to talk about the gap, they’d rather the gap be [indicates an everything lower gap]. Not up here [indicates an everybody higher gap]. But that [indicates an everything lower gap]
.So long as the gap is smaller, they’d rather have the poor poorer.
Mal Meninga: 'I'm buggered ... I'm sorry', Interview to announce political career - 2001
This one was a Sammy J request, and it’s not the first time he’s requested it. Mal Meninga was a league footballer, a national favourite for his exploits with the great Canberra Raiders team of the 1980s. When he embarked upon a political career in 2001, there was national anticipation.
The career last 25 seconds.
CHRIS ULMAN: Why are you standing?
MAL MENINGA: A number of reasons. I guess throughout my sporting career, I've had the urge to do community work and I think I've worked really hard on that aspect in my 16 years in Canberra and the thing about that is that I was a public figure and I was put on a podium, I was just a person out there making sure that I was... I'm buggered. I'm sorry. [walks out]
Thanks to Sammy J and ABC for having me on these last years. Best of luck with touring comedy in 2025 Sammy!
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Next year Speakola will turn ten years old. It’s been a massive undertaking. Over 4000 speeches in the library, years of radio volunteering, 55 podcast episodes, a sense of being a home for great speeches.
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Best wishes
Tony Wilson
Here is an earlier Sammy J related post:
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