Just watched his resignation on the news, gotta lol. Very clever speech, he's a real sly bastard. Seems like Kevin is going to drag the ALP down with him from spite. If this goes on much longer he might as well just gift Abbott the election. Hopefully he'll bugger off to the backbench and not challenge the next election. But that's just wishful thinking. More likely he'll go out kicking and screaming and try to bring as many of the people that 'wronged' him as possible. Most likely he'll challenge, fail, quit and there'll be a by election which labor will probably lose, and an election, and then Tony Abbott will be PM. God it's depressing.
Why do you say that? You do realise that his policies while PM were pretty much exactly the same as Gillard? Except his mining tax would have taken more form the mining companies. I got the impression you did not like Gillard's policies. Or do you only notice colour and movement and not understand what people are actually saying? I assume I fall into your "leftard" category. I am fairly ambivalent about it. As I said - the policies are unlikely to change. It doesn't bother me he may be a complete (*)(*)(*)(*). I thought Gillard would do a better job - but she had problems communicating (helped by a mysoginist media) - so, may as well let Sweary Kev back in. A lot of the proles seem to like him.
Oh dear. That will mean taking away tax cuts. We have heard how much wealthy Liberal voters have whinged about losing their medical welfare. How will Tony take their tax cuts? AND put in his own GREAT BIG TAX to pay polluters?
Yeah, how many times has Abbott said that he only opposes Labor's policies because he is the opposition and then said that you can't trust anything he says?
On the matter of Abbott. The Labor leadership tensions has really shaded the fact that he is not a popular politican, he does have the support of his caucus but he is offputting to many members in the general public and he will never be the sort of politican that has massive suppport numbers.
OMG, just heard Wayne Swan's statements on Kevin Rudd, talk about pushing the knife further into a wounded person... what an ars#$le. Hope Rudd wins on Monday and boots Swan out the friggin door. Swan's seems like an idiot.
I doubt he has much support in his shadow cabinet. Remember he only got in by one vote. Sure - there are few intellectual heavyweights on the Liberal front bench - but a least some of them would understand their leader is a complete dill. While Gillard has been back-peddaling thanks to Rudd, News Ltd and her own dumb actions - they have had no need to remove the monkey out the front. Come election time though - they won't trust that clown again.
LOL picking on Abbott, haha, he's actually a very smart guy, perhaps too smart for his own good. Funny thing is Rudd is the person responsible for getting the ALP into power, and its very telling about ALP culture to see the way they continue to treat him - bizarre, unionists LOL. Bring back Costello!
very sad, he is/was the best foreign minister we have ever had, 10 times the brain of Julia and 100 times that of Mr. Spock (Abbotts). I wish him luck...
The chaos in government when Rudd was PM has undone him, twice. He had to go when cabinet became subsidiary to Kevin and his youthful advisers. In our form of government, cabinet is extremely important: A Cabinet is a combining committee--a hyphen which joins, a buckle which fastens, the legislative part of the State to the executive part of the State. In its origin it belongs to the one, in its functions it belongs to the other. - Bagehot. Rudd forgot this, his ego got in the way. Our system does not approve of even a benign dictatorship. Howard stayed in office as the second longest PM in our history because he understood what Rudd could never fathom. Rudd is deeply unpopular with the Caucus, he has no show of becoming PM. To be sure there are Nervous Nellies in the back bench who think that polls this far out from an election are important and are getting scared for their own jobs. They will, like Rudd, back self-interest. But there aren't sufficient of those to get him the job. So, he loses the ballot. Then what? Dummy spit and out of the party or even out of Parliament to force a by-election? I wouldn't put it past him.
No. He loses, he waits and tries again in a few months. Just the way Keating did it. The polls rule everything (sadly) - and it is hard to see Julia's polls improving with the unwashed masses. Kevin has her check-mate. It may be Monday - it may be 3 months time - but he has got her.
If ALP supporters can dream of improving their popularity in the electorate, I should be allowed to dream that this little soap opera could result in the ALP freeing itself from the control of union thuggery. One factor effecting the unpopularity of the present fed gov, is the public disgust at the power of the "faceless men". We vote for people whose names are on the ballot paper, not back room thugs. If the ALP can clean itself up, the other side of politics will then be forced to lift their game accordingly. Won`t happen.
