{
    "archive_path": "archive/1792577037.093078",
    "base_url": "www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb",
    "basename": "david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb",
    "bookmarked_date": "2026-10-21 10:03",
    "canonical": {
        "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb",
        "dom_path": "output.html",
        "favicon_path": "favicon.ico",
        "git_path": "git/",
        "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.theguardian.com",
        "headers_path": "headers.json",
        "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt",
        "index_path": "index.html",
        "media_path": "media/",
        "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html",
        "pdf_path": "output.pdf",
        "readability_path": "readability/content.html",
        "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png",
        "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html",
        "warc_path": "warc/",
        "wget_path": "www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb.html"
    },
    "domain": "www.theguardian.com",
    "extension": "",
    "hash": "180K45AKZXDQH4K42B0P",
    "history": {
        "archive_org": [],
        "dom": [],
        "favicon": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "curl",
                    "--silent",
                    "--location",
                    "--compressed",
                    "--max-time",
                    "120",
                    "--output",
                    "favicon.ico",
                    "--user-agent",
                    "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                    "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.theguardian.com"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:07.912042+00:00",
                "index_texts": null,
                "output": "favicon.ico",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792577037.093078",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:07.411091+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ],
        "git": [],
        "headers": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "curl",
                    "--silent",
                    "--location",
                    "--compressed",
                    "--head",
                    "--max-time",
                    "120",
                    "--user-agent",
                    "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                    "https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:08.187702+00:00",
                "index_texts": null,
                "output": "headers.json",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792577037.093078",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:07.919759+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ],
        "htmltotext": [],
        "media": [],
        "mercury": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js",
                    "https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "1.0.0",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:19.574728+00:00",
                "index_texts": null,
                "output": "mercury",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792577037.093078",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:14.392463+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ],
        "pdf": [],
        "readability": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor",
                    "/tmp/tmpvrd4op5a",
                    "https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "0.0.11",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:14.375741+00:00",
                "index_texts": [
                    "He\u2019s six foot tall and full of muscle, but David Pocock\u2019s real strength is often sounding like the most sensible, commonsense voice in the room.At his first speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday, he said he wasn\u2019t launching a bid for prime minister \u2013 no matter how much some people might like the softly spoken senator to have more say in federal politics.Indeed, Pocock said he was already thinking about life after politics, admitting \u201cyou can\u2019t do this for ever\u201d. But before the full-time whistle on his parliamentary career, the former rugby star has a match against his toughest opponent yet: the two-party system.\u201cI want to be part of building a political system that actually delivers for Australians, no matter who is prime minister,\u201d the ACT senator said.\u201cI see an opportunity at the next election for a new kind of community political collective \u2026 I want to use what I\u2019ve learned over the past four-and-a-half years to help.\u201dHe called for a higher calibre of politics after the alleged attack on the independent Indi MP, Helen Haines. He branded parliament\u2019s question time a \u201cdisgrace\u201d, urging a \u201cbetter standard\u201d among colleagues \u201cto take some of the edge off it\u201d.Helen Haines the \u2018MP we all wish we had\u2019 says David Pocock \u2013 videoSpeaking directly about Haines, he said parliament must \u201cmeet this [alleged] attack on you by doubling down on the values you represent\u201d \u2013 listing transparency, accountability and kindness.In front of staff and allies \u2013 including the ACT politician Thomas Emerson, Pocock\u2019s former staffer and lookalike, as well as the Cheek Media founder and Grayndler independent candidate, Hannah Ferguson \u2013 he called for three key policy reforms:\n \n  A 25% tax on gas exports, which he said could fund anything from boosting welfare to health reforms and aged care.\n \n \n  A 5% levy on datacentres to capture more benefits from the AI boom.\n \n \n  Transparency reforms to shine a light on lobbyists, secret meetings with politicians and vested interests.\n \nJust two months of gas tax revenue would pay for 100,000 home support packages, while prosthetic eyes and noses for cancer victims would be paid for in three hours, he said. Pocock recounted the moment a woman sat sobbing in his office, so destitute on the miserable jobseeker allowance that she ate dog food because she hadn\u2019t eaten meat in so long.