The leaders of the major parties vying for election this weekend have revealed their personal playlists, with Julia Gillard showing off a love of Aussie pub rock and Tony Abbott revealing an unexpected love of rhinestones, rum and sodomy.

Gillard’s list of nine tracks features seven Australian tunes, including the Western Bulldogs theme song (though none from her recent interviewer Clare Bowditch ) However it seems as though Abbott isn’t even vaguely familiar with Australian music as his list doesn’t include a single local tune. (Guess he’s not expecting too many votes from the Arts community.)

Though it’s written by a Scot and performed by a tooth-changed Irishman, The Pogues cover of the classic anti-war anthem And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda is the only song on Abbott’s list that could even vaguely be considered to be an Australian song. As it is also the final track from the band’s 1985 record Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, it also raises a few disturbing thoughts about what Abbott might get up to in the Lodge’s cellar.

Strangely, in yet another election featuring hysteria about ‘boat people’, both Abbott and Gillard have chosen songs about nautical misadventure – Gillard opting for the theme to Gilligan’s Island while Abbott lists The Beach Boys’ Sloop John B. We’ll try not to read too much into the fact that Abbott’s choice features the line “This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on” and assume that PM’s choice is a joking pun on the Gillard/Gilligan connection.

Neither politician has updated their musical collection in recent years: Gillard’s most up to date tune is Natalie Imbruglia’s 1997 hit Torn, while the most contempory recording on Abbott’s playlist is The Pogues 1985 version of a song written in 1971 And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.

It’s not too taxing to mine the lyrics of Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn for references about the Gillard campaign and the split with Kevin Rudd’s leadership. The opening line “I thought I saw a man brought to life” offers a clear reference to the re-emergence on Kevin Rudd on the campaign trail and Gillard/Imbruglia comment’s that her “inspiration has run dry” is surely to the monotonous campaign. Any doubts that the song is a personal cry from our atheist Prime Minister are silenced as the singer notes “I’m all out of faith”. Hopefully an election loss won’t leave her “cold and… shamed lying naked on the floor”.

The choice of Springsteen’s Born to Run backs her claim that “At heart, I’m a Bruce Springsteen girl” and she’s wise enough to note that “Born To Run is definitely one of the greatest rock songs of our age.” While Paul Kelly’s story about being laid off and hitting the skids, To Her Door, may well have helped shape Gillard’s work place relation policies.

Gilliard’s choice of Midnight Oil’s King of the Mountain tactfully allows the Environment Minister to appear for the first time in the election campaign, while Happy Birthday Helen with it’s lyrics about driving along the Yarra and the Melbourne anthem Four Seasons in One Day simply serve to sure up the vote in her Melbourne electorate seat Lalor.

A more revealing commentary comes in the final verse of Cold Chisel’s Flame Trees, which offers a sad indictment on the state to the Labor campaign: “There’s no change, there’s no pace/ Everything within its place” which makes it somewhat easier to “believe that she won’t be around” after the election results.

For a man so resolutely anti-gay marriage as Abbott his dedication to Glen Campbell’s Rhinestone Cowboy is a bold choice. Though perhaps the Liberal leader is drawn to the lyrics “Where hustle’s the name of the game/And nice guys get washed away like the snow and the rain/ There’s been a load of compromisin’/On the road to my horizon” rather than any glittery Brokeback moments.

Rhinestone Cowboy is Abbott’s second pick from country pop crooner Campbell, with Wichita Linesman also making the list. Also in the country way, Abbott has selected Elvis’ Suspicious Minds and Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire.

He also attempts to bolster his environmental credentials by selecting Porter Wagner’s version of the country standard Green, Green Grass of Home – though perhaps a more suitable selection for Abbott would have been The Rubber Room – Wagner’s lament about life time spent in a mentalhouse lockup.

So what do the choices ultimately reveal about our leaders chances in the election? Perhaps it’s safer to just refer to the lyrics of Gillard’s choice Four Seasons in One Day and note that it “doesn’t pay to make predictions”

The playlists were both revealed on MySpace

Julia Gillard’s playlist:
Cold Chisel – Flame Trees
Western Bulldogs theme song
Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
Midnight Oil – King of the Mountain
Crowded House – Four Seasons in One Day
Gilligans Island theme song
Things of Stone and Wood – Happy Birthday Helen
Natalie Imbruglia – Torn
Paul Kelly – To Her Door

Tony Abbott’s playlist:
Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds
Glen Campbell – Wichita Linesman
Glen Campbell – Rhinestone Cowboy
Porter Wagner – Green Green Grass of Home
The Beach Boys – Sloop John B
Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire
The Pogues – And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda