BYE BYE KEVIN RUDD...
djsheep
3,620 Posts
KEVIN Rudd's leadership is in crisis tonight as factional leaders and MPs urged Julia Gillard to challenge for the prime ministership.
The Prime Minister and his deputy are locked in talks in his office, amid reports that key Labor figures have lost confidence in Mr Rudd's ability to win the next election.
Ms Gillard has not yet made herself a candidate, but senior Labor sources said members of the NSW Right had agreed to support the push if she agreed to challenge.
The leadership crisis emerged tonight just as Mr Rudd appeared safe before the start of the long parliamentary winter break and as he prepares to leave for Canada for the G20 meeting tomorrow.
But there have been a fierce revival of complaints and concerns about Labor's collapse in the polls.
Labor MPs said the Deputy Prime Minister was ???very angry??? with suggestions that her loyalty had been questioned by Mr Rudd.
Prompted by reports that Mr Rudd had sent his chief-of-staff, Alister Jordan, to check MPs' loyalty and whether there were moves to replace him with Ms Gillard, MPs angrily accused Mr Rudd of disloyalty himself.
Several MPs have told The Australian Ms Gillard has put every effort into killing leadership speculation surrounding Mr Rudd, but has effectively been undermined by the Prime Minister.
???She has stood by him through the toughest time,??? an MP said. ???She has not sought to exploit his problems for her own gain and this is how he replays her????
MPs from the Right and Left factions and from NSW, Victoria and South Australia have been involved in meetings as anger spread through Labor ranks during question time today.
Comments
wasnt he a tubby little Luke Skywalker to Howards impotent Emporer?
i thought the country was ablaze with warm fuzzies after Rudd got in.
what happenned?
and i have to say that your new PM's fair dinkum Aussie accent is insane.
"Oi beloive een in Ostraya thet rewords thaoise hoo werk"
no. a plummet this stepp cannot be put down to bad PR alone. i know he backed down on some issues including a key election promise to do with carbon trading or something and in the eyes of the constituate this made him look weak, and he wanted to raise the tax level on resources or something?
the unions turned first the country followed?
Aussie heads to speak on it ploise, this is fascinating shit, this man was as popular as Bob Hawke and now has been shunted aside and is hated?
what happenned Aussie?
Anyhow, I always remember one of the Chasers asking Rudd if he feels he's so smart in Mandarin and he twisted the intepretation of the question mainly because other journalists did not speak Mandarin at all.
The press have turned on him most importantly and the projects he implemented like the The Home Insulation Program (which offered free insulation to the value of $1,200 to homeowners, landlords and tenants) and The BER (school building Program) have blown up in his face.
Both programes were part of a national economic stimulus plan that may have help keep Australia out of recession and kept our building industry and many tradesmen afloat. Both programmes were the subject of huge rorts by Cowboy contractors who installed dangerous Insulation (resulting in some house fires) and ridiculously overpriced School buildings ($200,000 small toilet blocks) The press and opposition has been quick to blame the goverment for the perceived failure of these schemes without ever shifting the blame to the contractors who abused the schemes.
One thing that Kevin did which is vital in the reconciliation process, was early in his term give a formal apology to the Indigenous tribes of Australia for past injustices. This was a great moment Text of his speech here
Anyway its looks like a return soon of typical right wing politics in Australia. Cut funding to hospitals and schools social welfare services, Tax breaks for the rich, Get tough on illegal immigrants. Smash the unions bring in more employer friendly wage legislation..
Well said.
While, I???ve got nothing against Gillard, and I believe she was convinced to go for the job, the whole series of events leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
If, three months of bad polls, some bad press and threats from mining CEOs is all it takes for a party to oust the Prime-Minister, that is a serious concern for democracy.
I knew Gillard would move on him eventually, and as long as Rudd was popular the Union 9especially the NSW Right wing ALP heads) couldnt touch him- but he lived by the polls and died by the polls.
Plus all the shit he talks he didnt back with any meaningful action- grocerywatch, fuelwatch, the BER, the Education revolution, ETS, green batts etc etc all fucked up or never materialised, so the public was left with empty promises and a bloke who turned out to be a bit of a dickhead and a control freak.
Plus he alientated the cabinet and factional leaders, making shit choices without consulting them, so they got upset when the public started hating on the whole Govt.
Rudd never really had any real balls or PoD other than he wasnt Howard (but was a lite version economically and socially).
Plus hes a Queenslander- no one wants a QLDer in charge (sorry Sheep!). VIc and NSW run the country, always have yopu need the support of both or either to have the numbers in the caucus, and even QLD right was never behind him.
My prediction is that Gillard might not last too long either....
This.
It all seems very flavour of the month on some reality tv steez to me