\u201cA 25% gas export tax could help change that, allowing us to have a social security system that keeps people above the poverty line,\u201d he said.All politicians have these stories, even if not all of them talk about them with such emotion. Politics is a series of choices and priorities and, presented by Pocock in this way, the choice not to fund welfare boosts or aged care or cancer care is hard to justify.Asked later about calls for budget discipline and cutting spending, Pocock replied instantly: \u201cYou can make cuts, or you can grow revenue.\u201d\u201cI don\u2019t understand why we\u2019re slugging everyday Aussies and yet we\u2019re happy to export gas for free.\u201dDespite having only one vote in parliament, and no longer holding the Senate balance of power, Pocock has been extraordinarily successful in drawing attention to his key issues. Labor members are not his biggest fans, but he has moulded the gas tax narrative to the point that government MPs\u2019 social media feeds are flooded with comments demanding change.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBending the national conversation around a complicated resources tax, to the point where the actual prime minister has to wade through swathes of comments from political normies on every post, shows some level of leadership. Not that Pocock is angling to win that position himself; for one, he said he\u2019s staying in the Senate, not switching to the lower house.For another, when he told the audience \u201cdon\u2019t get ahead of yourselves with \u2018Pocock launches bid for PM\u2019 headlines\u201d, it got only the second-biggest laugh in the room.The biggest laugh came when he added: \u201cMy ambition is much bigger than that.\u201dHis idea for a new \u201ccoalition\u201d of independents was light on detail, but he said he wanted to \u201cbuild\u201d something alongside communities which were already organising. Pocock suggested an alliance of independents and collectives like the Community Strong movement headlined by Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender, going on to shout out independent tilts in the ACT electorates of Bean, Canberra and Fenner, where his local campaign infrastructure could make a difference, but also the seat of Fisher and even Anthony Albanese\u2019s, Grayndler.The Greens leader, David Shoebridge, has said he wants his party to replace Labor. A Pocock-backed independent in Ferguson, replacing the prime minister in his own seat, would be a whole new level.\u201cI believe a model of smaller, community interest parties and independents working together in an alliance can succeed here and build the kind of future we want,\u201d Pocock said.Where that ends up, and if it gets off the ground, will be seen in coming months and years. Just don\u2019t expect to see Pocock \u2013 rugby star, conservationist, senator, father \u2013 add prime minister to his CV anytime soon."
                ],
                "output": "readability",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792577037.093078",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:11.995376+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ],
        "screenshot": [],
        "singlefile": [],
        "title": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "curl",
                    "--silent",
                    "--location",
                    "--compressed",
                    "--max-time",
                    "120",
                    "--user-agent",
                    "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                    "https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:11.987897+00:00",
                "index_texts": null,
                "output": "Soft-spoken David Pocock has big ambitions \u2013 but first he wants politicians to \u2018double down\u2019 on kindness | David Pocock | The Guardian",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792577037.093078",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:11.917219+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ],
        "wget": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "wget",
                    "--no-verbose",
                    "--adjust-extension",
                    "--convert-links",
                    "--force-directories",
                    "--span-hosts",
                    "--no-parent",
                    "-e",
                    "robots=off",
                    "--reject=js,mjs,woff,woff2,ttf,otf,eot,mp4,m4v,mov,webm,ogv,mkv,avi,flv",
                    "--timeout=120",
                    "--restrict-file-names=windows",
                    "--page-requisites",
                    "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3",
                    "--compression=auto",
                    "--timestamping",
                    "https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:11.907478+00:00",
                "index_texts": null,
                "output": "www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb.html",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792577037.093078",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T13:28:08.197930+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ]
    },
    "icons": null,
    "is_archived": true,
    "is_static": false,
    "latest": {
        "archive_org": null,
        "dom": null,
        "favicon": "favicon.ico",
        "git": null,
        "media": null,
        "pdf": null,
        "screenshot": null,
        "singlefile": null,
        "title": "Soft-spoken David Pocock has big ambitions \u2013 but first he wants politicians to \u2018double down\u2019 on kindness | David Pocock | The Guardian",
        "warc": null,
        "wget": "www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb.html"
    },
    "link_dir": "/data/archive/1792577037.093078",
    "newest_archive_date": "2026-10-21T13:28:14.392463+00:00",
    "num_failures": 0,
    "num_outputs": 6,
    "oldest_archive_date": "2026-10-21T13:28:07.411091+00:00",
    "path": "/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb",
    "schema": "Link",
    "scheme": "https",
    "snapshot_id": "3a53616b-b214-4421-96bc-9cc88cf0c6cb",
    "sources": [
        "/data/sources/1792577037-import.txt"
    ],
    "tags": ",pool,world_news,war-wiki",
    "tags_str": "pool,world_news,war-wiki",
    "timestamp": "1792577037.093078",
    "title": "Soft-spoken David Pocock has big ambitions \u2013 but first he wants politicians to \u2018double down\u2019 on kindness | David Pocock | The Guardian",
    "updated": "2026-10-21T13:28:07.410915+00:00",
    "updated_date": "2026-10-21 13:28",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/david-pocock-big-ambitions-first-speech-to-national-press-club-ntwnfb"
}