text:
Leadership tussle: Rudd circles, Gillard stumbles
The pressure must surely be building on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to call a party room ballot and try and stop in its tracks Kevin Rudd's undeclared run for the leadership.
Rudd's numbers now are modest; perhaps a support base of 20 and sometimes approaching 30 depending on the mood of the day. That's from a caucus of 103.
But as every day goes by, the chances are he will build on that support.
This week was a case in point. Julia Gillard had one of her worst weeks in politics because essentially trivial matters were badly handled. The damage was significant because it went to the most vulnerable aspects of her leadership – credibility and trust.
It is of no consequence that somebody in her office was preparing a speech in the event that she might win a leadership ballot. It would or should have been obvious to all those around her that that was at least a possibility and it would be prudent to start preparing for it. That she remembered little of it is also unsurprising. She would have been pre-occupied with issues like, should I challenge and will I have the numbers?
Equally unremarkable was the showing of polling unfavourable to Rudd to colleagues. Why wouldn't she? For days, she had been urged by key people to mount a challenge. Surely, armed with relevant material, she would seek to sound out colleagues.
For goodness sake. In the mid-90s, Liberals disenchanted with John Hewson's leadership, showed polling to Kerry O'Brien. And he was never a Liberal MP.
All Gillard ever said was that she hadn't made up her mind to finally take the plunge until the day itself. There is nothing in the preparation of a speech or the showing off of polling that is inconsistent with that.
But such straight forward and candid explanations were beyond the Prime Minister. By agreeing to a long pre-recorded interview with Four Corners, she allowed herself to be ambushed. She had no time to prepare. In the end she looked shifty and unconvincing.
Her colleagues were gobsmacked. It set back her cause.
She can be thankful there is no mood for change across the broader caucus or in the state branches. No mood for change to Rudd, and no mood – yet – for a change to a third candidate, though all that may change if the issue is allowed to drift.
And that mood could start to change as early as next week.
It's a non-sitting week and Kevin Rudd has a golden opportunity to declare: "I'm from Queensland, and I'm here to help," as he travels the state drawing crowds and seemingly doing all he can for Labor in the state election.
The speculation that is killing Gillard and the Government will go on no matter what. Nothing else is breaking through. Gillard needs to lift her primary vote. She can't do that while Rudd continues to circle. She needs to act, and sooner rather than later.
The Government is finished if it can't use the May budget and then the tax cuts and pension rises in June to start rebuilding its stocks. If the leadership issue is not dealt with before then, both the May and June exercises will be futile.
The alternative argument is that such a pre-emptive move would be interpreted in parts of the media as a recognition on Gillard's part that the challenge is real and her leadership is threatened. Well knock me down with a feather.
Rudd is campaigning. Rudd is talking to journalists about the leadership despite his astonishing denial.
I know the names of some of those he has spoken to. I know where he said it – in his office – on a parliamentary sitting day – and I know what he said. He told them a challenge would happen; he told them he was prepared to lose the first ballot and go to the backbench; and in one conversation he laughed about the prospect of Gillard stumbling again.
Yet the Foreign Minister has categorically denied ever having spoken to any journalist about the leadership.
He can deny the approaches only because he believes the journalists involved are bound to both protect their sources and to treat such conversations as confidential. He is protected by the cloak of journalistic ethics.
But when does this become as important or more so than the briefing former treasurer Peter Costello gave journalists at Canberra's Waters Edge Restaurant, on March 5, 2005?
Costello – according to one of the journalists present – the ABC's Michael Brissenden – told them over dinner that he had set a deadline of April the following year for John Howard to retire, or else he would destroy his leadership by launching a challenge.
He told them if the coup failed, he would move to the backbench to "carp" and build numbers for a second challenge.
It is fascinating in retrospect to revisit what the journalists said at the time.
Brissenden said the three journalists left the dinner with the understanding that the story could be reported as background.
But the next day they received frantic phone calls from Costello's staff pleading that the conversation be treated as off the record.
They went along with that, but two years later, had a change of mind. They went on the record and outed Costello because they argued, "The strength of Mr Costello's denials today (April 14, 2007) go to matters of credibility for the man who still holds hopes of one day leading the nation." Indeed.
Barrie Cassidy is the presenter of ABC programs Insiders and Offsiders. View his full profile here.
Topics: gillard-julia, rudd-kevin, alp, government-and-politics, federal-government
Comments (811)
Comments for this story are closed.
17 Feb 2012 8:16:57am
Be interesting to see if she has the courage to send Rudd to the backbench. Whilst it absolutely gives him more space to plan it also sucks away his public profile and oxygen. Rudd's a reasonably good foreign minister, however, and it's a confrontational step that could garner Rudd more support than it extinguishes his efforts. I *DO* however, wonder why the Rudd challenge is getting so much prominence, given that by every estimate I've seen, he's got about 20 supporters in Caucus, ridiculously short of the sort of numbers he'd need.
17 Feb 2012 9:19:06am
"I *DO* however, wonder why the Rudd challenge is getting so much prominence, given that by every estimate I've seen, he's got about 20 supporters in Caucus, ridiculously short of the sort of numbers he'd need."
Because journos these days are more interested in soap opera than substance. And they wonder why their status is somewhere near that of used car salesmen (my apologies to used car salesmen for being compared to journos).
17 Feb 2012 9:56:27am
Exactly. This article is embarrassing. Our "senior political reporters" need to start acting like men not gossips.
17 Feb 2012 10:47:38am
you saud that Don. They call themself "INSIDER" to me more like an "off sider"
17 Feb 2012 11:43:03am
I heard a journo telling Fran Kelly on Radio National Breakfast yesterday morning that Rudd will cahllenge "either before or after the Qld election, probably before".
That means he's going to challenge in March.
What a goose.
17 Feb 2012 7:18:32pm
Rudd is going to challenge either 'before' or 'after' the QLD elections. Wow, you really have to travel far for that level of insight!!!!
17 Feb 2012 9:40:28pm
Different program entirely. "Offsiders" screens after Inside Business. But it IS hosted by Cassidy.
17 Feb 2012 11:25:05am
Whilst there is some truth in that journalists are promoting these stories, you can't deny that the man himself (Rudd) isn't out there promoting it too. Let's face it, if he declared himself in full support for Gillard there would be no story. The fact that he doesn't, and the fact he is building momentum, means there is a story.
17 Feb 2012 1:59:16pm
Where do you get "building momentum" out of 20 supporters whose number seems to be entirely stable?
17 Feb 2012 3:11:09pm
This time last year his numbers would've half that and the stories wouldn't have been published. I'd call that momentum.
17 Feb 2012 4:40:10pm
I think the momentum is the erosion of Gillard, not necessarily (yet?) the rise of Rudd.
There is no doubt that Gillard is finding it hard to get a successful message out. People will blame who they want - Gillard herself, the media, Rudd or the great green Arkleseizure.
There is equally no doubt, however, that the lack of ability over time is resulting in a loss of confidence from within. Whether this translates to more votes to Rudd, or a third party (Shorten? Combet?) is the $64 question.
17 Feb 2012 2:41:33pm
Yeah, and if he did pledge his full support, they would spin that as being two faced. No matter what he says, it will be interpreted negatively.
So why would he bother answering when he knows anything he says will be twisted.
17 Feb 2012 3:17:47pm
Even if Rudd declared he supported Gillard 100%, or that it was more likely he would be fullback for the Broncos, no one would believe him.
Lets face it, Gillard assured us all that she was not going after the top job - right up to the time she shafted Rudd.
The media failed to challenge Gillard on her false loyalty, but if they are getting other news from Rudd, good on them. But it is not clear if this is the case because of the journalistic code of not providing the name of their informants. Problem is until it is proven it is all just idle gossip.
So even if Rudd declared his total support for Gillard there would still be a story, either factual of fictional.
17 Feb 2012 11:33:50am
Absolutely right, Stevo, Don and Jeff5555.
It's infuriating me that journalists don't see their own part in this.
For example, the article says: "By agreeing to a long pre-recorded interview with Four Corners, she allowed herself to be ambushed". And this is Julia Gillard's fault?
Why should she expect to be ambushed on a point that this journalist admits are "essentially trivial matters"?
Why does Four Corners, which enjoys a (now suspect) reputation as a bastian of journalistic quality, stoop to baiting and embarassing people on trivial matters when there are substantive things to discuss, with actual importance to Australian people?
Anne Perth:
17 Feb 2012 12:53:02pm
Yeah, that's what I wondered.
Who makes these decisions at the ABC???
It was like a shabby 60 minutes expose based on gossip and trickery. Very poor indeed.
Using your previously good reputation for mysterious political reasons...
What on earth could be your purpose????
This is bad. Cheap.
I'll do a 'pass-the-hat' around the car-park if you're out of funds?????
And Barrie - what are you doing?????
Working for a living or fueling silly gossip????
17 Feb 2012 5:00:10pm
Indeed...somewhat tawdry for the ABC...
Anne M:
17 Feb 2012 10:04:43pm
Anne Perth
I agree, shame on Barry Cassidy.
I watch Insiders but is the same talk every week. It would be nice to have Laura Tingle and David Marr every week.
The Journalist on 4 Corners was despicable. Another Jones.
I will never ever watch another 4 Corners again.
Peter Lougheed:
17 Feb 2012 1:39:16pm
Gillard was not ambushed; according to news reports "an email sent by Four Corners producer Peter Cronau to the Prime Ministers media office on January 16 says: Our story looks at the progress of Labor in power by focusing on the progress of the government since 2007. It will be examining the handling of the mining tax, the climate change issue and the leadership question."
Gillard knew that she would be asked about the leadership change but, instead of answering the inevitable questions directly, she relied on her pre-planned spin and came across as evasive (at best), if not downright dishonest.
Be honest with yourself: if a reporter had asked questions of Abbott and he had botched the answers in the same way as Gillard, you would be saying how wonderful the ABC was and you would be putting the boot into Tony.
The problem for Gillard is that she has got form: breaking her promise to Wilkie, going back on the carbon tax promise, her questionable interpretation of events when members of her staff incited a racial incident on Australia Day and now her too cute by half answers on Four Corners. Personally, I now question everything she says. That's not due to the media, Rudd or Abbott. She has done that all by herself. I simply don't believe her anymore. And once that trust is gone, it's gone forever.
Tony P Grant:
17 Feb 2012 1:47:38pm
Discrediting the ABC is a longer term agenda...for the Abbott government.
ABC boss Scott...Howard's man?
emma peel:
17 Feb 2012 2:53:23pm
4 Corners has definitely taken as much a hit at their credibility as the PM did with her reply to the question of the pre written speech. I would've thought she would have been presented with the questions that were to be asked. 4 Corners has plummeted in my personal opinion poll, that's for sure. Tacky at the best. They had the opportunity to produce an informative program and reverted to concentrating on the leadership coup. Very disappointing and sets a precedent for future opportunities of interviewing a great many people.
17 Feb 2012 5:13:32pm
Are you kidding? People who demand to be presented with the questions beforehand are rightly treated with contempt by the media and the public.
4 Corners isn't a PR exercise, it's an investigative current affairs programme, the flagship one in the country, regardless of network.
You might as well ask the politician to send you video themselves. Let their PR man choose the camera angles, lighting, backdrop and then select the best take of each answer to go on air.
17 Feb 2012 7:01:12pm
Have you checked why Abbott won't appear on QANDA or 4C of Lateline or Insiders lately??
18 Feb 2012 1:03:18am
Yes he has no questions to answer, they are in opposition and have stated many times all their policys and costings will be there for everyone to see before the next election .Why give the Labor party a break ? So when it is called you can judge them for your self as every other Australia will.
Media Watcher:
17 Feb 2012 5:40:28pm
Don't worry 4 Corners tactics are pretty well known now, it is only the Walkelys who are conned, surprised the PM's media advisors didn't warn her of the same. Always have a second camera too, so when you answer a question well, and they still ask the question again and again, until you stutter in wonder, because you have already answered that question. You can at least recover your dignity as they put your silence in as it "answers the question better". They are far worse than any Current Affair program on the commercial channels. Sorry Julia, but you didn't really think they were legitimate.
17 Feb 2012 3:01:57pm
Good point Andrew,
Given the complete lack of any real content in the 4C report, I would like the ABC to explain why this program was made at this particular time and who is responsible for the decision to broadcast it.
Viewing the full Gillard interview on the 4C, it is clear that the producers did mislead her as to the subject of the report.
Our national broadcaster should be scrutinised itself for such blatantly partisan, sensationalist rubbish.
When the ABC starts creating the news, whether for commercial or political reasons, they should be held to account.
A Cattle Station:
17 Feb 2012 5:17:31pm
Freya, are you surprised that for 4 Corners A Bloody Business, producers rang pastoralists to say they were doing a story on the Cattle Industry. When farmers let them onto their properties and into their kitchens and after asking many questions including how important financially Live Export was, they opened their laptops and were shown abuse of animals.
People were silent they knew that this was horrific abuse, but they also had a sickening feeling they had been ambushed, and someone has gained acess to their home and property and taken extensive footage under false pretences. Result; editing to show Pastoralists comments only interested in the gain financially and "silence" on abuse. Wonder what they said to gain access to Abattoirs in Indonesia?
I thought exactly the same thing why are they stirring this pot, has the ABC turned on Gillard, or do they just prefer Rudd. Either way I will not be sorry this lady who caused so many job losses thru her own blind belief in 4 Corners will also lose her job.
17 Feb 2012 5:50:44pm
A Cattle Station,
No, sadly, I can't say I am surprised that the cattle farmers were also mislead, many of us felt for their predicament and sympathized with it. I don't know of anyone who blamed the farmers themselves, and I can imagine the how horrified they must have been to have been deceived.
If the public outcry that caused Gillard to shut down the the cattle exports was based on lies and misrepresentation then I would want an enquiry about that too. But at the time there did at least appear to be facts and a matter of public interest behind the cattle report, which cannot be said about the report on the 'leadership struggle'.
17 Feb 2012 9:37:30pm
Would it be reasonable to suggest that a Prime Minister, with a staff of "Media Advisers" (admittedly one less than she had on January 25) might be in a position to make a more informed decision on a media appearance than a farmer?
Somehow Kevin got good advice not to appear.
And that is the root cause of the problem. Gillard keeps making mistakes. Her political judgement is flawed. She has lost the confidence of large swathes of the electorate.
17 Feb 2012 5:59:19pm
Substantive things like using Four Corners reputation to work with fundraising organizations with a set agenda, so they can use a show to spearheard a campaign specifically timed to destroy a much needed industry in Northern Australia? And now we find out there is worse going on within Australia, but don't worry Lateline will pick up the pet project there.
Next, Four Corners could focus on indigeneous suicide also in Northern Australia and how it can be deeply affected by the loss of one of the few areas of employment. Four Corners you are beyond disgust for your conduct in Northern Australia and don't come back.
the truth:
17 Feb 2012 11:44:15am
Well said Don.
To me 266 items(?) passed in this term of Parliament "NO - ne" defeated, 5.1% Unemployment, a budget returning to SURPLUS next year .. I really don't care what Abbott and his rich paymasters have to to say.
This mornings absolutely pitiful effort from Rupert's rag & Abbott about "plasma TV's" and "rolling out the red carpet" to legimate asylum seekers really does show that neither of them have ours or Australia's interest at heart. It is all about power and money to them.
17 Feb 2012 12:00:55pm
This isn't mere gossip, this is a discussion about who will lead the current government. How is this anything other than important?
Kenmore Guy:
17 Feb 2012 1:04:26pm
Because it is the same story that has been run again and again since mid last year with constant revisions of when this so called challenge will occur.
At some point this repeating with no new information is no longer important and becomes simply hearsay and gossip.
17 Feb 2012 2:47:18pm
It is not important for two reasons:
First, as explained in the article, the numbers simply aren't there for a challenge. So the leadership cannot change in the medium term.
Second, there has been nothing new added to the debate for the past six months. You could have picked up a newspaper last year and read exactly the same sort of half baked discussion. By reading this article for example, did you discover anything you did not know six months ago? Seriously.
So there aint the numbers for a challenge, and there is nothing new in the recent articles. OTOH, with the government passing bills at a historically high rate, you might think that media scrutiny of bills going through might have some priority over stale wrong gossip.
hgase verdadero:
17 Feb 2012 2:05:17pm
The journos are miffed because they did not predict the first so called coup against Rudd - even though they were happy to criticise him as PM, not the least of his critics being Mr Cassidy himself - now it seems they are taking their ire out on Ms Gillard. They want to be in on the kill and orchestrate the next coup it seems.
17 Feb 2012 3:15:40pm
Agreed. This endless rehash of the same old theme with the same old speculation is getting awfully boring.
17 Feb 2012 5:38:36pm
No news to report and the pressure for copy the unimaginative make up a contest. Particularly now it has been going on for a bit. Like dogs on something vulnerable they have a point of focus. No news but rumour. Forget the comparatively rosy economic view.
17 Feb 2012 6:01:01pm
Cassidy just doing his job... a rat in the ranks lying his way to get to where NO ONE wanted him before... what's that midnight oil song ' Short Memories'
17 Feb 2012 9:56:44am
Forget the journos, what about Gillards credibility and trustworthiness, I would far trust any journo's word over that of Gillards word, given her history of lies and broken promises.
Another Aussie:
17 Feb 2012 10:24:41am
Hear, hear.
17 Feb 2012 10:46:46am
Does that include the word of journos who hacked in to a murdered child's phone and lied about it?
17 Feb 2012 12:33:01pm
"The Guardian" Newspaper had to publicly apologise for spreading that story. It was not true.
Johnno :
17 Feb 2012 1:39:13pm
The phone was hacked.
The only bit that was untrue (and what the Guardian apologised for) was the claim that messages were deliberately deleted to make space for new messages.
17 Feb 2012 12:58:36pm
Like the few teachers who assault children means all teachers are not to be trusted, or a few accountants steal from their employers means all acountants are crims, or a few union leaders who steal from their members means all union leaders are crooks...generalisations are just so lame...especially when the journos you are referencing are not even employed in Australia...one thing is certain, and this is not a gernalisation, is that Gillard has lied to the Australian electorate and continues to be shifty and untrustworthy...
17 Feb 2012 2:18:29pm
gernalisation...is that what gernalists do? I know it's a typo...but what a ripper! I think this is a terrific accidental word.
17 Feb 2012 10:27:28am
I know what you mean, I felt that way about the mendacious and tricky little Mr Howard......'Honest John' as he was know to those who knew him best.
Why Gillard didn't learn anything about how to get away with being deceptive and tricky from the great man is a puzzle....
17 Feb 2012 12:45:05pm
Honest, 4 elections, John you mean?
He didn't get away with lying, the press all but murdered him, and 5 years after he went you still remember it .. so you certainly wouldn't want to copy him would you?
The difference, John is still loved and remembered, Gillard is despised.
17 Feb 2012 3:25:41pm
Rubbish,howard was not only our worst and highest taxing PM,but our worst Treasurer as well.history will judge gillard more kindly ,than small minds.
17 Feb 2012 6:30:52pm
Listen to what you are saying...Whitlam sleeps like a baby at night since Gillard came along.
The monkey of being Australias worst PM is finally over!
17 Feb 2012 3:34:41pm
Lovemedia, who pray tell is Howard loved by other then a few die hard lib fans????? His party hated him in the end as we saw in the ABC show after he left.. all of them out with the knives.... except of course for Abbott, but cut from the same cloth they are.
17 Feb 2012 7:20:20pm
Tell me, what did Howard do for this country other than use our tax dollars to get re-elected every 3-4 years? This country turned a corner when he was defeated, we actually started to like ourselves again. Howard was the one I despised not Gillard who has more guts than many of our past PM's.
John Howard loved, you have got to be joking!!!!
17 Feb 2012 1:19:57pm
Howard filled me with despair.Abbott threatens to rival that.
Julia gives me hope
Amused :
17 Feb 2012 3:45:31pm
Some people are so easily conned.
I would suggest that is FALSE hope, like everything else about her.
17 Feb 2012 11:04:38am
Care to itemise the lies and broken promises? And please do not refer to the Carbon TAx or I will refer to the children overboard or the worst lie of all - WMD.
17 Feb 2012 12:24:16pm
Rob6, I hope thats not your age. Besides the biggest lie (carbon tax), have you forgotten cash for clunkers, East Timor detention centre, Malaysia swap deal, citizens assembly, pink batt waste, BER waste, digital set tops waste, NBN huge waste, and too many more to fit in a relevant argument.
Stuffed Olive:
17 Feb 2012 1:33:00pm
Not a single broken promise or lie in your list Dave.
Johnno :
17 Feb 2012 1:41:03pm
Apart from the fact that these are just three word slogans, at worse, they are policy matters that are alleged to have failed. To claim that these are lies is, in fact, the biggest lie of all.