As someone said on tv, I think it was Tony Burke on 7.30 Report, something along the lines of, "no-one knew what Keating would be like as PM." In other words, the Caucus knows Rudd was a hopeless, bullying, PM and they don't want him back. Eventually the electorate will wake up to the fact that we don't elect a PM, that we elect a local member, that the party that has the numbers takes government and that the leader of that party becomes PM. So in effect the focus will be back on policy (do you want Work Choices with that?) and off the soap opera that Kevin scripted.
Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look using a term like "leftards"? Seriously? Don't lower yourself to the level of some of our Americans friends on here.
Oh dear. Name calling and silly little made up words. That seems to be your entire arsenal. You really need to try a bit harder if you expect to be taken seriously old boy.
"Faceless men" is a bit hyperbolic. I suppose it was "faceless men" that stabbed Turnbull in the back and elevated Tony? And "faceless men" that stabbed Nelson in the back and elevated Turnbull? Come on, this is politics. There are inevitably alliances and "factions" within all parties. Rudd is the one undermining the government and he doesn't even belong to a "faction". Although I suppose you could call him the "Rudd faction". Kevin doesn't want to make the party more "democratic", he just wants to control it. If he gets back in he's just going to ignore the cabinet and do his own thing again. Probably been watching too much West Wing. But he's not going to win the leadership spill. If he'd had the numbers he would have called it himself. Gillard has trapped him. He's got to challenge, even though he knows he doesn't have the numbers. Real question is whether he'll quit or stay on the back bench. I have a feeling that he's going to be a little (*)(*)(*)(*)(*) about this and quit, forcing a by election, probably will be a protest vote against ALP in his electorate and Libs will win. ALP will lose the confidence of the house and there'll be an election. Which is either going to be another hung parliament (most likely imo) or coalition victory. Either way Abbott will have no hope at all of overturning the carbon tax because the greens control the senate and the ALP are not going to overturn their own policy. Anyone who doesn't already know that we don't directly elect a PM when we have a bloody MINORITY GOVERNMENT is never going to figure it out.
My guess is he'll lose the first leadership ballot, and hang around on the back bench for a while. Then he'll work on improving his numbers and have one more go at it. The ALP can't win the next election with Gillard, but Rudd has a chance of leading them to victory. If he can convince them that working with him is better than being voted out of government, he has a chance of getting the numbers he needs. Whatever happens, come Christmas 2013 neither Gillard nor Abbott will be PM.
The way in which the ALP power brokers have gone about attacking Rudd in an attempt to build support for Gillard only proves that they still don't get it. Attacking his behaviour while PM and leaking videos which purport to expose his temper just makes them look more venal and desperate than ever. Since Rudd resigned they've gone into overdrive on the "Kevin was an intolerable leader" line of attack. True or not, that's not the perception of voters, so even if this helps save Gillard's skin next week, it further taints her Prime Ministership and further reduces her chances of ever winning an election. Every time Rudd speaks he holds the moral high ground, and nothing Gillard does (or is instructed to do) at this late stage is likely to change that. Moreover, Rudd is clearly calling the shots. Even after all the challenges for him to show his hand, he still caught them off guard with his resignation. And, despite all the allegations about him dissembling against the PM, there is nothing they can point to as evidence. Publicly he's appeared loyal and respectful at every turn. If it's all a front then it only shows he's a way more sophisticated operator. Meanwhile, the power brokers are frantically mobilising Gillard loyalists to go public and attack Rudd by way of showing support for the party. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Rudd has brought the opprobrium upon himself. He didn't put himself forward in the caucus vote for PM. He knew he didn't have the numbers and he didn't want to be humiliated so he avoided the fight. He ran a chaotic government. Perhaps people forget the fiascos but there were many. He could not get policy working and that's the task of government and the responsibility of a PM. Gillard has done what Rudd could not do - run a government. Why anyone influential in the ALP would want Rudd back to stuff it all up again is beyond me. In the next few days Rudd will be trying to get the numbers for the ballot. I don't think he'll get them. The appeal to popularity is an indicator of his weak position within the ALP and the caucus in particular. "Elect me and you'll keep your seats", rather than "elect me and I will run a good and effective government." Very sad.
