Discourse coherence and cohesion

The three speeches use several devices to order the various parts of the texts，establish causal links，sustain topic continuity，determine relations among discourse entities，and to bridge distinct parts of discourse.As these three speeches were designed specifically for the federal election，they are highly refined，well structured，and are marked by a high level of coherency.As it has already been stated，each speaker is heavily influenced by his/her education and economic background.Howard's speech provides us with a prime example of this.

Howard deliberately inserts the word“taxation”in the opening of his speech：“Election campaigns are never held in a vacuum，they are not dry comparisons of neat policies，be they economic，taxation or otherwise...”By doing this he establishes taxation as one of the important issues of the federal election.This serves to both prepare the audience for，and influence their views about the taxation issue：an issue that Howard refers to throughout the speech.In the next section Howard declares that leaders should“present their values and their priorities to their fellow Australians”，before going on to link the words of“taxation”and“priority”.In the next section of the speech，he pontificates that taxation is a wonderful opportunity that the Australian people cannot afford to miss.He also praises western culture，claiming that“we have an opportunity to leave a mark as the Australian people of the 21st Century...”In the following three sections，he paints a vivid picture of the worsening global economy and the challenges it poses to the nation，and warns of the dire consequences if the government fails to initiate tax reform.In this way，Howard attempts to generate positive support for the GST，although at this point he has still not actually mentioned the tax in his speech.Through all these words and statements，Howard is laying the foundation for the introduction of the controversial GST issue later in his speech.After the Coalition's GST policy is finally introduced，Howard then moves on to attack Labor's incompetence in economic management，implying that only the Coalition government is capable of leading Australia through the challenges posed by the new century.It is abundantly clear that all of the paragraphs in Howard's speech are linked either directly or indirectly to the central issue of the GST.