17 Feb 2012 3:36:57pm
Not lies Dave, policies, & as for the BER.... that delivered on much needed infastructure & kept the building industry booming through the GFC when a lot of other developments were canned. Check out the facts, it was only about 3% of schools whe were unhappy.
17 Feb 2012 6:25:10pm
Facts is one thing the coalition and its storm troopers are not interested in.
17 Feb 2012 9:17:32pm
Oh dear Dave, who's telling porkies now? I think if you look at the independent findings into the pink batts (statistically less fires and less deaths than previously, with many many homes safely insulated that would never have been otherwise); BER - um, the overall waste was less than 4%. What was that? 4%. That means that 96% of what was delivered was done well. NBN - huge waste? On what basis are you making this judgment? I'm sorry Dave, but your bias is showing ;)
Never let the facts get in the way of a ..... lie?
Lewis of The Hills:
17 Feb 2012 12:44:49pm
Well the Carbon Tax is Gillard's biggest lie so please free to refer to children overboard or WMD (don't forget AWB). Just to be consistent we are just proposing that we respond to Gillard in the same way. Flick her.
17 Feb 2012 12:57:11pm
So lets refer to them:
The "there will be no Carbon Tax under the govt I lead" promise.....broken.
Children overboard...where illegal immigrants through their own children in the water and expected our forces to rescue them....a beat up.
WMD...Saddam had already chemically gassed several Kurdish villages killing hundreds if not thoudands and was developed nuclear weapons. The US gave him plenty of notice before invading for him to ship it all off to Syria....they did exist.
17 Feb 2012 5:35:26pm
Children overboard, where no children were thrown overboard for the Royal Australian Navy to rescue, where Howard lied about it in parliament to further demonise asylum seekers and refugees, where Howard consistently lied about the story and where Howard's staff danced through multiple different versions of how the story came to his office.
The only beat-up was in the person of the Prime Minister of Australia, who lied to the parliament and people of Australia.
WMD, Saddam had none on the day of invasion.
So far you've been wrong on two counts, care to play again?
17 Feb 2012 6:22:40pm
'Illegal immigrants threw their children over board? What utter urbbish, The Navy which rescued them confirmed the boat WAS sinking and they did NOT throw tke kids over.
WMD move to Syria? where did you get that one from? More utter rubbish. How come after thr war American investigators conculded there were NO WMD.
There will be no carbo tax. Now there is a real beat up.The end result of a carbon tax is an ETS, which has always been Labor (and coalition) policy. So even if I grant you that one I see it as no more than the difference between a core and non core promise.
Yes, I am satisified- very satisifed thank you.
Sir John Kerr:
17 Feb 2012 1:32:22pm
Let's see now - "I knew nothing about the speech being written", We won't touch the private health insurance rebate, The East Timor solution, the budget will be in surplus - ha - like we'll see that happen and despite the fact you don't want me to say it - THE CARBON TAX
There are more but these are just a few I can think of immediately.
She has zero trust with the broader voting public, sure there are a few rusted on union hacks that will defend her but in general if she's still PM there will be a routing at the next election.
17 Feb 2012 2:54:18pm
The carbon tax.
Yeah, since most of us are going to get offsetting tax CUTS the net amount is going to be a tax CUT. To anyone who saves power or uses low carbon products there will be even more savings.
If any new tax comes in that means I pay less tax overall, then I am all for it.
So when is a 'tax' not a tax? Answer: When you get more back than you pay out. Like with the price on carbon.
Most people aren't going to be affected by the health insurance rebate, so what? Speech being written, so what? Politicians do that all the time. Looking at polls? Politicians do that all the time. Want to be leader? So what? Politicians want to do that all the time on both sides of the political divide. Tell us something new for heaven's sake.
17 Feb 2012 4:08:50pm
so the lowest common denominator theory is once again employed by the low hanging fruit
who mostly vote for for ALP, figuring that every one else leads a diminutive life whose carbon footprint is so low they will benefit from govt. largess, again, at the expense of those actually paying much more in taxes, whereas the reality is so different - not unlike the present govts. view of the world.
The reality is some one else, usually a high tax payer invests in projects that actually improve the economy and.....supply jobs to the low hanging fruit who complain about not having enough, because they have not done the hard work to improve their skills or education and thus get a better job where they can spend more and develop a bigger carbon footprint which will actually mean they are penalized by the CARBON TAX because they will not want to reduce their standard of living......yet they continue to complain....
17 Feb 2012 9:21:24pm
I'm confused. We live in a world with limited resources. This is a fact. So why on earth would you be advocating growing your carbon footprint as a demonstration of success? I am in a situation where I earn enough to have an extremely large and healthy carbon footprint - but choose to use my buying power to invest in renewable energy industries and technologies that reduce it. It just makes sense.
17 Feb 2012 5:56:44pm
Ah the carbon tax - pays out more money then it will raise.
Mining tax - pays out more money then it will raise
Only the ALP could introduced new taxes that LOSE them money at a time when the economy is tanking!!!!!!
17 Feb 2012 6:33:15pm
Don't worry Gillard is a dead PM walking...and Labor has no one to replace her with.
17 Feb 2012 1:45:49pm
1. the signed contract with Wiilkkie
2. that the mining (it doesn't do what it claims taxing small compponys the Australian owned ones and cementing monopolization often foreign owned at a cost to government???) (thier is an explantion as to a motive for this deception but it will take to long to disciuss
3. nbn sattalites are a bad idea lets go wiht just fibre now we buy are own satliates this has always been the plan???
4. refuge issues about three every time she changed position she denied that she had changed position
5. the denial that she changed position on the carbon tax which was latter retracted (sepret form the pre election commitment)
their are more most of them pointless lies about things that no one cares about either way but you now a habitual liar cant really stop.
p.s by already mentioning those things you sort of lose the threat a little :)
Btw Wmd was an American" lie" .... coming out of thier so called intelligence agency's
PPS do some reserch in to what the passengers and crew of the boats before siv x did :)
17 Feb 2012 11:04:40am
I trust Gillard to do what is right for the Australian people. Not like the Liberals who are obsessed with spin. Maybe if they werent so concerned with creating false leadership tensions, maybe they would actually have a policy by now.
17 Feb 2012 1:59:11pm
remember remember the last election, you know the one where Abbot lead coalition had a full set of pollicys after which he (unlike the curent govermentP) has made no move away from them but added more but don't burden yourself with to many facts that is the Labour way after all
17 Feb 2012 3:41:13pm
CJ, the libs did not have to alter their policies becasue as the didnt win government (yes thats right in case you missed it) their policies have never needed to be tested or voted upon. Should they win in 2013, lets see how many they will get through a hostil senate!
17 Feb 2012 4:09:01pm
The Tories have 2 policies Wayne,Drown the Asylum Seekers and the daddy of them all The Return of Work Choices,end of story.
17 Feb 2012 5:59:21pm
Sorry but it is Gillards policy that Drowns the Asylum seekers - approx 500 so far.
18 Feb 2012 12:47:23am
Can you rednecks get anything right? Asylums seekers drown at sea because they take a dangerous sea voyage.
They drowned during the Howard years-357 on one boat.
Why do you people distort everything? is it because you cannot hold your own in a sensible discussion?
Lets see who will support Rob Oakshot's sensible private bill? Hope the Government and the Greens do.
17 Feb 2012 11:09:46am
Well that is a courageous statement, Chipinga! Anyone who places any trust at all in the likes of Bolt, Sloan, Albrechtson et al would have to be considered at best as a naive fool.
Of course Rudd would like his job back. Possibly there are a few dozen labor MPs who would also like to see him back. And there are no doubt a number of others who think that they would do a better job if they ever got the chance. The same would apply (in spades) to the other side: Abbott's support is by no means universal amongst the opposition.
It's always been like that, and probably always will be. Move along, nothing to see here!
17 Feb 2012 3:41:49pm
Well said Baska :)
17 Feb 2012 11:19:20am
You are welcome to trust who you want, but the simple fact is that 'someone hasn't got the numbers to win' is not a news story but a story anout an absence of news. It isn't like Gillard and the journalists disagree on Rudd not having the numbers to win a challenge, so you don't evenhave to compare the sources on whether to trust that!
17 Feb 2012 12:02:39pm
Core, non core - problem solved!
17 Feb 2012 10:42:06pm
But did he say "... I will not introduce ... under any government I lead"?
That's the difference when it comes to trust.
17 Feb 2012 12:22:38pm
Wow, and who's got these qualities in our current political environment? Do not tell me it's Abbott because Chipinga, you'll lose your credibility on the spot.
17 Feb 2012 1:17:27pm
We are so lucky that journalists never tell lies!
17 Feb 2012 10:44:43pm
But they do stimulate debate... and that is good because it provides different points of view just like all the debate in this thread!
17 Feb 2012 1:18:26pm
Couldn't agree more, Chipinga. Just wish Barrie and his friends could point in that direction more often, rather than in the unicorn's direction.
Wendy In Doubt:
17 Feb 2012 10:17:57am
Could you imagine the damage Rudd could do if he resigned from Parliament? A by-election in his electorate could terminate Labor's prospect of retaining government in a hung Parliament. Although Kevin Rudd is tipped to be the only Labor member to be re-elected in Queensland in 2013, the Labor Party cannot be guaranteed a win in his seat of Griffith at a by-election.
17 Feb 2012 12:05:30pm
Queensland's Labors do or die apparently. Some in Q love Rudd. Some hate him. But it was Queensland more than anywhere else that installed Kevin 2007, and Labour into power. Queensland from all reports prefer Rudd to Gillard more than a little. What chance Gillard at the next election? What chance Rudd?
17 Feb 2012 1:51:37pm
Well Rudd should just challenge. Queensland wants Rudd back as PM or is it that Queensland simply wants to be the home of the PM, any PM as long as they are from Queensland?
I'll add that I'm sick of the journalistic conjecture too.
Why doesn't all the media, each morning, just carry a small headline, or announce: "Rudd may challenge today." And in the evening the next bulletin could be "Gillard still PM". And then the rest of their time can be devoted to the really important issues. If it happens, then there is Bandt, Oakeshott, Windsor and Wilkie or the majority of them to get on side.
I think Rudd is more about revenge and very public revenge for his very public humiliation. Rudd's tactics seem to be more focussed on forcing the Caucus to ask him to take over the leadership, and on Rudd's terms. I think he may still be delusional, but Labor might get that desperate to hold on to government.
17 Feb 2012 12:19:48pm
Lets keep our fingers crossed that either the marathon hearing into credit card misuse ends or Rudd walks
Sue Ridge:
17 Feb 2012 10:38:37pm
The only thing better than one or the other of your options, Dave, would be for both to occur.
Johnno :
17 Feb 2012 1:43:37pm
I'n not sure he could do more damage to the ALP than he is already doing with his selective leaking and his acts of frottage with various desperate journalists.
17 Feb 2012 2:51:22pm
Tipped by whom Wendy In Doubt?
While many Queenslanders by and large are highly parochial and relatively politically naive not all of them are stupid. Before anyone gets outraged, I having been living here in Queensland for just over 17 years, having lived before that in the ACT and grew up in Sydney.
I would not be too sure about the good people of Griffith's view of Rudd's behaviour in recent times but do know a number of his constituents who are none too pleased. I am not sure that displeasure however would change their vote as they are voting for a party not the individual.
In my own electorate I am represented by an ALP member and don't think his satisfaction rate has decreased at all - it may even have increased. Once again, most of my neighbours vote for the party not the person.
So Wendy In Doubt you might just think twice about your prognostications
17 Feb 2012 10:32:12am
Agree with you Stevo, wonder how long the Coalition would last of the Journos just occasionally put the spotlight on them and their "aspiration al" policies plus their 70Billion and climbing blackhole?
Lewis of The Hills:
17 Feb 2012 12:47:04pm
Just curious, but how did you learn of the $70 billion "black hole"???
17 Feb 2012 1:53:33pm
the oppostions black hole is mere Labour propaganda as they do not have a full budget and will require acses to the figures that are only relised jnust be fore an election in order to desgin one uo intil an election an oppstion can only tell you priorites adn thus do not have a budget to have a hole in....
p.s the coalition had a much larger surplus then the labour party at the last election after adjustment by treasury the last time any ability to compare was given to us
Don Quay:
17 Feb 2012 4:29:15pm
CJ, please try to put some effort into correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. I find your posts almost impossible to read and it is a bit hard to understand whatever point you are trying to make.
Are you saying that the opposition's policies don't need to be costed, because they are in opposition? If so, then how do they know if they are affordable, productive and worth implementing?
17 Feb 2012 10:47:40pm
Get the PM to allow full access to the books - lets see what comes out.
The real black hole: Financial mismanagement in Labors borrowings of $100 million every day; and paying another $100 million every week to fund Labor's debt. In one year this would amount to you and I being liable for the repayment of $41,700,000,000.00 or $41.7trillion(!) and thats not taking into account accumulated debt and borrowings to date
Sue Ridge:
17 Feb 2012 8:19:37pm
Don't worry about the "soap opera" Stevo. The plot wouldn't be any good without characters. Labor is not short of characters for this particular soap opera. It's poor acting though, the taxpayers should get a refund!
I guess once you've seen one stab in the back, you've seen 'em all.
17 Feb 2012 9:29:31am
It is getting so much prominence Ravenred because the Lib aligned media keep postulating it in an attempt to destabilise the Govt.
17 Feb 2012 9:45:08am
Oh Dear! The conspiracy theories abound. Do you still meet Elvis at Mcdonalds for coffee with JFK by any chance???
It's of interest to the media because the people of Australia want to see another episode of this pathetic endless soap opera. Gillard has no guts or she'd demote him but she's too weak and devious, just like "there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead!" Howard changed his mind too but he gave the people a chance to vote on the GST! But not gutless Gillard!
Gillard has the numbers in her ragtag Coalition so why doesn't she act like a leader and get on with Government, a true leader would never allow themselves to be bogged down in this way!
17 Feb 2012 10:28:16am
Maybe fact. Where this this piece of fiction originate? Probably in the same place that pints hacked voice mails of murdered girls and selected hacked emails of flod engineers. Funny thing Malcolm Turnbull has been quet lately and Abbott might get a bit of tit for tat. Reminds of the famous line in Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Khan - there is an old Klingon saying revenge is a dish best served cold, and no on can deny that the opposition are nothing more than a bunch of Klingons.
17 Feb 2012 11:27:00am
JohnnoH: Don't insult the Klingons. They have honour. None of the pollies in Canberra are going to Stovokor.
17 Feb 2012 1:26:50pm
Maybe it came from the same office that tried to incite a race riot on Australia day. You know the same one that has called fair work Australia to slow down the craig thompson affair. The same one that wrote a acceptance speech for something that was not going to happen.
I hope that office is currently preparing a concession speech.
17 Feb 2012 10:33:28am
Howard promised a GST would never be part of COALITION POLICY IN THE FUTURE. Never, ever.
He didn't say there would never ever be a gst.
That has always been misreported.
You can find the actual promise all over the place.
Howard lied.
A gst DID become coalition policy. That we voted on it is neither here nor there.
He said a GST would never ever be part of coalition policy in the future.
17 Feb 2012 11:14:04am
True, but when Howard changed his mind to took the GST to an election and won a mandate...how did Gillard go on the NO carbon tax...we all was robbed.
17 Feb 2012 1:14:02pm
Mandate! Don't make me laugh. If i recall he did not have the majority 2 party preferred vote. It was a quirkin the system that saw him gain power....how is that considered a mandate?????
Stuffed Olive:
17 Feb 2012 1:38:10pm
Actually he did not get a mandate at all. He got it through because Meg Lee of the Democrates did a deal.
David K:
17 Feb 2012 1:54:15pm
"True, but when Howard changed his mind to took the GST to an election and won a mandate..."
How is less than 49% of 2pp a mandate? The election went somewhere around 51/49 to Beazley. Granted Howard won more seats, but more voters preferred Labor.
That ain't no mandate.
17 Feb 2012 11:56:54am
How ridiculous is that! The proper way to conduct a political policy is to take it to the voters and ask them to support it. Howard did that. Gillard did not. So who is honest?
17 Feb 2012 1:15:27pm
And we got to vote on being in an oppressive war based on lies when?
17 Feb 2012 3:47:44pm
Burke, shall we have an election on evry policy then?
17 Feb 2012 12:35:50pm
At least we got a chance to vote on it.
Act Rationally:
17 Feb 2012 12:41:47pm
That you could construe a policy taken to an election as a lie is incredulous.
"That we voted on it is neither here nor there." Are you serious. No really, are you actually serious?
17 Feb 2012 1:00:55pm
So that makes it OK for Gillard to lie?
No it does not, I was furious with John Howard over the GST, still am and bloody apoplectic about this awful woman's lying.
It is NOT acceptable to lie, to gain office. At least Howard didn't gain office on the GST lie ..did he?
Kevin Wunterm:
17 Feb 2012 1:14:51pm
"That we voted on it is neither here nor there."
And that pretty much sums up a Labor rusted on's idea of democracy. Pitiful.
17 Feb 2012 1:29:43pm
At least it went to the people. Gillard and Labor are the lowest cowards ever to hold power. If she thinks we all want then take it to an election instead of deceiving the public.
17 Feb 2012 5:46:53pm
"At least it went to the people"
Yes and a majority of the people voted against it.
Didn't mean anything, Howard first spent his time kissing Brian Harradine's butt and then got Meg Lees to end the Democrat's policy of "keeping the bastards honest".
It is no coincidence that the GST was the beginning of the end of the Australian Democrats. They've been replaced by Bob Brown's crew.
"At least it went to the people."
Under your precedent what Gillard did was perfectly acceptable. The people voted and then Gillard did the opposite of what the people voted for, just as John Howard did.
17 Feb 2012 11:23:34am
If there's an assessment that Rudd is the best man for the job, why would he be demoted? It isn't a question of guts but brains!
In terms of Gillard 'allowing' herself to be bogged down, what do you think she should do? Pass a law that means that the media can't publish a story she doesn't want? Having a free and independent media can be a great thing, but their current obsession with non-news gossip is showing them at their worst.
17 Feb 2012 11:42:25am
What exactly do you mean by "get on with government"? Isn't over 200 Bills passed,plus one of the best economies in the World,plus very low unemployment enough?
I suppose if the journos keep saying it often enough,Julia Gillard will eventually go away.They have got to be right eventually.In the meantime ,how about your Liberal geniuses helping to govern,not hinder,with their non-stop treacherous and inflammatory rantings.
With a little luck, all the anti-Labor/anti-Gillard rants will run out of steam by July 2013.
By then all State governments will be conservative.We are seeing Victoria falling in a heap,Queenland will go Bjelke-Petersen again,NSW is wobbling, and WA will fall foul of the mining millionaires eventually.Goodness knows how long SA would take to collapse.
Labor will suddenly start looking good again to the electorate, made up mostly of those who can only read headlines,and hear five second grabs on radio and TV. The journos will then begin a fresh round of "topple the governments".
Kevin Wunterm:
17 Feb 2012 1:21:20pm
"plus one of the best economies in the World"
Explain to me why the Dow Jones has recovered to something like 92% of the it's pre "GFC" peak while our All Ords is at about 64% of it's pre "GFC" peak?
200 bills? I say you've no idea what 95% of those bills are about and are just regurgitating the Labor line. Itemise them for us.
17 Feb 2012 12:04:50pm
267 bits of legislation tells you she is getting on with governmen! Record job growth, low inflation, low interest rates, record investment, triple A rating tells you it's working.
17 Feb 2012 12:13:23pm
Hello !!! - she IS acting like a leader and getting on with governing. Amazes me how journos and the likes of your mob think you can have it both ways.
GO FOR IT JULIA - I say - keep governing and reforming and you may just end up being the best PM we ever had
Peter Lougheed:
17 Feb 2012 2:07:49pm
Id, Robert and Jaimie: So Gillard has managed to get over 200 pieces of legislation passed. And your point is? With the now ALP-aligned independents, Gillard has a majority government; a wafer-thin majority, but a majority none-the-less. Oakeshott and Windsor really have no choice but to support her since they are toast at the next election and they may as well keep riding the gravy train for as long as they can. Gillard could put forward a bill changing the national anthem to the Theme from Ghostbusters and those two clowns would vote for it out of self-preservation.
17 Feb 2012 4:57:54pm
MY point is that,contrary to the stupid claims that the Government is" doing nothing"
they have been consistently working on legislation,all of which is listed on the computer.(Look under Hansard)
I think it would be more to the point to ask what the Opposition has done to further Australia's progress?
Sitting at a computer criticising the Government for doing a great deal,when the Opposition is merely carrying on like primary school children is not very intelligent,although typical of too many answering Newspoll questions.
17 Feb 2012 9:45:11am
Err this article is being run on the ABC - you don't get any more left leaning than here (short of Crikey...)
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 10:19:09am
Don't you realise the illogicality of what you just said?
