Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the fall of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”, with many interpreting his comments as a stated desire to see the union reformed.
Putin’s illegal incursion into Ukraine on February 22, 2022 has been observed as an attempt at reclaiming territory lost by Moscow in 1991.
While politicians are often well rehearsed on their talking points, minor gaffes do occasionally occur. In early 2025, one of Labor’s most experienced media hands, then-employment minister Murray Watt, misspoke and told Seven’s Sunrise that he believed the date of Australia Day should be changed, a significant shift government policy.
Asked “Should the day stay or should the date change?” Watt said: “No, I think the date should change Eddy. That’s exactly the position of the government.”
He immediately corrected himself, saying: “We’ve said repeatedly we don’t want to change the date, and I’m not surprised to see that percentage of people in Australia say we should keep the date in place.”
