Australian vernacular

"SABRA LANE: His opponents say while the PM's well versed in Mandarin, this is a bad attempt to level with voters because it sounds false. And the editor of the Macquarie Dictionary Sue Butler says it does sound odd, because Mr Rudd's mangled two sayings. SUE BUTLER: He's done a double appeal for reasons of fairness justice by putting two phrases together. One phrase is "fair shake of the dice" and sometimes you get "fair shake of the stick". The other is "fair suck of the sauce bottle". Sometimes you get "fair suck of the sav". But there are definitely the two underlying phrases: "fair shake of the dice" and "fair suck of the sauce bottle" and Mr Rudd has run them both together. SABRA LANE: At a book launch in Sydney Mr Rudd responded to reports about his use of the vernacular. KEVIN RUDD: I was criticised for using some Australianisms and I'd just say to... well I was having and dad and Dave this morning... that's a shave... and picked up my copy of The Oz and saw, it was George Megalogenis having a go at me and I thought, fair crack of the whip. (Sound of laughter) Don't come the raw prawn with me George. SABRA LANE: Funnily enough, transcribers in his own office had problems with that - describing "raw prawn" as "royal prawns". Strewth! MARK COLVIN: Starve a lizard - Sabra Lane." As well as his embarrassing butchering of the vernacular, what's really disturbing is that our PM was speaking at the launch of a Harper Collins (Murdoch's book publishing empire) book - Peter FitzSimon's latest, 'Charles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men'. Once again, an Australian politician demonstrates Murdoch's stranglehold over our entire political and cultural scene: "...well I was having and dad and Dave this morning... that's a shave... and picked up my copy of The Oz... " Makes it sound like this is something all Australians do as part of their morning ritual i.e. oblutions then peruse the right-wing propaganda over their coffee and toast. We don't. In fact, circulation figures are plummeting at all of Murdoch's right-wing propaganda sheets.