Probably not.
Stuffed Olive:
17 Feb 2012 1:41:10pm
The truth is that the ABC is usually balanced, but apparently for you Libs balanced means left. But of late the ABC has hopped on to this opinion led crap just to fill space (on the web and the TV). It has cheapened itself.
17 Feb 2012 9:53:31am
Gillard could end it almost immediately once and for all if she called for a caucus vote...makes you wonder why she doesn't?
Think there is more too it, not to mention the damage Rudd could do.
17 Feb 2012 10:29:34am
Why? Both parties denying it and an irresponsible press keeps running the story.
17 Feb 2012 11:24:41am
Given Rudd refused to contest the last vote, I'm not sure why you think this would actually make a change.
17 Feb 2012 12:46:13pm
Because it's a waste of breath. You and the extreme right wing media will have a field day if that happens. The PM has more important things to do than concentrate on rumors and speculations.
Move on, you might not like the policies that's been passed but many of us do support it because it makes the economy remains stronger. The evidence is a proof of this, low unemployment (5.1), reasonably low inflation. low interest rate, just a few reasons to brag about.
17 Feb 2012 12:47:32pm
Rudd could end it to, by resigning fromt he ALP.
The Gillard would be well and truly stuffed, he has her over a barrel ..
oooeeew .. what a horrible image that brings to mind, soap water!
James in Brisbane:
17 Feb 2012 2:52:52pm
Because a caucus vote wouldn't end it. Rudd would still be there, agitating, leaking, undermining, stirring up journos. Rudd won't ever stop until he leaves parliament.
Don Quay:
17 Feb 2012 4:36:46pm
Rudd could end immediately with four little words - "I will not challenge" Or three words - "I will challenge."
Makes you wonder why he doesn't.
17 Feb 2012 9:54:03am
Yes Max talking about media alignment, that is why you write to Aunty.
17 Feb 2012 11:01:24am
The other morning on ABC News Radio Marius Benson was discussing the leadership with Kieran Gilbert of Sky News. Kieran claimed Gillard was on a knife edge, said his sources in the ALP told him Rudd had 20 solid backers, 25 were undecided and Gillard had 55 but his (unnamed) source told him she was losing five 5 a week. How easy is it to make up a story like that? An un named source told me Scott Morrison =the shadow minister for immigration put a motion at Lib. party meeting to ban Muslims from coming to Australia- apparently it did no get up-my source was not happy. Rumour or fact?
Benson and Gilbert agreed Gillard is in big trouble.Now assuming the undecided are split 50-50 -that still gives Gillard 67-out of a 103- a two thirds majority.
It that was not a beat up I don't know what is and the only logical reason for such beat ups and such anti Gillard slanting media 'reporting' as the ABC 4 corners is to de stabilise the Government. 1975 all over again?
17 Feb 2012 12:21:03pm
Exactly. Every journalist in this country who can read knows Rudd does not, and will not, ever have the numbers to mount a leadership challenge.
It is not happening, and will not happen.
End of story.
17 Feb 2012 2:08:12pm
and every one knew that a changeling against a sitting pm was a never going to happen, after all Gillarard her self had shwon her fuull and complete support (far more the Ruud is for her) and such things usubly take a few weeks of open posturing.
maybe the media don't want to get caught napping next time :)
17 Feb 2012 2:11:27pm
That maybe so, but he is sure enjoying himself in the meantime.
She should NOT have knifed him. I have actually come to prefer Kevin Rudd to Julia Gillard, not that I would vote for either, as I am a conservative voter. I use to be a Labor voter in Bob Hawke's day.
JG and KR are doing a good job at ruining our country. They are both power hungry and not interested in what is best for Australia.
17 Feb 2012 3:02:29pm
But Rudd doesn't care !
The ALP can either come crawing back to him to save their butts at the next election or if not, he will keep white anting those who destroyed him and shattered his ego ! He doesn't care ! He doesn't need the job for the cash ! He's a millionaire many times over ! He just needs retribution to satisfy his destroyed ego !
So the ball is in the ALP's court to do something about Rudd, because he is solely on a mission to extract revenge !
Rudd may never have the numbers to regain the PM spot, but he will still not desist from destroying those who he considers have wronged him, even if the Party goes under in the process !
This is one very strange man that does not fit the ALP machine mould in any form. Neither can ever co-exist !
Party expulsion is the only solution, and then take your chances !
17 Feb 2012 10:33:47pm
Albo-have to agree. Rudd seems to be a very strange man indeed, and an out of control ego seems to be the motivation behind this whole ridiculous farce. Even if he managed to scrape through with the numbers, after all this undermining, I wouldn't want to see him as PM. He seems too crazy to be in charge of a country. Maybe that's why he was ousted in the first place. Too unstable, too egocentric, too toxic. I think the ALP new this already though, but he resonated with the public for some reason-Howard lite, as I recall. They shouldn't have given him the job in the first place. Either way, he's not fit to head a country, and if people didn't realise it before, they sure do now.
17 Feb 2012 11:35:38pm
Sky News is part owned by BSkyB in the Uk who is owned by Newscorp...Gilbert is just another one of Murdoch's bile distributors.
Simple Man:
17 Feb 2012 2:51:30pm
This is what happens when "journalists" flee Murdoch and the commercials press and come to the ABC.
Standards plummet.
Merlin 23:
17 Feb 2012 10:44:09am
There is no way Gillard would sent Rudd to the backbench. That would mean he would be in Australia most of the time and with no excuse to travel, l suspect Rudd would really start to lobby hard with the faceless men.
If that wasn't possible, Rudd would almost certainly resign outright, and blame Gillard squarely for breaking a promise of giving Rudd Foreign minister in return for going quietly.
You live by the sword and you'll die by the sword. Gilliard's political career is now terminal. She can't get her message out, and the Libs smell blood.
17 Feb 2012 12:41:04pm
Libs smell blood, eh?
Why go for the quick kill when the Governments death throws are damaging the brand for a long time.
A new leader would breathe life into the beast.
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 10:57:48am
Why all the focus on Gillard, Rudd and Labor when there are rumblings within the Libs about Abbott?
17 Feb 2012 11:46:29am
errr....because we're talking about the party holding the Treasury benches, ie the government...errr..
17 Feb 2012 12:04:43pm
If you saw the 4 corners interview with Gillard you would know exactly why the focus in on Gillard. She came accross as deceptive, dishonest and totally untrustworthy. A person with secrets she didnt want to share. She looked very exposed and very vulnerable.
17 Feb 2012 2:19:16pm
Well, she was conned by the Four corners didn't you know that. Shame on them. for a TV rating
Rudd was badly critisiced and portrayed as a goner before the change in the leader and now all of them (Media and big miners) want him back?
Perhaps we should be looking at how the media is giving us rubbish for rating.
17 Feb 2012 4:16:52pm
Gillard has a team of media advisers.
If they are witless enough to be "conned", shame on them indeed.
17 Feb 2012 5:28:15pm
She came across looking exactly like the media wanted her to Maj, after they had cut the tape here & nipped it there..... Perhaps if you saw all they taped instead of only that they chose to air, we might have seen a slightly different story. Then again that would defeat their purpose though wouldn't it!
17 Feb 2012 12:06:34pm
Lbg, just like Barrie, this is supposed to be an article about leadership tussles between Rudd and Gillard but look at how he ended his article with the Liberal Peter Costello. You guys just don't get it, Gillard is suffering from loss of credibility and loss of public trust because of her own doing. You should be ashamed that we have a PM whose trustworthiness is under question. There is another report today that is an evidence of this. The PM and her ministers have known that the poker policy would not go through for 9 months since April 2011 and only told Wilkie about it last January 2012. The PM waited until she was able to get Slipper the speakership. Can you see how devious she is? No wonder the public is giving her the thumbs down.....low 30's in the polls.
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 5:11:01pm
Felipe, surely BARRIE is the best judge of what this article is supposed to be about.
After all, BARRIE wrote it!
Quite the little dictator, aren't we?
17 Feb 2012 12:16:53pm
If there are rumblings, the Liberals are being much more disciplined than Labor.
Squeaky wheels get the grease (or in this case, journalistic attention).
Don't forget LBG, (although I'm sure you'd like to!) that Labor, in power, have form on the issue of leadership change.
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 1:39:23pm
... just as the Liberals have form on leadership change too having had Howard, Nelson, Turnbull and now Abbott.
4 "leaders" in 5 years. Puts Labor in the shade!
The Liberals certainly know how to wield the knife when they want to.
"Brendan Nelson has my/our 100% support and will lead us to the next election". Knife plunged.
"Malcolm Turnbull has my/our 100% support and will lead us to the next election". Knife plunged.
It's merely a matter of WHEN for Abbott, not IF.
17 Feb 2012 3:03:41pm
I wasn't going to insult your intelligence by pointing out the obvious, LBG, but
The reason they are is that the public felt that it was time for a change in 2007 (for better or for worse).
Therefore, it is their job while in opposition to regroup, analyse their faults and fix them. Leadership change in opposition is inevitable, and in fact desirable.
For Howard/Nelson/Turnbill/Abbott, I give you Keating (another backstabber - 2 out Labor's past 3 PM's got the job by stabbing their boss!)/Beazely/Crean/Latham (I mean really!)/Beazely/Rudd.
But that is a distraction. Changing leader in opposition is healthy. Doing it while incumbent (and in the first term!) is apalling.
That it was done to a leader that campaigned as "Kevin07" is worse than pathetic.
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 4:00:14pm
It doesn't matter whether they are the OPPOSITION or not.
They are supposed to be the alternative government, the government-in-waiting yet they have gone through 4 leaders in 5 years. Hardly instills a sense stability!
It is also their job to develop effective ideas, alternatives and policies yet the only policy they have is just to oppose anything and everything for opposition's sake. Just saying "No" to everything is NOT holding the government to account.
Pathetic is an Opposition which has the Liberal's answer to Mark Latham, Tony Abbott at the helm; Australia's answer to Sarah Palin, Julie Bishop (all ambition and no talent) as Deputy; Joe "Henny Penny" Hockey (who has demonstrated time and again that he just doesn't have a clue what he's talking about) as Shadow Treasurer; Christopher Pyne (who spends most of his time being disruptive in parliament and being thrown out) as Education Minister; Andrew "Mr Bumbles" Robb as Shadow Finance Minister; Bronwyn "Mrs Kerosene Baths" Bishop as god knows what .............
Now THAT'S pathetic!
17 Feb 2012 5:19:09pm
No. Pathetic is a riposte that resorts to name-calling.
17 Feb 2012 5:33:04pm
Why is it that everytime there is a leadership change it's touted as a stab in the back? Always sounds so sinister.... I would think that as we vote for the party, NOT the individual (well thats the way its surposed to be anyway) it is up to the party to then determine who they want leading it & change whenever they as a group decide.
17 Feb 2012 8:51:17pm
It is a fair question, Max. I guess if the handover of power was planned (from both parties!), then that would be a different matter. Think if Hawke or Howard had publically stated that they would hand over to their respective deputies after an election.
If I recall correctly, Peter Beattie did just that in Qld.
But when a first term PM, especially one who was elected on a presidential-style "Kevin07" campaign (and yes, I know I vote for my local memeber etc etc), is dumped by the party with no good explanation, it can only be called a knifing.
17 Feb 2012 3:35:25pm
Abbott leads a party with a 10 point poll margin.
Abbott isn't going anywhere accept the lodge!
A can assure you Tony sleeps alot more soundly at night than Julia!
Nelson took the leadership knowing he was only doing it until the party could sort its self out after the beating in 2007.
Turnball was a failure, made no inroads on Rudd at all and had terrible polling and lots of blunders, Utegate anyone?.
Abbott kicked Rudd all over the shop and exposed him for the Dud he truely was.
Abbott will be PM after the next election you can take that to the bank.
I personal look forward to the day and cant wait to read all the nashing of teeth on the drum when he does.
Anne M:
17 Feb 2012 10:30:12pm
Only fools would want abbott to lead this wonderful country.
And he is playing with you as only a fool would do.
17 Feb 2012 10:49:01pm
"Abbott leads a party with a 10 point poll margin".
Gillard leads the government.
I win.
17 Feb 2012 1:16:00pm
oh no!! a staffer!!
17 Feb 2012 11:33:35am
Is there a challenge? Bring it on Julia and put Rudd in his box. He is not the only able Foreign Minister in your team. If he won't categorically support you to the hilt, he should go.
17 Feb 2012 1:30:42pm
Gillard totally lost me when, on the removal of Rudd with the help of Shorten, Abib, and Richardson, etc ("by their friends shall you know them"), she said to Bad Habbott "Game on". Under the circumstances a less gracious, in fact less contemptuous or more contemptible remark is hard to imagine.
No-one could pretend that Rudd was without personaity quirks which made him a prickly person to deal with. However his background of living in a car, putting himself through Uni by working night shifts in a hospital ward in a slum and learning Mandarin while an ambassador, made him exactly the kind of person I would wish to haqve as Prime Minister. This was the baqckground which led him to understand the looming disaster from a change in climate, the need for an efficient and available health system, the need to channel a major part of the money from the mineral boom into funds for all Australians.
Trivial cultureless megalomaniacs like Gillard and Abbott will play their little power plays and score their little points, but in the end, the people of Australia will gain nought from the machinations of these two low grade myopics.
Let's give them each twenty dollars and put them on a boat of their choice to a country where they can have "our queen". That is their one - I don't have one - but I did enjoy having a PM who wasn't an embarrassment for a little while.
17 Feb 2012 5:25:52pm
Rudd was becoming an embarrassment. He lost support to the point where even he could see it would be no good re-nominating for the position. The ideas he promulgated were not soley his own. It is a pity that everyone believes all they read in the business driven press.
17 Feb 2012 8:07:09pm
Gollygosh, I got the impression from the 4-Corners thing, that the whole
Rudd removal was done so swiftly that Rudd didn't have a chance to garner any support.
When would he have had time to ring around?
11pm after the Lateline program? 3am ? It was too late to do anything.
So Gillard was shocked and horrified that Rudd's staffer 'sounded out' ministers to see where they were leaning, while her staff were busy writing acceptance speeches.
I'm sure alot of the ministers where just voting with the majority...
it may be different now.
Anne M:
17 Feb 2012 10:34:19pm
No one has mentioned the ex speech writer for Rudd that was interviewed on 4 Corners. It must have been a scarey place when Rudd was in charge???
17 Feb 2012 11:58:38am
Gillard should have just told the TRUTH. It's that simple. Instead she chose to cover up, duck and weave and try to be clever.
Yep Barry it was a trivial issue, so why try and cover it up?
The Truth is always a good place to start.
Gillards credibility - NIL.
17 Feb 2012 12:06:27pm
The media is obsessed by a leadership challenge that is not actually happening. They've been writing and talking about it for a year.
And still it continues to not happen.
But will they admit they were wrong and move on?
Not on your nelly!
Meanwhile, in the real world, the government continues to introduce and pass new legislation, and dominate in Question Time, and the economic news continues to improve. None of this is reported, as the headlines seem to be permanently reserved for a year old non-story that, in news just in, is still continuing to not happen.
The opposition continues to get away with having no policies, a 70 billion dollar black hole in their costings, blaming everything on a carbon tax that hasn't been introduced yet, and talking down the economy in a mind-bogglingly irresponsible way.
In other words, this leadership challenge clearly only exists in the fevered imaginations of The Media Who Cries Wolf.
17 Feb 2012 12:10:48pm
I don't care, really. This is just a small sideshow.
All I care about is whether Australia has a good economy, low unemployment, and good initiatives. Tick on all those boxes.
If this Gillard/Rudd thing is such a big issue, everything must be going pretty well elsewhere :)
I think there are a lot more important things to concentrate on.
Jake Gittings:
17 Feb 2012 12:32:06pm
So it's the function of journalists to "ambush" politicians who give them long pre-recorded interviews, is it Barry? And then you wonder why Abbott refuses to do them any more.
Talk about cutting off the hand that feeds you.
emma peel:
17 Feb 2012 3:17:30pm
4 Corners has done unrepairable damage to itself. It's reputation and future interviewees are now jeopardised. They will be the biggest loser over that show. Shoddy work. More obvious hostile media to a functioning and well performing govt.
17 Feb 2012 5:40:37pm
Well said Emma & Storm. 4 Corners have come away looking shoddy whoever you support & the ecconomy, employment & general well being are all on the up. Not so bad for a govt thats surposedly so poor.
17 Feb 2012 8:16:57am
Be interesting to see if she has the courage to send Rudd to the backbench. Whilst it absolutely gives him more space to plan it also sucks away his public profile and oxygen. Rudd's a reasonably good foreign minister, however, and it's a confrontational step that could garner Rudd more support than it extinguishes his efforts. I *DO* however, wonder why the Rudd challenge is getting so much prominence, given that by every estimate I've seen, he's got about 20 supporters in Caucus, ridiculously short of the sort of numbers he'd need.
Bob the Battler:
17 Feb 2012 10:24:27am
One of the things we have come to learn about the PM is that she lacks courage. She runs away from questions in parliament - refers to Hansard where it records she also refused to answer. She should have taken on Rudd at the last election when he leaked all over the place and probably cost the government an outright majority. He has inflicted terrible damage on his own party and was rewarded with a plum cabinet position. The PM lacks ticker.
I am personally sick to death of the while Rudd vs Gillard saga. I wish the PM would just take him on. She has the numbers, she will win it in a canter. Just do it! And then send the preening leaker to the back bench where he belongs.
17 Feb 2012 10:51:21am
A politician running from a question? Amazing. Oh wait, that's right, THEY ALL DO IT.
By calling a ballot, she is proving it is an issue. Which its not (except for journo's still smarting from the smackdown they got from their editors for missing leadership change 18 months ago).
17 Feb 2012 3:44:55pm
A Party member trying to destroy other Party members and causing the downfall of a government is indeed worthy of media attention !
Then the failure of the governing Party to do anything about it, despite the doom over its longevity, is indeed worthy of more media attention !
17 Feb 2012 11:00:04am
I think it's fair to say she's got the soul of a lawyer, which means she's always equivocal in what she says about herself. I tend to agree that she'd do better with a little bit more unequivocal emotion. Go for the heart, not the head. It may not be the way "statesmen" operate, but it's certainly a surer way to satisfy the public.
17 Feb 2012 12:17:19pm
Tend to agree Bob the Battler. Then we would see some serious leaking. Perhaps this is what the PM is concerned about, as she doesn't get a break anywhere. Anything a bit sticky within a 1,000Kms of her, seems to stick to her. However, next to Mr Abbott, I see her as courageous. She exposes herself to all sorts of questions, forums, interviews etc, many of them in known unfriendly environments. Last election was a good example of this. Whereas Mr Abbott relies too much on his old boxing skills, ducking and weaving. He gives us his daily slogan at a photo grab in a Coalition friendly business place and then exits without answering broader questions from the media; would only attend "people's forums" sponsored by Coalition friendly organisations during the election; and even at the National Press Club, where he had virtually the whole caucus there for support, he spoke over the usual 30 mins and then would not stay beyong 1:30pm. He looked quite nervous and worried to be in a position where he was exposed to questions.
17 Feb 2012 12:21:25pm
I agree he is a preening little leaker - he did two good things - got rid of little johnny and said sorry !!! There it ends !! But think about Gillard and all the amazing skills at consensus she has shown to get the Labour Party to be able to govern - I don't think any one else could have done that. That was the biggest coup of all. I think Julia knows what she is doing, far better than any of us !!!!
17 Feb 2012 12:23:47pm
You're obviouslt watching a different Question Time to the one I'm watching, where the Coalitrion are getting thrashed on a daily basis. Gillard's been on fire.
There is no evidence to suggest that Rudd leaked anything at the last election. Don't believe every rumour you read.
17 Feb 2012 1:39:13pm
Too bad she wont answer questions about the race riot that her office tried to start. Trying to exploit the tent embassy to score political points is the lowest of the low.
17 Feb 2012 2:36:21pm
Keep clutching at straws. They told someone where Tony Abbott was, which was on public record anyway. And what's that got to do with Gillard?
It's not like they made up stories about asylum seekers throwing their own children into the ocean or anything...
17 Feb 2012 2:32:39pm
Yep, because that is the only thing she is good at, no question.
It's a common mistake in industry as well, you can make a good worker up to a foreman and discover he's an imbecile, make a good salesman up to sales manager and discover he follows the Attila the Hun school of management.
The only thing Gillard is good at is attacking the coalition, which is why she had a good reputation as a parliamentary performer.
She's a rubbish negotiator, that's clear and obvious, you don't negotiate by lying it destroys your ability to negotiate, ask Wilke and the Australian public.
Which is why she is in trouble, no credibility.
Yep, on fire .. pants on fire!
17 Feb 2012 3:27:24pm
The country is in great shape. Every economic indicator is at least as good as, if not better than when Howard was PM.
