Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott could learn a lot from Paul Keating Could learn a thing or two: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, right, shakes hands with former prime minister Paul Keating last week. Watch this video of Paul Keating's March 1993 speech to the National Press Club in the final week of his election campaign. Mr Keating prefers his Press Club address in the 1996 election, when everyone knew he was a goner, but many opt for his 1993 speech when he alone thought he could win. Now, contrast that - with its vaulting confidence and promise and references to "monkey cunning" John Hewson - with the final week speeches to the same club by Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd. It proves the idea that politics and politicians can inspire and excite. Prime Minister Rudd got it about right today when he started his speech with: "Much of this election campaign, like many that have preceded it, has, to paraphrase the greatest master of the English language, been 'full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing'. This election campaign, in which both sides have been restricted by a shortage of government revenue and by their own party histories, has been packed with more sound and fury than most. There is the monotony of the Opposition Leader Mr Abbott chanting whenever possible: "We will scrap the carbon tax, end the waste, stop the boats ..." And minor variations on that, none of which make for dramatic rhetoric. And then there was Mr Rudd today. He was better with questions, but the speech was almost as straitjacketed as Mr Abbott's. "Because our national political mission, put simply, is to do whatever we can to make life better for them," Mr Rudd said. And to both imagine and build an Australia of the future capable of doing just that. And this is the vision and the values underpinning that vision that I outlined in my policy address last Sunday. This is the core mission of progressive politics, our party and our Government. He was more engaging answering questions, such as when he indicated the ALP organisation was stuck in a 60-year-old rut and in need of reform. A reform he wants to drive. "In the 1950s the level of unionisation ... it was massive," he said. I'm a strong supporter of our trade union movement, but there is a whole wider church out there. The small business community is big. I find it ironic in this election campaign that here I am as a Labor prime minister with a $5.4 billion head start on Mr Abbott when it comes to taxation treatment of small business. Much as that was an improvement on the passion meter, it won't get much blood racing. So go back to Mr Keating, preserved on this video, to see how it really is done.