The following is on the net:

“Speechwriting is and always will be ethically fraught. The very attempt of one human mind to write an expression to be issued by another human mouth—that mouth usually owned by a figure vastly more influential than the writer—makes speechwriting an ethically complicated job.”

Before Harding presidents of the United States did not formally use speechwriters. Lincoln produced immortal prose. His Gettysburg Address is literature.

Lincoln sharpened his rhetorical skills in a series of debates with his political opponent, Stephen Douglas, no mean rhetorician.

Some of the phrases Winston Churchill used in his speeches are memorable. There is little doubt that he was capable of magnificent prose as was Theodore Roosevelt. Some of the phrases Franklin D Roosevelt used in his speeches are memorable. However, they may have been the product of Roosevelt’s corps of speechwriters.

A notable speechwriter for FDR was Samuel Rosenman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Rosenman

Although Harding was the first president to formally use speechwriters presidents since the first president have used help in drafting their speeches.

https://www.presidentprofiles.com/General-Information/A-History-of-the-Presidency-Presidential-ghost-writers.html

Would it be too much to ask that politicians no longer use speechwriters? Should they be required to appeal to the public using their own words or at least attributing the source when other’s words are spoken? Do most politicians have a voice of their own?

I was advisor for military affairs to Senator Woodley in the Australian Parliament. As far as I know Woodley needed to consult nobody when he was called upon to make a public address.

“Speechwriting is and always will be ethically fraught.
david f,
Totally agree !
Here's a stark example;

https://www.rebelnews.com/the_real_greta_thunberg?utm_campaign=el_gretathunbergdavos2_1_20_23&utm_medium=email&utm_source=therebel

Dar Indyvidual,

What an eminently clueless thing to say. And what on earth are you doing following the flogs from Rebel Not News? They are shockers. Petty little ambush tactics asking snarky little questions of little substance. Give me a break.

Dear davidf,

Don Watson was Keating's speech write but I think this reflection by Keating on the Redfern speech is illustrative.

"The point of this article is to make clear Watson was not the author of the speech. The sentiments of the speech, that is, the core of its authority and authorship, were mine. I had discussed with Watson on dozens of occasions how non-indigenous Australia could never make good our relationship with indigenous people until we came clean about the history.

Indeed, Watson records in his book Recollections of a Bleeding Heart me looking out the window of a VIP aircraft crossing outback Western Australia, saying words to the effect, ''We will never really get Australia right until we come to terms with them''; ''them'' meaning the Aborigines. And by ''come to terms'' I meant owning up to the dispossession.

I remember well talking to Watson a number of times about stories told to me through families I knew, of putting ''dampers'' out for Aborigines. The dampers were hampers of poisoned food provided only to murder them. I used to say to Watson that this stuff had to be owned up to. And it was me who established the inquiry into the Stolen Generation that Kevin Rudd apologised to. The generation who were taken from their mothers.

So, the sentiments that ''we did the dispossessing . . . we brought the diseases, the alcohol, that we committed the murders and took the children from their mothers'' were my sentiments. P.J. Keating's sentiments. They may have been Watson's sentiments also. But they were sentiments provided to a speechwriter as a remit, as an instruction, as guidance as to how this subject should be dealt with in a literary way."

What an eminently clueless thing to say.
SteeleRedux,
Are you suggesting Rebel News has written Thunberg's giggles & silence ?
You must admit she did appear rather like a total idiot but how that is the reporters fault I fail to see.

Maybe politicians should return to the Friday night soapbox, town hall meetings and Sunday afternoon's in the Domain. That would sort them out. I would like to see 'Question Time' in Parliament improved, get away from those Dorothy Dix type questions from government backbenches to ministers.