Yeah, she's doing a terrible job.
17 Feb 2012 5:45:44pm
Lovemedia, time to smell the coffee. If Gillard was such a poor negotiator it would not be her as PM having negotiated for 2 weeks with the independents to form govt. Take your glasses of for two minutes & remind yourself it was Abbott who couldnt negotiate a thing with the indies, in fact they came away quite apalled at his approach.
17 Feb 2012 7:21:11pm
"She's a rubbish negotiator", Yeah sure, thats why Tony Abbot is now Prime Minister..
James in Brisbane:
17 Feb 2012 2:53:51pm
He wouldn't go to the backbench - he'd resign his seat and force a by-election. He's that sort of guy.
17 Feb 2012 5:33:49pm
I just don't know.
If what Barrie is saying is right, he seems prepared to go to the back bench (again). Look how much trouble he caused during the election.
Let's say he challenges next week, and loses. He gets sent to the back bench. This gives him all the time in the world to help campaign in the Qld State Election...
Oxygen, oxygen, oxygen.
17 Feb 2012 12:33:43pm
Little Johnny Howard was sent to the back bench.
He then became leader of the party.
17 Feb 2012 3:20:36pm
The Master - isn't it great that so many people remember him for the great things he did, how he set up the economy, formed great relationships with other countries, stopped the boats, saved people in the intervention.
Now we have these awful people who don't deserve to even sit in his shade.
He did dumb stuff too, don't we all, but on the whole and 11 years of excellent stewardship of our country, we're better for it.
Now it's just bitchiness, lies, backstabbing and corruption.
Well, probably will end the whole concept of protest voting ever again, look what it gave is.
17 Feb 2012 8:19:10am
Has it ever occured to the journalists that Rudd is taking the p*ss out on them?....a sort of payback!...the fun being to see them running around like a bunch of chooks with their heads cut off!
17 Feb 2012 9:29:23am
I am constantly amazed by your optimism, jaycee, and, were it not dealing with an issue as important as running the nation, I would admire you.
But even you can't deny that this leadership talk is damaging the government's ability to do it's job.
If that's a joke, then it shows what incredibly poor taste the ALP have.
17 Feb 2012 9:51:08am
Trouble is that despite all the leadership speculation the government is doing its job.
Over 250 pieces of legislation passed and many that Abbott has screamed about then supported when the media has moved on to its next confected crisis.
I just wish Rudd would do the right thing by Australia, do his job and shut up.
17 Feb 2012 10:28:23am
The last refuge of LAborCAnDoNoWrong, Gillard/Rudd are effective govt because they have passed a lots of legislation (irrespective of quality). The legistlation they have passed is shody examples Malayasian Processing, Insulation Scheme, Set top box scheme etc etc.
The other one is the News press are conspiring to bring down the government rather than trying to make money selling papers. Murdoch got all his press in and said ok dont worry about profit any more we will just try to produce negative press about the govt, lets not worry about shareholder returns anymore that is too old fashioned.
17 Feb 2012 12:24:02pm
You do realise two of those three were not passed by this government right?
17 Feb 2012 1:41:26pm
There will be no carbon tax in the govt I lead, East Timor Processing Centre (missing), Ettu Julia, I have complete confidence in the member for Dobell, People congress on climate change (missing), Education Revolution (where is it), The real Julia, AHPRA, Cost of Living Increases, end to blame game, convince Rudd to delay ETS they bone him for it, Malayasia Boat People Deal (800 for 4000 and pay $300m), Surplus delayed again, Rudd Leaks, High court challenge to Malayasia deal, Fuel Watch, Grocery Watch, BER Building Education Revolution (Waste and fraud), Insulation Program (four dead, 1000s with dangerous installations, 100000s with non-performing installations), $700 set top box, Rudd Abusing airline staff over meal, Boat people open door policy (Welcome Mat), Boat People Backflip, ETS backflip (Greatest moral challenge of our times), Cigarette Tax Jump overnight (hits the poorest hardest), Cash4 Clunkers, Mining Tax Debacle (very limited consultation 40% tax plus 30% company tax rate) , Govt Advertsing Backflip (previously cancer on our society), Hair Dryer incident , Extravagant Failed Copenhagen Talkfest , Inventing hyperbole eg programatic specificity, Calling our largest trading partner a rat fers, NBN (waste $50k per connection so far), Indigenous housing (110M for seven houses), 2020 Talkfest (no outcomes), Medicare Gold, Signing Kyoto (tokenism), Alchopops Wowserism (move to spirits), $700 set top boxes, aust day inciting, victory speech before rudd coup, murray basin will never flood again, Stolen Generation (Tokenism) and Spending the Costello Surplus and taking on $400B+ in Govt borrowing. They just need more time..
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 4:27:25pm
And when the Libs were last in Government, there were "core" and "non-core" promises.
"You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the speck out of your brother's eye." - Matthew 7:5
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 12:27:26pm
Let's face it, News Ltd has become the press arm of the Liberal Party employing faux "journalists" such as Janet Albrechtsen and Nikki Savva.
"The Australian" newspaper is to the Liberal Party what Fox News is the the US Republican Party.
No balance, no fairness, just constant anti-Labor, anti-Gillard bitch pieces, and certainly no scrutiny of Abbott and his constant lack of vision, ideas, alternatives and policies.
They don't worry about truth anymore. Why report the news when you can fabricate it!
17 Feb 2012 1:38:40pm
Typical Le Bog, if they dont mindlessly peddle Pro Gillard rubbish like the ABC then there must be a conspiracy. As for Tristan Rudd=Gillard in my book just cynical rotation of leaders. I cannot list all the faulty legislation of the Rudd/Gillard govt because of the keystroke limit.
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 3:10:48pm
I'm not pro-Gillard anything.
I'm anti biased BS which is regularly peddled by News Ltd, in particular "The Australian", and increasingly by "The Drum Opinion" which constantly bombards readers with biased pieces from Peter Reight and other ex-Liberal Ministers and staffers, Judith Sloan, the IPA and the HR Nicholls Society.
I'm also anti BS artists who can only see fault in other parties but never with their own.
"I cannot list all the faulty legislation of the Rudd/Gillard govt because ..."
Because you CAN'T (closer to the truth)!
The worst of the Gillard Labor government will always be better than the best of an Abbott Coalition government.
17 Feb 2012 3:52:47pm
Hang on, when did the ABC ever give some positive info about Gillard?
Eg the Four corners farcical bit of fluff last Monday. Also I tried to find what the latest job figures were by listening to ABC news.. no luck so I thought they MUST have been positive. First I heard was from Eric Abetz on Late Line who added that he knew of several companies (couldn't possibly name them) who were sacking people because of the carbon tax.
This morning on the ABC what did whispering Kate lead with??? Eric Abetz and his mystery info. The ABC just goes with the flow.
Honest Johnnie:
17 Feb 2012 5:42:09pm
Most of the stuff you waste time listing is not even legislastion. Since when was Rudd being angry on a plane legislation? And can you knock off that crap about the $400b debt. Its a furphy and you know it. Also while I'm at it, I'm sick of this tory humbug you carry on with about the four dead from the insulation programme. The Snowy Hydro Scheme was a Labor Government initiative where more than 90 men were killed during construction. Do you think people carried on about it blaming the government like you do? Because most of the construction was during Menzies time.
James in Brisbane:
17 Feb 2012 2:56:15pm
Sorry, as a swinging voter, Liberal supporters like you need to show me not just that Gillard/Labor are bad, but that the Liberals are better. And as someone with a finance background, there is no way you could convince me that he would be a better economic manager, he'd be worse. And don't get me started on Hockey and Robb.
17 Feb 2012 10:34:46am
So agree with your comment, I am amazed how Julia Gillard continued "with grace" to negotiate and govern Australia so well
17 Feb 2012 11:50:55am
and I am reminded of her lack of grace every single question time. all we see is an attack dog, with the rage she uses to 'not' answer every single opposition question.
Merlin 23:
17 Feb 2012 10:50:52am
Why should he? He got knifed by his 'supposed' friends who acted like nothing happened.
You would have to take the last piece of pizza and the last beer at mates party to more un-Australian.
the truth:
17 Feb 2012 11:48:45am
.. or act like Tony Abbott ...
17 Feb 2012 11:51:25am
UnAustralian!!! Well ,that expression is always the last resort of the unthinking, nationalistic, blokey, aussie redneck bogan..means nothing, jut another empty insult. History shows that politics through the ages is littered with the remains of dumped, rejected and assassinated politicians, can't all have been Australian.
17 Feb 2012 11:16:29am
I'm sure Rudd thought the same of Gillard...just doing her job and not plotting a coup against him..
17 Feb 2012 11:33:52am
Cabinet aren't even allowed to take notes during their meetings.
How dysfunctional do you want?
17 Feb 2012 4:14:10pm
They don't need notes !
The ALP machine will tell them what they need to know and say when the scripting is complete !
17 Feb 2012 11:49:06am
over 250 heh ? and every contentious one of them is not supported by the majority of the voting population....they are doing a job all right - a right job on every Australian...we know it and we're sick of it and we can't wait for an election !
17 Feb 2012 12:23:53pm
The worst governments in the world, you know, those totalitarian regimes we all decry, pass numerous pieces of legislation every year. Think of one-party States like China even. Lots of legislation.
Does that automatically mean good and effective government?
Hardly the best available measure, wouldn't you say?
17 Feb 2012 1:23:47pm
The economy is as good as it ever was under Howard. What more do you want? Why don't you take off your one-eyed glasses and admit they're doing a great job?
17 Feb 2012 9:59:23am
How is it damaging the Government's ability to do it's job..?
They've been doing the job and will continue to. The only thing it may prevent the government from doing is getting re-elected...
17 Feb 2012 10:39:49am
I am sure that Gillard, Shorten, Combet et al find this a distraction.
That impacts their ability to do their job.
17 Feb 2012 1:03:37pm
I remian confident in the ability of the Labor members you named, Dugong, to consider more than one thing at the same time.
They're not knuckle-dragging morons.
I'm sure that they also consider the weather, the price of fish, the merits of Tchaikowsky and Mahler without becomeing distracted from their tasks.
17 Feb 2012 10:41:47am
Dugong, I am more than confident that, in spite of your politcal preferences, you understand quite well that the ALP "leadership talk" is not a "sign of government instability" but rather IS INTENDED to destabilise the government. The intention coming not from Rudd but from the Liberal Party and their Masters, conveyed through the media. Of course the People can see through that and the force of this farse will fade away with time. Keep on reviving it and you will saturate the electorate, by the end of 2013 you will have to resort to some pretty shock tactic to keep their interest in your machinations ...
17 Feb 2012 11:29:48am
Oh, I don't doubt that it is intended to destabilise the government.
The irony is that it is Rudd doing the destabilising.
I don't know if you have heard of Ockham's Razor: it is a scientific principle that basically says the most likely of two options is usually the correct one.
Option 1: A jilted, vain and egotistical ex-PM is angry at the way he was stabbed in the back by his erstwhile subordinate and plots revenge. There is evidence of this in his actions, and the ghosts of his actions (once Gillard offered Rudd the position of Foreign Minister, the leaks stopped during the election campaign).
Option 2: a conspiracy exists between Liberals and the media (who would be quite happy for any scandal to report on, not just one from the ALP - remember Godwin Grech?) for which there is not one shred of evidence. This would require the media to act as lap dogs to right-wing politicans (please remember that Barrie Cassidy is a Labor guy).
Now each of us has our own judgement value system, but my Ockham's razor is leaning pretty conclusively to Option 1.
17 Feb 2012 12:27:24pm
Dogong: "Ockham's Razor: it is a scientific principle that basically says the most likely of two options is usually the correct one."
LOL. Where did you go to school?
17 Feb 2012 1:51:34pm
A State School.
Wikipedia: "Occam's razor, also known as Ockham's razor, and sometimes expressed in Latin as lex parsimoniae (the law of parsimony, economy or succinctness), is a principle that generally recommends that, from among competing hypotheses, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions usually provides the correct one, and that the simplest explanation will be the most plausible until evidence is presented to prove it false."
Why do you ask?
17 Feb 2012 12:36:13pm
Dugong, you are a bit confused about Ockham's Razor. The principle states that "you don't make your hypotheses unnecessarily complicated", it's also known as the Principle of Simplicity. Now, it's a bit disingenuous from your part to say that "it is Rudd doing the destabilising", but in any event, that's your predictable opinion, you are entitled to hold it. Ockham's Razor is not intended to show which of two hypotheses is the correct one, but it's only intended to guide your research effort. In the end, however, reality is what it is (whether it looks simple, complicated, likely or unlikely to you or me). If you don't see any evidence for media conspiracy, or subservient attitude from most mainstream media to the big end of town and their representatives - the Liberal party - it may have little to do with reality and a lot to do with your ability to see.... But, of course, this is just my hypothesis.
17 Feb 2012 12:43:50pm
"Now each of us has our own judgement value system, but my Ockham's razor is leaning pretty conclusively to Option 1."
Without a shred of evidence, and against all logic and common sense.
17 Feb 2012 1:52:58pm
On the contrary, I presented my evidence in the post. I'm waiting for Alpo to provide proof of his Liberal/Media conspiracy.
17 Feb 2012 3:21:40pm
Dugong, you provided no evidence whatsoever. Whereas the evidence of media bias is ... in the media. Go for it, open your eyes and you will see. If you still don't see it, it doesn't matter, I hope that my post will encourage others to go and read the media critically, I will be happy with that: no scrutinising of Abbott, spinning government's initiatives to highlight whatever negative there is and hiding the positive, giving ridiculous weight to any silly speculation about the stability of the government whilst hiding any disagreement within the Coalition, talking the economy down without any context or substance whatsoever. You know, as I know, that in a less media-friendly environment Abbott and his front bench would be made mince meat in less than a second. Finally, have you heard about the great interest of two additional magnates to invest in the media (you already know who is the third, do you)? ... Control the media, Dugong, and control the public opinion. Control the public opinion, Dugong, and control the country.... but by all means, keep your eyes closed....
17 Feb 2012 3:54:41pm
The evidence of media bias is only in your own eyes. To be fair, I am sure that if the Liberals were is such disarray the blowtorch would be on them - remember Abbott and Howard? Or is the media only biased when it analyses Labor?
The ALP have a cancer that they refuse to exise. Is it any wonder the attention is on the ALP?
17 Feb 2012 8:49:32pm
Sure Duyong, there's no media bias in Australia, and there's no concentrated ownership of media etc.
Gina Reinhert simply wants to own a piece of Fairfax so she can have her papers delivered free to her home...
17 Feb 2012 9:55:08pm
Oh, I don't deny there is media bias (each and every one of us has bias, to a larger or smaller extent), but I do deny there is a massive conspiracy.
I'm all for a diverse view in media land. Ultimately, people will choose for themselves which media they trust. Personally, I get my news predominantly from the ABC and the Financial Review (Fairfax) and have done for years.
And if journalists of the quality of Annabel Crabb, Barrie Cassidy or Laura Tingle say that Gilard's position is diabolical, I am inclined to see their point.
This is emphasised when I read from the likes of Bob Brown, Mark Latham and Rob Oakeshott that Labor has either discussed leadership change with them (Oakeshott), or that Labor need to sort their backyard out (Brown and Latham).
My question to you is why do YOU fail to see that?
17 Feb 2012 11:06:50pm
I don't believe there's a conspiracy either.
But I always question anyone's vested interest.
Why would Latham say that??? What's his gripe?
Why would the miners say that ??
Why would Gina R, do that?
Why would Abbott say that?
What does each person have to loose, or to protect, or to advance, and
that colours the way I view anything that's said or written.
When I click onto any article by Barrie C, I always know that Rudd will get a nasty workout,
you can bet your house on it,
so I take it with a grain of salt.
When Laura Tingle writes, I give it more credibility.
It's not a conspircy, but I never saw 1, NOT 1 positive story on the advantages of the BER
school building thing. 4-Corners covered the pink batts story from an emotional base,
making it all about the young men and their tragic fate.
Maybe people would be out spending more, and stimulating our economy more if the media
tried putting more positive spin onto issues that really are positive.
17 Feb 2012 1:13:52pm
Your Option 2 contains a false premise or assumption, that in order for "the media" to support the Coalition and attack Labor at every opportunity, there needs to be a formal agreement or conspiracy.
This (applying Ockham's razor) is merely a case of like-minded groups seeing peronal and organisational advantage in making those attacks.
The media opinions are influenced or controlled by the opinions of their proprietors who select their editors very careflly. This is private enterprise after all and the selection and appointment process for senior positions is not subject to the same controls and ethos of impartiality that Public Service positions are.
Rupert selects his editors.
The editors elect their attack dogs.
The attack dogs write their editorials and opinion pieces to satisfy the leanings of the editors who in turn make sure that the published opinions match the word that comes down from Moloch HQ.
The spider that sits at the centre of the web is completely hostile to all forms of collective bargaining, of union organisation and therfore towards the Labor Party. The evidence of that is in the historical publications themselves.
With so little diverstity of ownership and therefore opinion in the Australian media, then it may appear to the under-educated observer that there's a unity of hostile opinion resulting from a conspiracy, but Billy Ockham says that's not necessary in order to create the effects we see.
17 Feb 2012 2:50:17pm
"Your Option 2 contains a false premise or assumption, that in order for "the media" to support the Coalition and attack Labor at every opportunity, there needs to be a formal agreement or conspiracy."
For goodness sake follow the thread.
The conspiracy was raised by Alpo, and I pointed out the absurdity of it. You mererly add to it (the absurdity, that is).
17 Feb 2012 8:43:42pm
What if the jilted, bitter, vain etc ex-PM exists solely in your head. What if he isn't any of those things?
What does that do to your theory?
17 Feb 2012 9:56:40pm
Do you seriously think that Rudd is none of those things?
17 Feb 2012 11:16:58pm
Yes, Dugong I believe the vain bit. Which PM hasn't been vain?
But this idea of KR seeking revenge and trying to white-ant the party doesn't gel.
If he wanted to seek revenge he could have done alot worse.
I also don't believe the media spruiking that Rudd is an attention-seeking, media tart who flaunts himself at every opportunity.
Rudd's not in charge of the nightly news, or any sort of news outlet, HE DOESN'T
decide what gets selected for screening. It's the MEDIA.
Every polly sends out news releases hoping to be covered on the news, yet Rudd is always topical.
Have a look at the number of comments on this thread???
Lazy journos know that stories about Rudd attract attention!!!
And that's why they're written.
17 Feb 2012 12:57:25pm
Your paranoia doesn't mean that there are no forces out to get you.
Look under the bed Alpo. We are everywhere!
Simple Man:
17 Feb 2012 3:07:51pm
Boys I'm pretty certain both option 1 & 2 are in operation.
I suspect there are at least option 3 (media driven) & 4 (cabinet driven) and probably more as well but it is all on pretty immaterial side at the moment.
I have no idea which happen first.
You may as well blame Xmas holidays and people with too much time on their hands.
17 Feb 2012 3:59:02pm
A fair post, but I discount option 3 as "the media" means that ABC, Murdoch AND Fairfax, not to mention Mark Latham (via his articles in the Financial Review), Bob Brown (who has told Labor to sort themselves out) and Rob Oakeshott (who says he has been approached regarding leadership change) are all guilty of a massive conspiracy. Again, a jilted, vain PM wanting revenge is a simpler explanation.
Option 4 is interesting, and might be an offshoot of Option 1. Some in cabinet (Shorten?) may believe that the only way to really solve this is to excise both Gillard AND Rudd.
17 Feb 2012 1:24:58pm
For a Government struggling to "do its job" it is certainly getting the job done. You might have to take an objective look at the situation instead of swallowing the rubbish pumped out by the majorty of journalists.
A bit like your mate Tony - he wakes up and reads the front page of the Tele and goes off on a rant on national television - he would abviously know the real situation as outlined by Bowen,red Cross and Refugee organistions but the truth is never very interesting - certainly not in Tonys world and it would appear not in yours either Dungheap oopps I mean Dugong
Yeah so:
17 Feb 2012 9:48:34am
Possible, but that would only prove, once again, that it's *all* about the Ruddster. All this talk of internal instability adding to the government's woes? Oh well, too bad as long as Kev's having fun.
sotto voce:
17 Feb 2012 11:56:25am
jaycee, I thought the same...I think us Laborites are more astute,the finer nuances escape our Liberal friends :)
17 Feb 2012 11:59:45am
One wonders what the response would be from Mr Rudd if the media dropped off the scent. No cameras or mics following him, no grabs for the nightly news. Does he get on with his job for the govt and nation, or does the happy little vegemite leak again to get the destabilisation back on track. Dear Media - ignore him and lets see if he slips up. Perhaps this is what the PM is waiting for - a RuddSlip.
