Australian Prime Minister's slogan is straight out of 'Veep'

Australia's prime minister has allegedly nicked a slogan, and it looks like it was taken straight from TV.
 By 
Johnny Lieu
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Australia's prime minister appears to have nicked a slogan straight from the TV.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's recent references to "continuity" and "change" appear to have been ripped from the HBO comedy Veep. The use of the terms is remarkably similar to the slogan of fictional U.S. president Selina Meyer in the show: "Continuity with change."


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Turnbull appeared on the ABC's 7:30 on Monday evening, on the defence after a dramatic day which could see Australia heading to an early election. During the interview he dropped the words "continuity" and "change" numerous times. 

In the interview, Turnbull was asked about what the point was of getting rid of the last prime minister, Tony Abbott, if there were "very little differences" between the policies of the former government and the current one. 

"So, as you go from one Liberal prime minister to another, you have continuity and you have change and there has been a lot of change," Turnbull said. 

On Tuesday morning, when he spoke to Neil Mitchell on radio station 3AW, he again used the slogan. "As I said earlier today there is continuity and there is change. I give full credit to Tony Abbott for his success for example in stopping the boats," he said.

The problem is, his argument is not in any way original, as noticed by ABC political correspondent Greg Jennett on Tuesday morning. It is not clear if Turnbull or his advisors were aware of the Veep connection, his office has been contacted for comment. 

It's certainly not gone over the heads of the writers and cast of Veep, with executive producer Simon Blackwell saying the slogan was the "most meaningless" one they could think of for Season 4 of the television show. 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays U.S. president Selina Meyer, said she was just simply "dumbstruck."



In contrast, Timothy Simons, the actor behind White House liaison Jonah Ryan, is just really happy with the "free publicity" Australia's prime minister has given to Veep.

Here's hoping Australia's prime minister adopts "twirling towards freedom" or "TURNBULL: FOR THE PEOPLE" next -- because if you're going to take slogans, you might as well take the good ones.

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Johnny Lieu

Mashable Australia's Web Culture Reporter.Reach out to me on Twitter at @Johnny_Lieu or via email at jlieu [at] mashable.com

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