17 Feb 2012 2:28:42pm
There isn't a shred of evidence that Rudd has leaked anything, or has destabilised the government in any way, or seeks to challenge, wants to challenge, or plans to challenge.
Not one story of the thousands written about this has included any evidence of this at all.
Rudd knows he doesn't have the numbers and never will. It is not happening, never was happening, and will not happen.
17 Feb 2012 8:27:10am
And all this journalistic leadership white noise blotted out a significant change - most would argue for the better - to Medicare means testing.
17 Feb 2012 9:24:39am
I assume that you mean private health insurance rebate means testing. The change that the Unions' Party promised not to introduce before both the '07 and '10 elections.
17 Feb 2012 10:02:18am
Labor went to the 2010 election with a policy to means test the FGR (Federal Government Rebate) on Private Health.
If this was not the case, the libs wouldn't have to go back to '06/'07 for quotes to attempt to damn the government with...
There are more than enough reasons to diss the government, you could at least use correct and relevant ones...
17 Feb 2012 10:32:16am
Completely false.
Both Roxon and Gillard emphatically stated many times in 2010 that they would not means test the rebate.
Do some homework.
17 Feb 2012 11:17:41am
It's true...and all in print for those who believe otherwise.
17 Feb 2012 12:50:24pm
Labor went to the 2010 election saying they would means test the private health insurance rebate. This isn't an opinion. It's a fact. It was also outlined in the 2009/2010 budget.
Tom R:
17 Feb 2012 10:24:32am
"promised not to introduce before both the '07 and '10 elections."
Considering that they tried several times to pass this legislation after the 07 election (granted, breaking that promise in that term) it is pretty crass to assume they were making the same promise going into the last election.
Unless, of course, you have a statement somewhere to support your allegation?
17 Feb 2012 10:38:13am
Get over it buddy.
It's what John Winston Howard would have called a non-core promise.
You know, like the one about a GST never ever being part of COALITION POLICY in the future?
Take note: the lie was that a gst would never be coalition policy.
Look it up.
It's always been misreported.
17 Feb 2012 10:56:40am
You got a real Problem ..mate..with these broken promises...problem is most are not actually promises that were broken..often the reverve is the truth..Labor is merely acting on election & party promises...but the media has deluded you into thinking that promises were broken. But what is your issue???? you are a Tory voter anyway..or are you going to LIE & tell us that you voted Labor last time..!
17 Feb 2012 8:28:36am
Barrie draws an interesting comparison with Costello and his "challenge". Big difference though is that Rudd has already had a go and proved to be utterly hopeless. Costello on the other hand, based on his performance as treasurer would have made a great PM, and I am sure the Liberal party would have had a chance in the 2007 election had this issue been handled differently. It does not matter who Labor offer up in 2013, they will be decimated, Julia has seen to that.
17 Feb 2012 9:51:46am
Think you miss the point custard. Cassidy was discussing journalistic ethics.
17 Feb 2012 11:29:31am
What journalistic ethics? They promise Rudd and then tell Barrie Cassidy so he can tell us.
17 Feb 2012 12:10:39pm
China old mate,custard the old sweet get's thicker with age you know.
17 Feb 2012 10:44:50am
Thanks custard, your post shows the inherent instability and tensions inside the Liberal party... "lucky" you that the media just pretend no to see them...
my voice:
17 Feb 2012 10:53:23am
Labor will be decimated??
You are either joking or it is wishfull thinking...
Take a look at the headlines re: Europe and Greece.
I reckon Australian voters have more nouse than you give us credit for.
Can you really see us voting in a slash, burn, cut and steal from the poor to subsidise the rich Coalition government at the very moment the financial world outside our borders is in total meltdown?
Put "workchoices are good medicine so swallow them" Hockey in charge of the country's finances?
I think not.
The Libs need to stop and rethink a lot of their stupid policies.
I mean fair suck of the sauce bottle, take mining tax based tax cuts from the "engine room" small businesses that keep the economy ticking over and give them back to the billionaires?
Dumb policy.
Raise business taxes to give people $150,000.00 to have a kid??
Totally stupid idea.
The no-alitions policies, implemented at such a time would be a disaster for Australia's economy and would drive the country backwards at a rate of knotts and most Aussie voters know it.
17 Feb 2012 12:06:34pm
THE FACT IS, the CLP does not care what the last remaining 30% of ALP voters think, they know the policies of the ALP are not supported by 70% of voters -
17 Feb 2012 12:28:32pm
They will be decimated, the QLD election result will be the cue.
Headless chooks is what we will see afterwards.
Come to think of it, isn't that what we are seeing now........
17 Feb 2012 1:43:36pm
Take care custard.
You may be tracked down by the RSPCA for cruelty to chooks with that comparison.
17 Feb 2012 12:52:23pm
Please do not pretend to speak on behalf of all Australian voters.
my voice:
17 Feb 2012 3:02:44pm
Hermit - comprehension:2/5
"Please do not pretend to speak on behalf of all Australian voters."
Please learn to read before placing keyboard / mouth in gear!
What I said was.....
If anyone thinks the Coalition will win the next election with their ridiculous policies they have in place now then tell 'em their dreaming!!!
"Most Aussie voters" simply don't want Abbott as PM.
((news flash)) that's why we have the government that we have today)
17 Feb 2012 12:59:48pm
Interesting, the sucking of the sauce bottle I mean.
For a while there Kevin and his followers always shook the sauce bottle.
Things are on the improve in the land of the High Dungeon!
17 Feb 2012 9:00:30pm
I suppose the tower in which Rapunzel was imprisoned was the "Land of High Dungeon".
Hermit, did you not mean High Dudgeon?
Get a dictionary and look it up.
Of course if you have difficulty with words it explains why you have comprehension problems with political ideas. You have been living too long cut off from the World in your Hermit's cave or up in the air with Rapunzel in her "High Dungeon".
Jim M.:
17 Feb 2012 12:04:47pm
Decimated? You think they will lose one tenth of their numbers?
After all, that is what "decimated" means. It comes from the Roman practice of drawing lots to execute one tenth of an army's numbers.
17 Feb 2012 8:29:12am
Why is the leadership so important to you, Barrie? You sound more like one of Gillard's advisers than an objective commentator. You are telling her in your latest bit of propaganda: force a vote now, Julia, before Rudd has the required numbers to win. Have you thought though, that while this strategy might keep Julia in the top job, it will result in a devastating election loss for the Labor party. Can't you see, nobody but you and your mate, Bill Shorten, like her?
17 Feb 2012 9:44:09am
Speak for yourself.
I don't see any politician that would make a better PM - Rudd, Abbott, Bishop, Swan, Smith, Turnbull, Hockey, Pyne, Albanese, Brown, Wilkie, Katter ... Shorten may eventually make a decent PM, but he's too inexperienced at the moment.
Look at the things she has actually got done, and then look at the things Rudd got done.
17 Feb 2012 10:38:32am
I also can't see any other better Prime Minister than Julia Gillard at the moment, surely no one seriously thinks of "Two shoes" Tony Abbott Whiney Pyney, blackhole Hockey etc
17 Feb 2012 11:36:30am
Why do you resort to schoolyard taunts?
Are you really that hard up to debate the point on its merits?
Grow up.
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 6:32:43pm
I'm sure Mari has more political maturity than the sheep who line up daily to have their political perspectives spayed on by the right wing media
("Right wing media" = tautology)
17 Feb 2012 10:39:33am
Yes she is certainly effective; she has a breif via Hitlery Clinton originating from Agenda 21, UN/NATO/IMF/World banks and WHO. Her responsibilty is to continue the fraudulent CO2 scare enact CO2 laws, makea all our industries; farming and food supplies untenable even better close them down completly.
She is making a great job of the deliberate destruction, even so great that if the country was taken over in war the national infrastructure could not be as efficiently and quickly destroyed.
Soone she will pull the plug on the big 4 banks who hold 14 trillion in derivatives and its nite nite Aussie and hello New world Order.
Aint you commies gunna be lovin it then!
Kenmore Guy:
17 Feb 2012 12:07:17pm
I hope for your sake you are a Troll, pieman.
If not, then I can only conclude you have a clinically diagnosable level of paranoia.
17 Feb 2012 12:38:12pm
Wow, that's a lot of foil.
17 Feb 2012 12:53:21pm
Hitlery Clinton? Surely an unfortunate typo!
James in Brisbane:
17 Feb 2012 2:58:18pm
Pieman, looks like your tinfoil hat is on a little bit too tight.
17 Feb 2012 11:28:41am
Yes, Gillard's two greatest contributions to the australian economy in the last 18 months are taxes, one she lied about introducing and the other will have a negitative impact on the budget. Gillards biggest problem (rightly or wrongly) is that she is a perceived liar, that is a very difficult perception to break, particular when you continue to lie and misrepresent the facts.
Sue Ridge:
17 Feb 2012 7:02:34pm
Your suggestion that "Shorten may eventually make a decent PM" made me laugh.
This small minded individual got up yesterday afternoon in the House in response to a question from the Member for Newcastle and boasted, in the aftermath of Qantas cut-backs of engineering jobs, that Woolworths were opening five new stores in Newcastle and were providing job opportunities. What a thoroughly despicable comment from Labor's out of touch elite. This man has no idea of decency. He'd be better off remaining as a back-stabber within Labor ranks and leave the rest of us alone.
17 Feb 2012 9:36:10pm
A better answer would be to learn computers and forget about manufacturing and maintenance altogether.
17 Feb 2012 10:30:35am
Lorrie. You forgot Bill's Mother in Law. She and Julia are a matched pair of peacocks.
Anonymous Academic:
17 Feb 2012 12:14:09pm
If you look at Barrie's articles, there is a distinct anti-Rudd stance. To the point where you can read things read a few years back and think 'Did Rudd perhaps run over Barrie's pet and not apologise?'
This is vendetta journalism. At its worst.
17 Feb 2012 1:54:11pm
Rudd probably gave a scoop to somebody else and Barrie has never forgiven him. Labor have long memories and their appitie for revenge knows no bounds. (That is why Windsor is such a good fit)
Academics Anonymous:
17 Feb 2012 2:36:57pm
So you're not a supporter of biased journalism?
Gosh, you're going to have trouble finding reading material in Australian news media.
I think you'll find at some stage Tony Abbott has kicked every puppy owned by every journalist, except maybe half a dozen conservative journos who own horses and Tony has not got around to them yet.
17 Feb 2012 4:35:17pm
Its only natural for a rusted on ALP man like Barrie, to be totally frustrated at seeing one egotisical, vengeful party member happy to bring down his whole party for the sake retribution and personal satisfaction !
17 Feb 2012 8:58:58pm
How right you are, AA.
17 Feb 2012 9:37:37pm
It's the labor way, dipose leaders and move on, rather that than entrenced loyalty on the liberal side.
17 Feb 2012 10:38:33pm
Four Leaders in less than 5 years.. Howard, Nelson, Turnbull Abbott. That's your idea of entrenched loyalty?
17 Feb 2012 4:52:31pm
Most of the people know adore Julia Gillard ! Mind you most of the friends i have actually think for them selves,rather than be told what to think by conservative journalists ! We think she is the one of the best PMs this country has ever had .I certainly believe she is the best choice for the moment .
If the bullying by the media and the white anting by Rudd stopped she might even have a chance of winning the next election . Possibly why the attacks have become more vindictive , relentless and numerous .
Last night on the 7.30 report i saw a brief interview with Steve Bracks .He just has that charisma and charm that special quality that swinging voters like . If I was a faceless man or woman ,I would definitley put his name up for PM .(I know he is not even in Federal politics . )
The other person i would really love to see as PM is Penny Wong . As much as i really like Bill Shorten i would prefer a few others ahead of him . People like Tanya Plebersek ,Nicola Roxon,Mike Kelly .
The best leaders are the people who are not obsessed with being Leader . They are doing it because they have a vision and a belief .
17 Feb 2012 10:01:16pm
True the media would have us believe no one likes J Gillard but she gets on with the job and that's why the caucus put her in power.
17 Feb 2012 8:30:29am
Lots of grumbles will lead to an rumble and fumbling Gillard will be humbled and take a tumble and be replaced by the bumbling Rudd. And we'll be no better off. Not until Tony Abbott becomes the real leader Australia needs.
17 Feb 2012 10:04:43am
I look at Bronwyn Bishop, Andrew Robb, Joe Hockey, MacFarlane, Truss and Julie Bishop and think God help us all. Maybe your job will have to go to fill the $70billion black hole, growing bigger by the day. And if an election comes and we get another hung parliament, do we keep going back till those who are "born to rule" win. I look past all the white noise of the media and look at what the government has achieved, 266 pieces of legislation, not all trivial as some one would have us believe, this government, warts and all, greens, and independents is functioning. I listen to what the rest of the world thinks about our economy, forget Howard he has been gone 4 years, and was "sacked" by the people in his electorate. Then I listen to the bullying, the abuse, the vilifying of the current PM by Abbott, Pine and Co, and I listen to the lies and garbage about repealing all Labors legislation when "we" win - Abbott knowing full well he will never get it through the senate. I am listening to what is happening to the Murdock press in UK, how Murdock is prepared to sacrifice them in order to be top dog in USA and how the journalists there are fighting back. With any luck it will spread and maybe the press here will give us more accountable and more professional reporting . I have not heard one positive outlook from Abbott, not one policy. All I can say is beware of what you wish for because you just might get it.
Merlin 23:
17 Feb 2012 10:52:57am
God I hope we get it.
17 Feb 2012 12:04:29pm
And in a perverted way so do I. Then Watch the spin.
17 Feb 2012 9:40:46pm
What loyalty does the Liberal Party owe Tony Abbot?
That he crushed the union factions and made them less relevant?
It was for Australia, not the party that Tony did us all a favour, yet he has yet to prove he's a "steady hand" so like his mentor.
17 Feb 2012 10:21:34am
Tony Abbott won the leadership by ONE yes ONE vote, prime minister Gillard won by the full vote of caucus .You should not win government by abuse and slander and no declared policy and the full support of a media who is very questionable over seas and may be the same in Australia.Do not follow or vote for a person until you have a chance to digest their policy and the costing of such policy.please forward the opposition policies and costing onto this page if that is the reason you are so strong in their defense,or just any one please let us know what they are if you have inside information.
17 Feb 2012 12:54:53pm
Cowardice and pragmatism presented as bravery and consensus. Rudd gave up without even requiring a ballot. He was that bad.
17 Feb 2012 1:59:01pm
Gillard won the election on a LIE. Yes a LIE. She then formed a government by conning Andrew Wilkie into beleiving she would back him. Yes that right a CON.
Well we have all had time to digest the way Labor govern and it is giving us intergestion. We are sick of the lies and the deceipt. Sick of the spin and incompetence. Sick of Gillard and sick of Rudd.
Gillard and Labor will get whats coming in 2013 and they will be lucky to even come close again before 2020.
17 Feb 2012 8:30:54am
I think it is about time Julia Gillard took Rudd on because I do not think he has the numbers. When he looses he can go to the back bench and become the person who destroyed the Labor Party.
17 Feb 2012 9:27:50am
Brilliant plan. How can we do it?
17 Feb 2012 9:58:41am
Start by convincing Rudd to join Windsor and Oakshott as an independent...that would have Gillard in a spin.
Rudds time in Labor must surely be on thin ice.
17 Feb 2012 12:01:06pm
To chip in Chipinga Kevin's been Independent of Labor party team politics since the day he was replaced .
17 Feb 2012 4:47:35pm
That's what you get when you have someone like Rudd, with his massive intellect (ego) that rivals even Robert Manne's !
No fun at parties ! Doesn't mix well with other kiddies !
The ALP made a big mistake in their short term use of him as Howard Lite to hoodwink the electorate!
They thought he would go quietly once the machine wanted its control back !
They didn't count on his lack of caring for anything but retribution for the ego bruising inflicted by the ALP machine and all its moving cogs !
17 Feb 2012 9:57:15am
Barry made an interesting call on this on last Sunday's "Insiders". To take on Rudd means to step down as leader of the Party - which is to elevate Rudd to the same position of her as candidate. Even if she wins, if (say) 30 MP's vote for Rudd, that will be crippling, and give him more oxygen.
Rudd is "doing her slowly".
Merlin 23:
17 Feb 2012 10:55:11am
Bless his heart. For all of his long winded guff and being an autocratic spoiled brat - at least he didn't lie (or sound like he was lying!!)
17 Feb 2012 4:57:12pm
Spot on Dugong !
Their desperation to hang onto office and their fear of not knowing how much Rudd will dump if they actually act on him, leaves us with this slow roasting of Gillard & crew, whilst the carefree Rudd struts around grinning to his hearts content !
Ah ! Sweet revenge !
The ALP should end it all by expelling him from the Party and taking their chances at the polls !
Richo and his crew seem totally at a loss to make this happen as yet ?
17 Feb 2012 10:15:49pm
With Labor the leader is less important than the party as we saw in NSW, Victoria and QLD so long as good policy is going through it accounts for little, as demonstrated by all the bluster from the right.
17 Feb 2012 10:41:50am
I think you will find that it is the quality of the Labor MPs and the faceless men that is destorying the Labor party. Rudd is not the cause of the cancers in state Labor, prototecting Craig Thompson, creating race riots, etc,etc.
17 Feb 2012 12:51:59pm
Where were these "race riots" you talk of?
17 Feb 2012 2:20:45pm
Well if you only read and watch the ABC it is hardly suprising you ask about the race riot. I would have been interested to see how the ABC would have responded had somebody from Tony Abbott's office tried to incite a race riot.
17 Feb 2012 2:46:15pm
Denny Crane:
17 Feb 2012 4:59:17pm
I knew Tony Abbott was behind Cronulla. he was planning it for years.
If bnot so serious it would be laughable. No other country in the world would put up with a PM's office trying to trick downtrodden people into rioting. If the coalition was in charge and it was them who tricked the tent embassy, we would not put up with it either.
But because its Labor, you turn the other way. How disgusting is the Canberra press gallery that they ignore this shame on Australia. barrie and the rest of them should be ashamed of themselves but you are always eager to forgive Gillard. Too blinded by idiology to look for the truth.
17 Feb 2012 5:54:03pm
"PM's office trying to trick downtrodden people into rioting..."
Who are these "downtrodden" people you talk of? Where were these "riots" you talk of.
Did the PM's office channel Abbotts words to?
17 Feb 2012 10:13:33pm
Rudd did Australia a favour by limiting the amount of shares members of parliament and or ministers can own.
17 Feb 2012 8:33:05am
I wish Rudd WOULD challenge. Then he can go to the back bench and stay there, because the one thing Rudd is not is Paul Keating. Keating was a respected member of caucus who was seen as a pivotal part of the govt. He was the face and credibility of the govt on economic reform. His removal to the back bench highlighted to his colleagues just how significant his loss to the front bench and leadership was.
Rudd's role as Foreign Affairs minister is nowhere near the significance of treasurer, and I would say he has a serious respect problem with his colleagues, especially after he and his band of merry men have spent the better part of 12 months actively white-anting the govt. There are any number of people in the party who could take over FA competently. I think it says a lot about Rudd that he feels the govt would keenly feel his loss on the front bench. I think it also says a lot about media reporting today that journalists believe he could become PM again by simply 'doing a Keating'.
No, Rudd's strategy is simply one of attrition. I find it ironic that the words of Keating in describing Tony Abbott can be equally applied to Kevin Rudd: "give me the job or I'll wreck the joint". Rudd doesn't seem to have enough self-awareness to see that he is making it nigh on impossible for the ALP to retain govt, whether he is leader or not.
17 Feb 2012 9:30:52am
Of course, Mr keating had already wrecked the joint before his challenge by deliberately creating a recession and arguing why we had to have one.
17 Feb 2012 10:44:13am
oh, and completely transforming the Australian economy into the powerhouse it is today....you must have forgotten that one ...you probably forgot that the coalition voted for all of it except the odd ones....and by the way, I did some pretty sweet property deals in 89' 90' 91........
If 20 consecutive years of growth (started by Keating) is wrecking the joint then we need more of it!
17 Feb 2012 9:47:57am
"No, Rudd's strategy is simply one of attrition."
Actually Rudd's strategy is the same as Abbott's - to wait - Gillard is supplying more attrition than either could achieve anyhow...
17 Feb 2012 12:32:53pm
Why doesn't Julia just have a reshuffle of the front bench and put someone else in as Foreign Minister and just SEND Rudd to the backbench ???
17 Feb 2012 5:03:19pm
Because she is scared that that might make him even more vindicative !
Expulsion of him and Thomsen from the Party and then back to the polls, is the ALP's only rough hope of getting another shot at power anytime in the near future !
17 Feb 2012 8:33:14am
Tell you what, why don't all journalists stop writing "Rudd to challenge Gillard" stories and just tell us when he does, if he ever does.
17 Feb 2012 9:44:55am
If you read the article, Barry IS reporting what Rudd is doing - he is talking to journalists telling them that he is plotting against Gillard.
I may be wrong, but I read this article as a bit of "Journalists Revenge" - a Journo cannot name their source, but another Journo can...
Is Barry telling Rudd to put up or shut up?
17 Feb 2012 10:42:30am
Sorry, Barrie.
Dennis Pratt:
17 Feb 2012 8:33:51am
"I know the names of some of those he has spoken to." Yes, Barrie, of course you do. You journos are just as complicit in this charade as the politicians are.
Latham quoted a backbencher "Kevin doesn't change his underpants without telling Peter Hartcher. Watching Hartcher last night on the Drum TV, he looked just as shifty as any pollie. He and Crabb played a game "I will hint at things but I can't actually tell you because my sources will dry up.
Keating used to put the journalists who wrote favourable things on a "high quality drip" which dried up for those who wrote what he didn't like.
I would love to see a page with a list of the political journalists down one side, politicians down the other, and arrows joining the two lists to show who leaks to whom. Then I would know how to interpret what they write and I would know which politician's barrow they are pushing.
17 Feb 2012 9:47:28am
My guess is that if you could see any white behind the arrows, you'd be missing an arrow.
All politicians leak.
17 Feb 2012 12:41:09pm
The most significant thing Hartcher said yesterday on The Drum was something like "my colleagues are very happy to remain fully supportive of Abbot whilst he is dominant in the polls". Crabb then muttered something about there being disquiet behind the scenes (amongst journalists) and Hartcher said "You won't see any evidence of disquiet at this stage."
There you go, the Kingmakers - what happened to the AJA Code of Ethics? Where is what is supposed to be the overriding principles of "respect for truth and the public's right to know"? We only hear what the media want to tell us and that is they have decided the Coalition will be the next government.
17 Feb 2012 6:06:01pm
I would also be very suspect of any Polls by conservative organisations > Believe me it is very easy to "get the result you want ' you just go to areas with a high proportion of LNP voters . If they have Abbott and the LNP high in the polls it causes instability in the ALP .
17 Feb 2012 1:53:15pm
I have to agree with you Dennis - the journalists ARE complicit in the speculation and fueling of tension.
When the so-called breakdown of numbers is put forward for the Rudd supporters, why don't they add in
the Canberra Press Gallery?
What ARE their motivations? Leadership speculation is lazy, lazy journalism with
Rudd drip-feeding them and the result being an easily churned story for their newspaper. Would be far too
hard for them to analyze and communicate about policy, and heaven forbid even scrutinizing the Coalition!
They have a pack mentality and really need to stop playing the same old broken record over and over again.
Julia Gillard is a remarkable and strong person. No one should have to put up with the way she has been
treated by the media.
17 Feb 2012 8:34:24am
People can try to dismiss that she knew of the speech and showing the polls around as much as they like. The action is not the revelation, the FACT is that she is so dishonest to the core that she will not tell the truth about her actions. Frankly her use of legal style evasion to answer questions go to show the truth in the question and her total lack of integrity.
The other issue, is the pathetic attempt to say she was ambushed as a defence. It is like a criminal saying it was not fair because the police caught him/her so justice could be served.
17 Feb 2012 9:49:38am
All politicians lie. All journalists lie.
Sometimes they lie to journo's because they don't trust how they will twist the truth just to get a headline.
Politicians are trying to run the country. Journalists are trying to get a headline, regardless of the consequences.
Gillard said it best: "Stop writing crap".
17 Feb 2012 11:20:47am
Yet she is the master of it...hows the written agreement with Wilkie going? ....Crap if you asked Wilkie.
17 Feb 2012 11:54:39am
If she stopped talking crap, they wouldn't report it.
17 Feb 2012 9:52:53am
Totally with you on the lawyer-speak - "I didn't order a speech to be prepared" is not a denial she knew about it, or that she was plotting.
Julia deliberately gave the impression that she was a last minute, almost reluctant participant in all this to defuse the 'deceitful assassin' tag. I think she would have been better off saying she wanted the job and went for it like all the other pollies do...
Plus she wasn't ambushed - the email inviting her to interview specifically mentioned the leadership issue would be raised in the interview.
17 Feb 2012 9:54:17am
Miss Gillard is clearly not very smart.
She claimed that she was ambushed; that the interview was only to be about 'progress since 2007'.
The producers of the program then have their noses out of joint and publish the email sent to her months ago. It clearly stated that 'leadership issues' would be discussed in the interview. Miss Gillard attacked the Four Corners staff expecting them to lay down and cop it. Yet again, she has been caught lying.
A smart liar would not publicly claim an ambush when she knows that the producers remain in possession of the email.
17 Feb 2012 9:55:57am
I recently read an article that included an extract of the email sent from 4 Corners to the PMs office that clearly shows that leadership was one of the issues to be discussed.
So this is either more deception or another indication that her staff, not the PM, are running the country.
Not a good look either way.
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 11:30:06am
All this focus on Gillard and the truth.
Abbott is hardly a purveyor of truth.
He's had 7 or 8 positions on climate change.
Despite stating on national TV that you can't trust anything he says unless it's written down, he promptly welshed on the written down and signed Parliamentary Reform deal.
He concocted an excuse not to submit his 2010 election costings to Treasury under his party's own Charter of Budget Honesty. Hardly very honest. We know why thought - they were found to contain an $11 billion black hole.
To make matters worse, he said they were audited by their "accountants" only for their "accountants" to issue a public statement stating that they didn't audit them.
Despite saying he would support a Paid Parental Leave Scheme 'over my dead body", he announced a unilaterally decided Paid Parental Leave Scheme to be funded by a Great Big New Tax, despite one month earlier stating that would would not introduce new taxes.
And that's just for starters!
How about holding Abbott to account by the same standards that you judge Gillard?
No, that would be fair, wouldn't it?
Can't have that!
17 Feb 2012 1:13:12pm
Do we all understand the difference between a change of mind and telling lies? Sometimes I think not!
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 2:00:47pm
Sounds like double standards to me Hermit!
17 Feb 2012 2:50:23pm
When do we actually know when Abbott is telling the truth?
17 Feb 2012 5:55:27pm
Like "rock solid iron clad" you mean?
17 Feb 2012 6:35:21pm
Do we all understand the difference between a core and a non core promise?
17 Feb 2012 1:27:52pm
Le blogeur gai:
Why focus on Gillard and the truth instead of Abbott?
Because unfortunately for many many many of us, Gillard happens to hold Government, so what she does actually affects our lives and hip pockets.
Mr Abbott is not in a position to do anymuch at the moment, but the ALP and their co-rulers are!
That's why there is this focus on Gillard and the truth.
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 4:06:48pm
That's a cop out Brujo.
Tony Abbott wants to be PM of this country. It matters not whether he is in government or not, he should still be accountable for his words and actions and should be measured using the same standards as applied to Gillard.
The reason he is not is that he just doesn't measure up. He is just as guilty, probably more so, of the very things he accuses Gillard of.
In defending the indefensible, you are as much a hypocrite as Abbott.
Phil E Steyn:
17 Feb 2012 1:53:42pm
Abbotts several "positions" on AGW possible stem from a realisation that the Global Warmists were being proved wrong. Now that it is established that the World is in fact NOT warming, Or drying up, there is no need for the Carbon Tax. At least Abbott is prepared to shift withthe science.
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 4:15:12pm
Abbott's several positions on AGW stem from a desire for political gain, not out of ideology.
When he realised that he had a chance at the leadership, he changed his position - yet again!
It has NOT been established that the earth is NOT warming. Show me scientific evidence supported by the majority that proves your claim.
Abbott doesn't shift with science, he shifts where the money is.
Never forget that when the Liberals lost the 2007 election, what was the first thing he turned his attention to?
Climate change? National security? Health? Education?
No - he whinged about his drop in pay.
Speaks volumes. Abbott is out for Abbott and he doesn't care what or whom he destroys in his quest for The Lodge, even if he trashes the national interest in the process.
17 Feb 2012 5:10:50pm
Abbott isn't the PM.
He isn't even a government minister !
You can focus on him next year when he is !
17 Feb 2012 8:35:05am
It's time for the media to put up or shut up on this one Barrie, not the Labor Party For goodness sake, you guys have been beating this up for months. The statement 'I know the names of some of those he has spoken to. I know where he said it...' reeks of schoolyard gossip. None of you will be satisfied until Gillard goes and you can then go back to remembering why Kevin was deposed when he was. Then perhaps you might also shine a bit of light on the Liberal leadership. You all seem to have conveniently forgotton that Abbott is only where he is by 1 vote, I think Gillard's margin is a bit wider than that! What about a few articles on what has actually been achieved in the past 12 months. Now that would be news!
17 Feb 2012 9:40:05am
I usually like a Cassidy peice but REALLY?
Barrie you have lowered yourself to the level of the gutter press on this one. I am sick to the back teeth of journos writing stuff like "I know who hes spoken too", "an unamed bankbencher said....", or quoting some anonymous source & passing it of as fact.
If you cant share the source, dont write the peice.
Journos are hiding behind all that garble to just blatantly write whatever they want (or in some cases told to write) with no means of recourse or need to prove their text is in fact... factual!
17 Feb 2012 9:55:58am
The truth is really hurting, isn't it Jodie?
17 Feb 2012 11:42:45am
No, the truth is lacking in all these leadership speculation articles, or at least truths with evidence.
Journo's can be thankful they're not lawyers, without evidence the truth is of little value.
17 Feb 2012 10:10:02am
If you don't think that an ex-PM is openly plotting against the person that stabbed them in the back is not news, I don't know what would be.
Even when she wins, she loses. OK, we now have means testing on Private Health Insurance passing the lower house.
And we have Slipper apologising to his electorate for allowing this to happen. She has been clever (politically) to get the legislation through, but she has used up even more capital with the electorate because of the machinations involved in doing so.
17 Feb 2012 12:11:42pm
It's ok Jodie, relax, its only politics.
Billy Bob Hall:
17 Feb 2012 12:42:03pm
It's not up to the media. It's up to Kevin Rudd. If Kevin calls a press conference, the media will be there - that's a guarantee. :-)
Kevin is in charge of this fiasco.
17 Feb 2012 8:35:35am
I dont think the Australian public is anywhere near as excited about the prospects of a leadership change as the Canberra press gallery is. Its like watching a toy train enthusiast rattle on for hours about their hobby. Rudds supporters and the odd supermarket shopper might be cheering Rudd on but a change of leadership will just make a Labor defeat look all that more justified.
17 Feb 2012 9:56:58am
What's wrong with that?
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 11:36:05am
"What's wrong with that?"
Because the worst Opposition Leader in Australia's history would become the worst PM in Australia's history.
Tony Abbott would be far more destructive, far more divisive than John Howard.
And he would be far more devastating to this nation and it's economy than any tax ever could.
Make no mistake. Abbott cares nought for this nation's interests. He is driven by his own, narrow political self interest in his quest for The Lodge.
But don't say you weren't warned!
17 Feb 2012 1:15:59pm
It's a big call to say that Abbott is the worst opposition leader ever. Whitlam and Rudd were opposition leaders at one time.
Labor is truly powered by the hate generated by its supporters.
17 Feb 2012 6:39:54pm
Hey Hermit- have you read the comments by your fellow Abbott supporters- or heard Christopher Pyne in parliament? Seems to me the Libs are much too powered by hate-thats a shame because it stiffles real discussion.
17 Feb 2012 1:42:32pm
"...the worst Opposition Leader...".
Is there any evidence of this? A survey? Polling? Or is it just your opinion?
Btw, who was Opposition Leader in 1924?
17 Feb 2012 3:26:25pm
Look, just because you voted for these fools doesn't mean you have to keep propping them up to justify your decision.
it's not Abbott's or anyone else's fault, it's yours!
17 Feb 2012 3:33:52pm
And your proof is? As I thought, more ALP BS spin
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 5:15:55pm
In his actions, deeds and words!
STILL no policies.
Abbott is lazy. He expects to coast into government telling all and sundry how bad Labor is, but with no alternatives, no ideas and no policies to prove that he and his party are better.
"We will release our policies closer to the election".
Australian voters deserve to know what the Coalition stands for 365 days per year, not just the 33 days of the election cycle every 3 years.
After all, when they were in government, they continually called for the then Labor Opposition to release their policies, almost on a daily basis.
Now in Opposition, they don't have to practice what they preach?
Just another example of their breathtaking hypocrisy!
17 Feb 2012 5:18:26pm
"Make no mistake. Abbott cares nought for this nation's interests. He is driven by his own, narrow political self interest in his quest for The Lodge."
Seems like Gillard & Rudd aren't on their own after all !
Who would have thought !
17 Feb 2012 3:34:53pm
There are very important reasons why Messrs. Abbott, Hockey, Robb, Joyce, etc should not be empowered with decision making for this country, at any time, but especially now.
There are very serious problems facing the people of this world , including but not limited to:
How do you deal with lunatics with the power to deploy nuclear bombs?
How do we better limit the growth in human population than the antihuman solution put in place by China? - the world is yet to see the outcome of this lunacy.
How do we eradicate malaria and then deal with the sudden increase in the world's population that such a wonderful event would occasion?
How do we have a fair distribution of the world's goods?
How do we have a competent education system so that people may at least know the kinds of things that are known?
How can we prevent or cure schizophrenia, or other terrible mental diseases?
How do we grow enough food for all the world's people?
What is a suitable political or economic system for people? eg. is a nation/state a suitable way to conduct human affairs.?
The answer to all these questions requires that the best and the brightest, the most knowledgeable and dedicated of us all strive to our best ability, armed with all available knowledge.
Monarchists? People who think that it is sensible to breed a head of state? No, we have to hope that dills like that just stay out of the way.
Gillard's problem is the lack of a knowledge culture back ground. This is how she comes to give schooling such importance. But only a certain amount of fairly superficial stuff is learnt at school.
But Abbott, Hockey, Joyce and Co? Forget it. Thay couldn't even formulate the problems, much less have any basis for attempting an answer. Their ignorance is monumental and only exceweded by their stupidity.
Mega death will result from power being given to incompetents. "Climate Change is all crap" - that's the bloke you need to run the chook raffles.
Le blogeur gai:
17 Feb 2012 4:33:05pm
Amen to that!
17 Feb 2012 8:38:12am
Please please stop, enough already, this is a sideshow and the whole media has been sidetracked by it.
Please go back to the business of real political reporting, get some intelligent people to look at the policies, do some research, report the behavior of both sides of the politics.
The voting public need the facts and figures to enable us to make the right choices at the next election. We are not getting that information from commercial media maybe because of their ownership but why are we getting sideshow rubbish form OUR ABC?
The political reporting of the Insiders, 7.30, and now 4 Corners is an embarrassment, the dumbing down of the ABC continues on
17 Feb 2012 9:47:55am
I second that.
I am so starved for factual information about issues like what is the real story about the QANTAS downsizing; what is the real background of the BHP strike and its implications, from which then I can make my own observations and form my own opinions. I don't find any of this type of reporting on the ABC anywhere. Its just beat up after beat up, editorial opinion and blah, blah, blah.
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 6:09:54pm
It suits the Coalition.
17 Feb 2012 9:51:57am
Yes why has the ABC been dumbed down so much? Why all the trashy reporting? There is so little being reported on actual policies, & on genuine issues that affect the country; instead all this focus on polls, "he said", "she said" & so on. And why on earth is the ABC slavishly reporting every single stupid poll being spewed out of News.Ltd as though it's some important piece of news? What's happened to our ABC?!
On Rudd's white-anting of the government though; I do agree. He should have been put on the back-bench in the first place. It's shameful to see how he is willing to destroy his own political party in government, & enable someone like Tony Abbott to become PM, for his own ego & vengeance. Not a good display of character. But it's the media that's enabled all of this farce to build to this point, with the endless speculation, the pathetic reporting on relative popularity; the campaigning-type reporting, years out from an election; all the stupid polls, & so on; instead of decent reporting on the issues of the day. It's very depressing.
17 Feb 2012 10:00:55am
Was it an embarrassment when the ABC staffers constantly harangued Howard and Costello over the same issue?
17 Feb 2012 5:24:32pm
Seems that eating their own is becoming increasingly popular in ALP circles !
United or die used to be the rallying call !
Now its more like .... I want and deserve that spot more than you, because I have a bigger brain than Robert Manne and I am tough as nails to boot !
17 Feb 2012 10:37:12am
The real stories are getting pushed aside by this sideshow. Did anyone nothing that the jobless rate fell again as per about the 10th story in all "news" bulletins. Then there was the story about the Irish terrorist who grounded an airline, gave himself a $2B pay rise and is about to sack about 500 workers because the airline only made $43B half yearly profit.
17 Feb 2012 2:53:01pm
Well maybe that is the real reason that Barrie et al continue with this drivel! Reality won't get Abbott into the Lodge.
17 Feb 2012 3:56:12pm
So true Poppy, but why let fact or truth get in the way of a journos quest for what they want.
Ray Matthews:
17 Feb 2012 12:37:16pm
Hear hear Mako59. The focus of debate on the insiders, and other ABC Current affairs programs is missing the main issues that affect our national wellbeing. lnstead we are getting constant feeds of political side gossip, innuendo,and other petty subjects, by increasing numbers of amateur myopically visioned journo's who think they are political sleuths, inside the big issues. The lazy instant 'frenzied' sound bite journalistic popularity, alas, is not only dumbing the average Australian down, but revealing the ravages of the mental affliction ADHD on our community. Forget the commercial media messengers. Their fans, (unfortunately the majority of media watchers) are already comatosed by the adds in between shallow issues, helping cheap journalism become an even easier 'blinder'. l worry about our nation, especially in the hands of the present media. Lift your game with more serious analysis on Policy, not gossip. Barry, on occasion you and insiders have a good indepth, but much is drivel about insignificant instant appeal sideshows. More guts from you, on Abbott and Co. They have been a no credible policy zone since Abbott became leader. Just one liners and negativity. The government has many runs on the board, particularly under Julia Gillard. Seriously confront Rudd too, instead of pandering to him. The National interest is far more important than Kevin Rudds. Gillard knows this, and had to step in.
17 Feb 2012 4:01:18pm
Look in all fairness to the media, you all loved this sort of thing during the Howard years and anytime someone attacks Tony Abbott you all line up to give him a kick as well.
By your responses and behavior you have trained the media that this is what you like. The fact that it is happening to the ALP is beside the point.
You all cheer when Tony or John or any other conservative, climate denier, anti illegal immigrant activist or whale or other meat eater is being attacked that when one of your own beloved ones is put to the edge, you all flip out.
You expose it with your own choice of words "Please go back to the business of real political reporting"
Which is attacking the coalition of course.
"report the behavior of both sides of the politics." i.e. attacking the coalition
I'm actually very pleased to see both houses treated equally, well not quite equal yet, but on the way.
It's not a sideshow, it's the main game, as you've encouraged the media over the years that you prefer.
Paul from newcastle:
17 Feb 2012 8:40:43am
Barry - it was another case of whatever the ALP (or taxpayers) pay the advisors of the PM, a refund is due.
All the PM had to say was, yes, there was a speech being prepared, I didn't ask for them to start writing it, when I found out about it I told that advisor, "You are kidding aren't you, we have a PM" then events took over & I was asked to step forward by members of the party who saw the problems the gov was having, so I gradually came to the view that the events required a circuit breaker & I eventually agreed to challenge Kevin. In hindsight my staff member was correct in his/her estimation, it's why I kept them on when I became PM & why they still hold a senior role on my staff" (of course that would rely on them still having a job with the PM's office, but minor tweaks to that line is easy enough, it fits in what has been claimed so far & actually makes the staff member and Gillard to have a good grasp of what's happening & adjusting their focus as events change
17 Feb 2012 9:23:20am
But she didn't .
17 Feb 2012 9:57:04am
You are right - every other political leader did so out of ambition. Is Abbott taking any criticism for successfully challenging Turnbull? Nope because he was up front an honest about it - its Gillard's deception that is wrecking her right now, not the fact she deposed Rudd...
But given her evasiveness, I think the real story may be that an adviser said to Gillard "I can write an acceptance speech if you like" and Gillard answered yes.
Otherwise she would have used the story you said...
Paul from newcastle:
17 Feb 2012 4:27:02pm
James - even if your assumption is correct - there are only a few people (possibly only the PM & that speech writer) who know what happened, Gillard could have run with my line & come across as sincere & nobody would know any better, instead we get comedy hour when she refuses to answer the question, answers another, then says she's answered it, it's pointed out she didn't & then says, well that's the answer you are getting - it's classic Watergate where the crime (which this is at best minor) doesn't bring you down, it's the cover up
Gillard's in a hole of her own making, she should stop digging & tell her staff she doesn't need their help on the shovels
17 Feb 2012 11:01:54am
How I wish PM Gillard had done that. It was the only thing to do and her advisers and backers need a reminder that she has taken one for the Party. Where is their loyalty.
Why try to save Kevin Rudd's ego when unwarranted. He has done nothing but trash her reputation with leaks and undermining. Rudd is far too much like Howard for my liking. Sneaky in the extreme.
the yank:
17 Feb 2012 8:41:18am
Yea, yea, yea, there is going to be a leadership challenge any day now. A media without the brains to report on anything else has always used this old line.
Is there any point to asking that you actually report on what is happening instead of what you want to happen?
17 Feb 2012 10:04:01am
Excellent comment.
Of course, it bears no resemblance to the litany of comments you made about Howard and Costello when they were involved in similar issues!
17 Feb 2012 10:20:47am
How about the media write about the Abbott adviser who was heckling the PM from the despatch box and was threatened with expulsion from the speaker. Should Abbott have sacked his media adviser? Did he know he was going to do this? Did he text him encouraging him to do this? Was it worked out before question time as part of his never ending abusive strategy? Was he being sneaky, underhanded, untrustworthy? There you have it - makes about as much sense as the garbage the journos are writing about the PM
17 Feb 2012 1:18:07pm
Advisors hecking the PM in the parliament.
I'd like to see that. Got a link to the video?
17 Feb 2012 2:21:44pm
It will be on hansard and and it happened live during question time. It did happen and Albanese drew it to the speakers attention and the speaker replied that if he heard or saw it again the adviser would be expelled from parliament for the remainder of his speak. Only day Drum never had a live twitter on it.
17 Feb 2012 2:35:30pm
The adviser was Peta Credlin, Abbott's Chief of Staff. Anthony Albanese drew the Speaker's attention to the fact that Credlin was screaming at the Prime Minister. Slipper stated that if he noticed advisers 'interjecting' he would ban them from Parliament for the rest of his time as Speaker. Absolutely disgusting exhibition by Credlin.
17 Feb 2012 5:29:21pm
"How about the media write about the Abbott adviser who was heckling the PM from the despatch box and was threatened with expulsion from the speaker. Should Abbott have sacked his media adviser?'
Could have been worse !
The Abbott adviser could have told a story to the folk at the Tent Embassey outside to get a reaction in the House !
17 Feb 2012 8:43:46am
"I know the names of some of those he has spoken to. I know where he said it in his office on a parliamentary sitting day and I know what he said"
So what you're saying Barrie is that you have no 'first hand evidence' that Rudd is mounting a challenge?
Rudd has not talked to you directly has he?
So what you're using 'hearsay evidence'.
Barrie - have a conversation with Rudd directly. Ask him questions. Report back to us what he says.
Otherwise - you haven't got a story.
17 Feb 2012 11:09:26am
Very good point Jordan.
17 Feb 2012 8:48:37am
Report the news Barrie, don't try and make it.
17 Feb 2012 10:07:53am
"Australia's PM lies again".
"PM loses remaining shred of credibility".
"PM's office organises race riot".
"PM applies means test to health insurance rebate after promising not to".
How's that for a start?
17 Feb 2012 10:47:48am
Add "Gillard disallows Cabinet from taking notes".
17 Feb 2012 1:07:44pm
Not quite true, the Prime Minister asked members to not take verbatim notes as these were being 'leaked' to journalists. The official note taking staff are stil fully employed.
17 Feb 2012 2:52:35pm
But presumably they were taking notes before?
The reason verbatim notes are disallowed is she doesn't trust them.
17 Feb 2012 11:24:39am
You forgot the best and biggest one..
"Gillard announces the worlds highest carbon tax when promising not to introduce a carbon tax"
17 Feb 2012 11:56:21am
How about "Rudd a shoe-in following Australia Day fiasco"
17 Feb 2012 12:23:34pm
Factually wrong of course, but credit for repeating the slogans.
How's this grab you...
740,00 new jobs created in 4 years
Low inflation
Low interest rates
AAA credit rating
Record investment
How's that for a start?
17 Feb 2012 11:31:42am
You must realise before you
Strike the very first blow
He's the one who only tells you
What you already know
Paul Kelly - "Don't Harm The Messenger"
17 Feb 2012 12:19:19pm
With her bare face hanging out, Miss Gillard looked into the ABC 2 corners camera and her face betrayed her words. And ALL AUSTRALIA saw it and lo there was gnashing of ALP supporters' teeth and much consternation in the land. And like buddah did Rudd smile.
17 Feb 2012 5:42:34pm
..."and ALL AUSTRALIA saw it" Nope! They were all too busy watching... "Revenge" ...on the Seven Network. 2.88million of them know what's really important in life.
David Nicholas:
17 Feb 2012 8:50:41am
Barrie, just tell me the date it will all happen and I will send flowers to the dear departed. I love a good political death. You would be worth your salary if you would simply tell us when.
Otherwise this is a retelling for the umpteenth time i would be thankful if you would give it a rest as it is wasting time. This is fodder for the Sunday's Insiders program with another hour spent revving up opinions. Sigh.
17 Feb 2012 8:51:14am
Having a party room ballot would be disastrous for Gillard and the Labor Party. This will reinforce within all Australian's that there are strong divisions within the Labor Party, unless Rudd does not put his name in for the ballot (highly unlikely) or the ballot is unanimous to Gillard (also unlikely if Rudd puts his name in the ring). The Labor Party had the chance to deal with Rudd, but I expect that Gillard negotiated with the factions that Rudd will be kept in Cabinet as Foreign Minister as a gesture of good will. Taking action now within the party (either ballots or reshuffles) would be a little to late and would be seen to reinforce Gillard as a weak PM and feels threatened by Rudd.
17 Feb 2012 8:52:44am
Indeed, it would have been very "prudent to start preparing for it."
So when they said there would be no carbon tax, do you honesty believe they were not preparing for it, given the enormous bureaucracy that had been set up to do it?
What's next in this day time soap, a wedding?
17 Feb 2012 9:58:34am
"What's next in this day time soap, a wedding?"
Don't put it past her...
17 Feb 2012 10:10:26am
No wedding, just a 'Community Forum' to decide govt policy!
17 Feb 2012 10:49:37am
Well, the promise of a community forum, but when we aren't looking, an elopement!
17 Feb 2012 11:55:46am
If you go back to Gillard's actual words re the "Forum" on Climate Change you will find that she said that there would be a forum to enlighten the public on the issue but, regardless of what that forum decided, she was not going to be bound by it and would proceed with CO2 emissions abatement.
17 Feb 2012 1:46:38pm
So, when and where was it held?
17 Feb 2012 2:53:10pm
So, since when has this Government been other than a "Coalition" of 5 disparate players Greens, Labor, Wilkie, Oakeshott, Windsor - with one and all having the power to remove Julia Gillard.
Mate - That's all bets off.
In this case they, in concert, chose a quicker way to tackle Climate Change - essentially a return to the ETS.
Besides which Tony Abbott, Lord Monckton etc were distorting the facts regarding Climate Change - so why not get it over and done with as quickly as possible???
17 Feb 2012 3:28:33pm
It's bets off when the public agrees to it, not some junta of self obsessed pollies.
17 Feb 2012 5:38:24pm
Funny how Lucy ignores the obvious. Lefties are happy to bleat about never, ever GST, but ignore that Howard then took that to an election. And won.
17 Feb 2012 10:07:30pm
Dugong, I have never ever bleated about the GST.
I have read all of the evidence and the summing up of the Senate Inquiry into "A Certain Maritime Incident". (The Children Overboard Inquiry.) I still have the pile of Senate Documents (about 70 cm high) in my book case. I also read the book that David Marr and Marian Wilkinson wrote about it.
You should read this sometime.
I don't ignore the obvious. I research before I form an opinion.
Do you?
18 Feb 2012 12:24:09am
The public "agreed to it" when they elected a hung parliament and did not give either of the two major parties a clear mandate.
The ALP had more votes than the Lib/Nat Coalition but not a majority overall.
Essentially the decision of the public was that no policy mentioned in the campaign was mandatory.
But here is a strange thing. No politician, when they ask voters for their vote, knows what the future will bring. Electors have to accept that they cannot expect a parliament to do exactly what was in the election speeches, no more and no less.
For instance, John Howard did not know, at the time of his election, that the Port Arthur massacre would happen. Therefore he did not "promise" that he would introduce Gun Laws. It would be totally unreasonable to say to him that he could not respond to this unforeseen happening because he did not have a mandate to do so.
A Parliamentarian is elected to exercise his/her judgement on what is in the best interests of his/her constituents on whatever may eventuate in the following three years.
In 2007 no one standing for election foresaw the Global Economic Crisis. No one therefore could make promises on how they would deal with that.
Tony Abbott, after making a big deal about "No New Taxes" immediately promised a Paid Parental Leave Scheme funded by a tax on big companies. He should not have had to put either of these up as "promises". Statements of intent, if conditions allow perhaps, but not promises.
We see Abbott, Robb and Hockey being a little wiser now. They are not "promising" what and when their Budget Surplus will be - only that it will be bigger than Labor's would have been .
We should give up on the idea of "election promises".
17 Feb 2012 4:10:59pm
So, by your reasoning, Gillard backstabbed her own coalition partner, Wilkie.
Who said we couldn't agree on some things?
17 Feb 2012 8:18:42pm
Dugong, that does not make sense.
Wilkie wants to help problem gamblers. So does Gillard.
Putting up a Bill to Parliament when you haven't got the numbers to get it through does not help problem gamblers.
The ACT Clubs have agreed to a trial was the last thing that I read about this.
Wilkie has to save face with his constituents and bide his time. That is what is happening.
You're a bloodthirsty lot aren't you - seeing everything as back-stabbing. You shouldn't judge other people by your own Party's standards and techniques.
What Gillard and Wilkie are doing is called "negotiating", man. "Negotiating" - that thing that Tony Abbott can't do.
17 Feb 2012 9:08:07pm
"Putting up a Bill to Parliament when you haven't got the numbers to get it through does not help problem gamblers."
Then she shouldn't have promised - in writing! - that she would do exactly that. Further, she promised - in writing! - that it would pass. Clearly, these are outrageous promises, and clearly, Wilkie is a fool for believing her. That she was prepared to promise it, however, shows that she is either as naive as Wilkie, or a manipulative liar. I don't think she is naive.
Gillard wants to retain power. That's why Slipper is speaker.
I am not bloodthirsty, I just don't trust a serial liar.
17 Feb 2012 10:17:53pm
Dugong. Can you quote for me this "promise in writing"? Can you give me a URL so that I can read it?
I haven't seen it. I've just googled to see if I can find it.
I can find a reference to a "written promise" that mandatory limits will be introduced by 2014.
Wilkie seems to have got over it (maybe only for the time being).
Anyway, please send me a way to find the actual wording of this "written promise".
17 Feb 2012 10:41:39am
What carbon tax? I know of a CPPS/ETS as per mandate in 2007 and was passed by parliament last year. Only the ignorant, ill-informed or plain liars call it a carbon tax.
17 Feb 2012 11:26:06am
Wong, Gillard and Swan have all called it a carbon tax on Australia's 1000...er sorry 500 biggest polluters.
It is a carbon tax...in fact the worlds largest carbon tax.
17 Feb 2012 2:53:41pm
Mere semantics. Grow up.
17 Feb 2012 4:09:45pm
I see.
So "Only the ignorant, ill-informed or plain liars call it a carbon tax" (JohhnoH) isn't semantics, but "That is effectively a tax and I'm happy to say the word tax" (Julia Gillard)
What's life like on planet Illogical?
17 Feb 2012 11:41:01am
You mean like the PM who also called it a carbon tax?
17 Feb 2012 11:47:52am
"That is effectively a tax and I'm happy to say the word tax"
J Gillard (the ignorant, ill-informed, or just a plain liar), from the same interview.
17 Feb 2012 12:07:16pm
No, you missed the point entirely. There was always going to be a carbon tax. It's completely planned. Why don't you go and ask for the secret documents that form a part of the Labor Review conducted by Faulkner and Bracks. Even KRudd wants the secret chapters to be made public.
Only god can save us from a wedding.
17 Feb 2012 12:23:30pm
"only the ignorant, ill-informed or plain liars call it a carbon tax" what a splendid description of Julia Gillard and most of her cabinet, as most of them have referred to it as a carbon tax or a tax on carbon on many occasions!
17 Feb 2012 1:20:41pm
Very good Johnno. You took careful aim and shot yourself in the foot!
17 Feb 2012 10:42:33am
There was a preliminary "Carbon Tax" in Howard's proposal and the ETS proposed by Labor and agreed to by the Coalition under Turnbull before he was deposed by Abbott.
These were not "Carbon Taxes" as originally proposed by the Greens which was the "Carbon Tax" that Gillard was not going to introduce, and hasn't introduced.
It is amazing that a Carbon Price, not yet levied, is being blamed by Abbott, Abetz etc for everything under the Sun.
17 Feb 2012 1:46:52pm
It is not amazing, it is politics.
Personally, I would have emphasised the Unions role in the sacking of their own members (Qantas), but you can hardly blame an opposition (any opposition) for using the world's highest carbon tax imposed by the government across all industries (some countries have a higher tax, but exclude energy production) especially when that self-same government promised they wouldn't do it in the first place.
17 Feb 2012 2:54:39pm
Not true.
Academics Anonymous:
17 Feb 2012 2:39:34pm
But then he woke up to the fact, it's all just manufactured puff and academic welfare.
He did say, and you probably have blocked this from memory, that he would only do it if the rest of the world did.
17 Feb 2012 8:25:51pm
So you know that Abbott sticks by his "crap" opinion, do you?
Then why is Abbott going on about his Direct Action Solution to climate change, which he agrees will cost a lot of tax-payer money? Is this also dependent upon what the rest of the World does? Tell me true!
Better still point me to the relevant occasions on which Abbott has said anything like that. My memory not being as wonderfully inventive as yours!
Academics Anonymoues:
17 Feb 2012 11:52:24pm
Please try to keep up .. John Howard, not Tony Abbott.
You're so keyed up to attack Tony Abbott you don't even notice when he's not the subject of the conversation.
17 Feb 2012 8:54:20am
But she is shifty and unconvincing. Thats the problem. What we saw on 4Corners was the truth. Good on 4C for showing us what is ofetn hidden .
Anyway if Rudd comes back they will still get slaughtered in the election. It is pointless to speculate that Rudd will change his ways and be a better PM having learned his lesson from the first go. If he has learned anything and changed we would be hearing from people within Foreign Affairs.. The fact that we haven't heard any such thing suggests that he hasn't changed. Therefore why bother brining him back and getting more of the same dysfunction. Barry, you have contacts in foreign affairs- ask them if he is a changed man. I bet most of the ALP caucus has been asking everyone close to Rudd what they think.
Seriously though, the ALP needs to do a better job in filtering out these nutheads to lead the country.
17 Feb 2012 10:46:35am
Why would Labor get slaughtered at the next federal election? They have the runs on the board, godd economic management, low taxation compared to the coalition, lower government spending compared to the previous government, weathered the GFC brillaintly, the federal budget will be in surplus next financial year, leading the industrialised word in low unemployment. These are not statistics but hard facts. Why would the Australian people throw that away and go into real poverty in a master/slave coalition system.
17 Feb 2012 1:21:44pm
Umm, Johnno. You can't dig your way out of a hole by digging deeper.
Ray Matthews:
17 Feb 2012 1:36:36pm
Yes JohnnoH l wholeheartedly agree. Big picture overview seems to get muddied by the myopic minutae of journalistic hunches, perceptions, positionings etc to be first to the 'headline story of the day' no matter how unimportant the actual story. Competitive self interest, holding a storyline, often on behalf of very media savvy politicians, and return favours, instead of reporting policy of significant national interest. The Opposition has had a dream run by the media, suffering minimal scrutiny on policy or on its extreme attacks on the Prime Minister in particular. Most recent being Abbott advisor even interjecting the PM from the sidelines 'in the chamber' . The word 'malevolent'and other nasty, denigrating vitriol against a PM who is increasingly being admired by good fairminded citizens, as she with decorum and wisdom, gets on with the serious business of implementing reformist, progressive Government Policy. Stop the 'soapie' journalism Barrie, Michele, Oaksey, and friends and give some substance, or there will soon be no one left to stand on the lectern for the annual Andrew Olly Lecture. lt is you journalists who are not giving this Government the 'oxygen' it so rightly deserves. interes
17 Feb 2012 1:48:58pm
Please provide FACTS from the budget papers showing,"lower govt spending compared to the previous govt".
Then apologise.
17 Feb 2012 8:54:33am
Journalistic ethics.Now that is new one. I have never seen one with ethics, its always about themselves and their scoops. Politicians and journalists are two peas in a pod. They need one another to keep themselves relevant. In the meanwhile the rest of the country gets on with their lives. This endless speculation and reading of the tea leaves on leadership of either party helps no one. In the meanwhile there is no serious commentary on matters of bigger importance. The economy, social issues, poverty , indigenous welfare, everything is seen in the prism of politics. Though finally education has surfaced this morning, but that report comes from the Grattan institute not the journalists who are too busy speculating about leadership challenges.
Laurie Kidd:
17 Feb 2012 8:54:43am
Agree. Until there is Oxygen, then there will be suffocation.
17 Feb 2012 8:55:31am
Oh and would there was a real media, an estate so free from the purse string dictatorship of their overlords this story would be repeated, no investigated, reported, names given and a serious campaign of questioning as to the credibility and the motivations of a man who would bring down a government, would see hate filled scripts be thrust upon a party his party for the fulfillment of his quest to gain power.
Would that there was just one honest man to follow the first in forewarning of a future that many consist of two men who would for personal gain and power so damage their own parties images.
Then and only then would be be able to hold our press up, our journalists as being worthy of the access to power from their positions.
We Lose everything if we do not apply democratic equality not simply discuss it. We are in this estate no better than those we seek to remove from office in other countries and they are empowered for seeing this. Rudd must be outed and Abbotts real impact be reported for a man who is unable to speak for himself and is operated by his adviser is not worthy nor strong enough to represent this country. Every international head of state must speak only to his adviser then that adviser may decide how our country may respond. Or a man who seeks to use against our pm what he himself is doing does not deserve to be in parliament.
There are less people calling for the removal of the pm than those that call for honest unbiased and thorough reporting of the real truths. Wake up and name these people.
17 Feb 2012 10:50:56am
These journalists who will not disclose their "sources" are interested only in their own careers and pay-packets - and that includes you, Barrie Cassidy.
"Tell the truth and shame the Devil" used to be a good principle.
Now, for "senior" journalists it's hint and imply, spread gossip and innuendo to keep one's name on the by-lines and to make a hack stringer into a celebrity - "Barrie Cassidy says ...",
"Peter Hartcher reports ...", "According to Michelle Grattan ..."
"Muck-rakers" all when it suits them.
17 Feb 2012 1:23:41pm
Surely when it comes to Labor, Grattan is more inclined to describe muck as powerful fertiliser which will make beautiful flowers bloom.
17 Feb 2012 2:55:55pm
I would have thought that muck was also industrial sludge and pollution that would not let anything grow.
17 Feb 2012 8:56:48am
I find the continuing obsession concerning Kevin Rudd by Cassidy very unprofessional for an employee of the ABC. His bias against Rudd has been evident for years, to the point of being embarrassing and tedious. Now Gillard is a dead dog he is panicking because it questions his credibility as a commentator. Someone should remind him: he is not a journalist for the Telegraph.
17 Feb 2012 10:50:59am
No, he is an ex-press Scecretary for Bob Hawke.
If he doesn't know the machinations of the ALP, no-one does.
17 Feb 2012 8:57:22am
As a voter, I am sick of hearing about trivia such as who said what prior to the coup - does it really matter now? It's not as though we don't have major problems that need to be faced.
I really question the media's preoccupation, and the air they are giving the opposition. Did Julie Bishop (aka the Head Prefect) demand Howard resign because he lied to Costello about handing over the leadership? Abbott's sole response to less negativity: get Pyne to do more of the negative stuff (but no positive stuff from Abbott).
Gillard seems incapable of setting the agenda, and makes poor decisions such as appearing on Four Corners. She made a major mistake by appointing Rudd to the ministry in the first place.
I cannot believe that Rudd will ever become leader again, despite the frantic media speculation now maintained for over a year (each time it's just around the corner). Latham is spot on: Rudd is an egomaniac.
17 Feb 2012 8:59:28am
Marcus Junius Brutus was eventually undone by those he pardoned. The same fate awaits Julia Gillard. Such is the nature of Political Power.
17 Feb 2012 9:00:05am
All very well, Barrie........but you miss the real points. First Australians are no longer listening to Gillard; second even if they do listen, she is perceived as an unethical, without integrity, untrustworthy and a liar; third, Rudd is not seen as the solution, the majority of Australians would welcome a chance to have a federal election right now to clean out the government and the tainted "independents". I am afraid though, we may have to limp through another 18 months of dysfunctional Labor leadership and government.
17 Feb 2012 9:00:31am
The whole Gillard for PM thing, shows just how conservative, head-in-sand, plain up-itself the bulk of the population actually is....though we see it over & over in other issues such as Climate Change & boatpeople. How dare the Labor party upset the natural balance by electing: A WOMAN as leader, a woman who is academic, youngish, not married, childless (by choice), nominally Left and Does not believe in God! Gosh...how many apple carts are upset here, how many cosy little situations are put under question! Rumble, rumble, rumble....nope she gotta go!....get Kevie back...no surprises here...trouble is Simon Crean spelt it out ...Kev ain't the man because he ain't no TEAM player....
17 Feb 2012 10:10:16am
"a woman who is academic"
Not much of an 'academic'.
Gillard doesn't seem to know much about law.
a) Gillard's comments characterising the actions of Assange/Wikileaks releasing diplomatic cables as 'criminal,
b) The Government's 'Malaysia policy
17 Feb 2012 10:51:17am
And...the other reasons I suggested..what no answer to these...and your LAW example are wrong..mate! Start thinking for yourself!
17 Feb 2012 11:54:08am
I do think for myself mate.
You're the one quoting Simon Crean without much thought!
Since when has being a 'team player' been a prerequisite for being an effective leader of a political party?
Does Simon Crean think John Howard was a team player? Is Tony Abbott a 'team player'
What a load of rubbish!
17 Feb 2012 10:21:22am
So, her constant lying, reneging on agreements and loss of all credibility aren't the reasons for her impending demise. It's all because of her gender!
I suppose it will be the same with the female premiers and GG?
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 10:45:22am
Do you represent the ABC?
If you do not the moderators should ban you for posting under false pretences.
17 Feb 2012 1:24:56pm
Ah yes, we must silence the messenger!
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 3:08:23pm
Right Wingers: "Ah, yes, we must misrepresent!"
Says it all really.
17 Feb 2012 10:49:35am
Grow up mate..and start doing your own thinking rather than merely mouthing back what you hear in the so called news media..FACT...... ALL pollies & others in power position LIE ...why because little minds such as yours can't tolerate the actual truth.
So why don't you now list off the LIES she has told..bet I can already check the list!
17 Feb 2012 1:30:23pm
Another favour Labor smeer,
Because we as politicians are lies, therefore all politicians are liars.
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 3:03:38pm
I thought it was all Tony Abbott's fault!
Lewis of The Hills:
17 Feb 2012 11:00:34am
Anybody, man or woman, who pronounces hyperbole as hyperbowl couldn't be much of an academic.
17 Feb 2012 12:42:00pm
Let's make all future aspirants for Uni places, election to civil office (MP etc), registration as solicitors etc line up for a pronunciation test.
There go future careers for anyone who says
"trate" instead of "tray" for "trait",
"minuA" instead of "minuET" for "minuet",
"new-cla" instead of "new-clee-ah" for "nuclear",
- leaving only me and you, Lewis, (or was it at some ancestral time Louis?)
"Or-stray-ja" instead of "Or-strail-ee-ja" for "Australia",
"haitch" instead of "aitch" for "H",
"should of" instead of "should have".
That should remove a good number of radio and TV broadcasters, sportsmen, politicians, as well as many very able people, first or second generation Australians, from the professions. It would probably take out a good many dinkum Aussies too.
17 Feb 2012 9:30:02pm
And if we remove everyone who says, "try and ... ", instead of the correct "try to ...", it will eliminate most of the journalists, & many politicians as well.
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 3:14:24pm
At least the Prime Minister KNOWS what the word "hyperbole" means. Even if she didn't know how to pronounced it. (It's not a word that's commonly spoken, so he mispronunciation is forgivable).
If you want to talk about ignorance, paste the following into google:
Abbott Peak Oil Video Sydney Writers Festival
You'll see that Abbott hadn't even heard of the term "Peak Oil".
For a wannabe leader of this country, to be ignorant of one of the biggest issues of the century, one that affects the entire world, is very very worrying...
Lewis of The Hills:
17 Feb 2012 8:21:27pm
I had a look at that video clip &, yes, Abbott was unfamiliar with the term but he very much understood the concept. Robert Manne's explanation was very superficial as when world oil production starts to decline. Abbott went further & explained it in the correct economic context as when crude oil prices no longer justified the exploration & extraction of the remaining global crude oil reserves. Abbott point was that this was always going to be a moving target as prices would always follow supply & demand. I thought Abbott had a very good handle on the whole concept of "peak oil" but not the jargon.
17 Feb 2012 8:37:00pm
I wonder how many of Hermit, Custard, Lewis of the Hills, Thingee from Wollongong, Tory Boy, Dugong etc know what Peak Oil is?
I wonder how many of them know about the City of Masdar in Abu Dhabi? I wonder if Tony Abbott knows?
From Wikipedia:
Masdar is a project in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Its core is a planned city, which is being built by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, with the majority of seed capital provided by the government of Abu Dhabi. Designed by the British architectural firm Foster and Partners, the city will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology. The city is being constructed 17 kilometres east-south-east of the city of Abu Dhabi, beside Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Masdar City will host the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The city is designed to be a hub for cleantech companies. Its first tenant is the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, which has been operating in the city since it moved into its campus in September 2010.
17 Feb 2012 9:28:29pm
Presumably, as oil becomes more scarce, its price will go up. This will make alternate energy sources more attractive.
Perfectly reasonable supply and demand economics.
But for a government to artificially increase the cost of a good such that our competitiveness is reduced relative to overseas industries is poor economics.
Right now, our manufacturers are uncompetitive due to the high Australian dollar, and what Bill Shorten euphemistically calls "input costs". He fails to mention that those input costs include the inflated salaries of unionised workers relative to overseas, and will soon include the increased cost of energy (again, relative to overseas) of energy, increased, in part, by a carbon tax.
A carbon tax, I need not remind you, that we were told would happen under a government led by Gillard.
Now it might surprise you, but the Alcoa plant in Port Henry has had MASSIVE subsidies on its electricity costs for over 50 years. So much for making the "big polluters" pay.
Now if Kevin Rudd DOES topple her by 1 July 2012, perhaps then I will concede that Gillard kept her promise. But I'm sure if that does happen, leftie apologists will claim it was all part of a master plan, and that their side had everything under control.
17 Feb 2012 11:27:16pm
Let's chuck out all politicians who say "alternate" when they should say "alternative". :-)
But there are problems that future politicians will have to face that are far from the trivialities of "correct usage" of words.
Here is a simple equation. Energy comes to us from the Sun as light and is converted into heat. The amount of heat radiated from the Earth is less than the amount coming in. The Earth grows warmer. Humans generate heat. This has been happening for millenia, unquestionably.
Some of this energy has been "captured" and stored in coal and oil deposits (Just as Abbott expects his Direct Action Plan will do).
In the last 250 years we have started using (burning) these coal and oil deposits in greater and greater quantities thus producing THREE effects. But we only seem to be worrying about two of them.
1. We are worrying about CO2 emissions. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that lets light from the Sun through but impedes the loss of heat back into Space.
2. Oil and coal will eventually run out because they are non-renewable. (Note the development of Masdar City. Note the Peak Oil discussion). Maybe not in our time, but the human race expects to be around for a few more hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
3. Burning oil and coal adds to Global Warming. And this is the factor ignored. We are rapidly releasing, in the form of heat, sequestered energy laid down over the millennia.
Now many people think that the answer to our energy needs is nuclear power. But this is even worse.
Firstly the materials (uranium) are also non-renewable.
Secondly the amount of energy extracted for use is an inefficiently small fraction of what has been mined, and the rest has to be thrown away, stored in a non-recoverable form.
Thirdly nuclear energy plants are very hot and pump hot water into the oceans. This in itself adds to Global Warming, even though CO2 emissions are not involved.
What have we got then?
Heat coming in from the Sun and trapped by CO2 emissions.
The release of heat on the Earth from the Earth's previously sequestered non-renewable energy sources - oil, gas, coal, uranium.
But I need energy to power this computer, I cry. Sure. But this computer is converting electrical energy into heat also, as are my light globes, as is my car, even I, myself, and 7 billion others are converting food into heat.
The best that we can do is to use the energy coming from the Sun (via solar, wind, tides) for our needs, and leave the sequestered energy sources, sequestered.
Would you please tell your local members of Parliament this. Malcolm Turnbull would possibly understand.
17 Feb 2012 11:29:16pm
Puhlease - there is more to life than economics. There is the survival of life on Earth, for one.
17 Feb 2012 9:19:20pm
I thought Climate Change was the biggest issue...
Or is it overpopulation?
Or is it food production?
Cut the hyperbole. And ftsnkly, for someone who is a lawyer AND a politician, "Hyperbowl"is apalling.
But so is "High Dungeon". And Tallyband.
17 Feb 2012 9:42:06pm
Not knowing how to pronounce hyperbole, shows that it's a word she's not familiar with, but one of her speech-writers or advisors writes it in a speech and forgets to tell her how to say it.
18 Feb 2012 12:30:44am
First rule of public speaking: use words you are familiar and comfortable with.
First rule of speach writing: use words the speaker knows how to say. (Don't they practice???)
Applies equally to both "hyperbole" and "high dungeon".
Doesn't excuse Taliband. For goodness sake, we have been at war with them for 10 years.
What's your excuse for that one?
17 Feb 2012 9:01:03am
Will the MSM stop with this rubbish already? Enough is enough. You lot have been blabbing on about this drivel for months and months.
We've seen more legislative achievements this week from a Prime Minister in a minority Government against ferocious opposition that is not just limited to The Liberal Party but the media and other powerful, vested interests.
Yet all you lazy hacks can talk about is an event that hasn't even happened.
Sick of it.
17 Feb 2012 10:13:12am
Agree with you 100% Sarah.
The Prime Minister has dealt with so much crap and she is still standing, that in itself is a major story.
Watching question time while the opposition disparage her is incredibly barbaric. They (opposition) question her credibility which is a absolute serious matter all the while laughing and sneering.
I respect her for her inner strength. The PM is one person I want leading this country that can shrug it off and still get legislation through. Go girl...
17 Feb 2012 10:54:37am
So when Keating spoke of "doing you slowly", that is OK?
Or when the Seante was described as "unrepresentative swill"?
Were she a person of integrity, I too would admire her inner strength. But she isn't, and with the best will, I can't.
Ray Matthews:
17 Feb 2012 2:42:32pm
Hear hear KML and Sarah. Julia Gillard has been impressive right from the start. Yes, she speaks plain Australian, as do most, unlike the expensive, prettily articulated but viciously, and callously administered verbage pronunciation of those in Opposition, most often acting as 'An lnquisition', or Lynch Mob. Julia Gillard is for real, and genuinly committed to a life of active Public Service, to the 'whole Australian community. That is her shield , and it is working well. As policy is implemented, many more Australians will open their eyes, and minds, and listen to, and observe this highly intelligent Lady proudly leading the Nation 'her way' with no fuss, and with dignity that l see little of opposite. Those good, fair minded Australians who seriously care about our national well being, especially the provision of vital Government services, will increase in numbers, acknowledging that, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard has done well. No spin, just action, and with wise pragmatism bridging the gap between 'old Labor' and the shaping of progressive Environmental Protection, and Renewable Energy Policy. These latter policy initiatives, particularly regarding 'old growth forest protection', will seriously test Julia Gillard's committment to the wider community, versus the vested interests of Forestry affiliated Union workers, particularly in Tasmania, an old Labor catch cry of jobs jobs jobs is by now decades 'out of date'. lf Gillard genuinly moves forward progressively with this old world versus new consciousness issue, then truly, the broader Australian community can say " she'll be right mate ".
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 3:02:52pm
If Gillard had been honest with her promises at the last election she'd be enjoying dream polling now... the fact is that she at the least manipulated the truth and is now paying the price. Somone who misleads the public deserves poor polling and attacks in parliament... they lose the respect of the voting public. If you want to call that "crap" go ahead... we were dished a load of "crap" at the last election and will finally get to shrug it off once the next polling day has come.
17 Feb 2012 10:24:23am
Look in the mirror and ask yourself, "did I think the same way about Howard and Costello and the reporting of their leadership issue?'
Then grab a dictionary and look up 'hypocrisy'.
17 Feb 2012 11:43:54am
Remember the accusations of gutlessness levelled against Costello for not challenging? The speculation about a possible leadership challenge went on in the last 2 of Howard's elections but somehow the current government's supporters think this is all a new thing invented simply to undermine Gillard.
17 Feb 2012 12:42:42pm
I looked it up - there was a photo of Tony Abbott hiding from a dying Bernie Banton.
17 Feb 2012 11:16:32am
Well, actually, someone from the media (Michelle Grattan in The Age) finally acknowledged that point this morning.
Lewis of The Hills:
17 Feb 2012 12:03:34pm
Speak for yourself. I'm enjoying the entertainment.
17 Feb 2012 9:01:36am
Cassidy seems to know a great deal about Kevin's Rudd 'off the record' conversations with other journalists. But of course the veracity of Barry's inside information may never be confirmed because of the so-called journalistic ethics.
Cassidy is saying believe because I'm a journalist. He is also the host of Insiders and has been during and since the Rudd prime minister-ship. As a regular viewer I know that in that time he has not had one good word to say about Rudd and has taken every available opportunity to denigrate him, often aided and abetted by any willing panelist, most notably Bolt and Akermann.
Based upon my previous observations I cannot accept Cassidy's judgement as balanced, impartial or accurate.
17 Feb 2012 1:26:26pm
Cassidy's main criticism of Labor is that it isn't Labor enough. Despite that he is a consistent barracker for Labor.
17 Feb 2012 9:01:53am
Journalistic ethics? What a quaint concept in this time of silence regarding the Australia Day sleaze.
17 Feb 2012 9:03:25am
So they are both deniers?
And Julia Gillard's claims of outrage that Kevin Rudd was doubting her loyalty are....? True? Projection?
Oh it's an old trick to accuse the other of what you are actually doing yourself.
Maybe Mr Rudd feels entitled to shore up the numbers and test the waters. Why wouldn't he? Isn't that what happened to him?
It's all a merry go round and Ms Gillard should expect the same treatment she dished out. That seems fair.
The most galling thing for the politicians who do not support Mr Rudd as leader is his popularity with the voters. Those politicians used that to get themselves elected on his coat tails.
17 Feb 2012 10:24:28am
If mr Rudd has the aspiration and the numbers he should challange as is his right, otherwise he should stop undermining the government in a destructive manner that would not bennefit him, the party or the nation.
B. Ford:
17 Feb 2012 9:04:27am
Give us a break Cassidy. If the PM is stumbling it's because she is being pushed and shoved by the media.
"Julia Gillard had one of her worst weeks in politics essentially because trivial matters were badly handled". Trivial for sure but the media ensures that trivia is beat up into a full blown national disaster.
"The speculation that is killing Gillard and the government will go on no matter what." Cassidy, you and your peers will make sure ofn that.
And then you have the temerity to talk about the "cloak of jourmalistic ethics".
The term unaustralian is in common use, but the behavior of the media in recent times is anti Australia. You could all be working for Murdoch. Journalists have no credibility.
17 Feb 2012 12:07:05pm
A staffer in Gillard's office was involved in instigating race riots. Fact.
A head Unionist that supports the ALP has been caught on camera thorouhly distorting Abbott's comments in order to instigate said race riot. Fact.
Gillard uses weasel words to answer a straightforward question. Fact.
Gillard still has not explained what "a good government that lost it's way" means, or how it is different from the current circumstances. Fact.
Kevin Rudd has a Cheshire Cat grin on his face. Permanently. Fact.
And yet you blame journalists.
17 Feb 2012 1:27:47pm
Yes, fancy somebody asking her a question in a one-to-one interview and actually insisting that she answer the question.
The Women's Weekly is far more sympathetic, and they have a mastery of photoshop.
Small One:
17 Feb 2012 9:10:40am
Kevin Rudd is a snake. I have lost any remaining shred of respect I had for him. He will never be PM again, and most of his party absolutely despise him. The Prime Minister should call a vote on the leadership asap and put him in his place. And another thing, I am so SICK of this soap opera of leadership speculation. Can we have some discussion and debate on what policies and legislation proposed by both parties are going to do for the nations benefit?
Another Aussie:
17 Feb 2012 10:31:55am
There is one thing that the ALP backbenchers despise more than Kevin Rudd. And that is the prospect of loosing their seat at the 2013 election. With so many about to lose in the scheduled annihilation next year you can expect to see more and more of them convert their support to Kevin Rudd despite the fact that the faction leaders own their vote.
17 Feb 2012 12:56:08pm
Considering they didn't do it when Labor's primary was at its lowest what makes you think they'll do it now?
17 Feb 2012 9:11:39am
The kiss of Judas...
How much longer do we as a country have to endure this
The country is looking for an honest leader, one who can
place his hand on the Word of God and pledge allegiance.
One who will stand firm on issues such as assylum seekers,
one who admits the tyrannical nature of the so called 'Carbon
Can't wait to get rid of the conniving, manipulative Gillard/Brown
Roll on election day...p'leeeeeze
17 Feb 2012 11:12:40am
Oh, I see.
Gillard does not believe in God. Down with Gillard!
You say, Rudd is a believer who can "place his hand on the Word of God and pledge allegiance". No doubt - I do believe that he is a believer.
But sorry, mate, Rudd also believes that Climate Change is the great moral issue of our time.
I would think that Rudd would not demonise asylum seekers, (As the Daily Telegraph and Abbott on Channel 9 have done today), but behave towards them as a Christian (in the compassionate sense of the word) should - letting "he who is without sin cast the first stone" and "doing unto others as he would have them do unto him" as well as "turning the left cheek" and recognising the difficulty facing the rich wanting to enter heaven". Well, maybe the asylum seekers though, if Cassidy is right, "loving his enemy" is a step too far for Rudd when it comes to Gillard and he is more "Old Testament" than looking for the blessings from meekness and mercy.
However Rudd might be inclined to tell the miners, like Rinehart, "to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars".
17 Feb 2012 12:54:07pm
Love your work Lucy.
Academics Anonymous:
17 Feb 2012 2:42:19pm
Shakespeare wasn't talking minerals darling .. I think you're getting confused up there in the elitist heights of your imagination, or delusion, whatever.
17 Feb 2012 8:50:21pm
Sorry Academics Anonymous but ... darling ... it was Jesus (Mark 12:17) not Shakespeare who said
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's" when Jesus looked at a coin with Caesar's head on it.
Do I have to explain this to you, Your High and Mighty Academicianship?
The miners, such as Rinehart and Twiggy Forest, are whinging about giving their aureus (gold) and denarius (silver) coins to the people of Australia via taxes.
17 Feb 2012 9:14:07am
Regrettably, Julia Gillards days are numbered. She started off under a cloud of suspicion that she had assassinated Kevin Rudd and the truth is that she never recovered from that widely held assumption. The media have had a field day (every day) in never giving her the clear air necessary to capitalise on her impressive legislative performance. Additional to the hostile media she has unfortunately been unable to communicate effectively with the voting public. Her advisers have a lot to answer for and her speechwriters in particular should be shot at dawn. The debacle of her re-election campaign launch where she constantly repeated the "moving forward" mantra exposed her to ridicule from which she never recovered. If she has any chance of recovering her standing in the electorate she needs to stop treating the public like mugs. Come what may however, if the ALP has any chance of surviving it seems the only viable alternative available is Kevin Rudd.
17 Feb 2012 9:15:31am
All well and good. The problem is that Gillard has spun the hatchet job she did on Rudd, in such a way that is diametrically opposite to the facts that have since come out. She repeatedly stated that the chance of her challenging were less than her being full forward for the Bulldogs, that she only decided to mount a challenge at the very last minute. Now we know, that this is untrue. We know about polling commissioned by the NSW right which Gillard is not prepared to give a clear statement one way or another whether she saw it. There are also claims that she took this polling around MPs to show she would improve the approval ratings over Rudd. We know that Bitar and co were tittle tattling to the US embassy that a challenge was on its way. I feel sorry for Kim Beasley- imagine being summoned to see Hilary Clinton to be told that they knew more that he did despite him being a former labour leader. How embarrassing? Who else but Gillard could mount a challenge to Rudd? Certainly not that clown Swann. I watchec Gillard's performance on 4 corners. I found her quite sinister and threatening when she was asked some fairly straightforward questions. Yesterday we learned that she has banned her colleagues from taking notes at meetings, claiming that there are minute takers there to do the job. Anyone who has had anything remotely to do with Canberra will know that the minutes of meetings rarely reflect exactly what was said. I know from personal experience that everywhere in Canberra, the truth is particularly elastic.
Whether Rudd challenges or not is immaterial. Gillard is finished. Nobody will trust her now. She really has not the slightest notion of what is involved in telling the truth.
It is a great pity since someone needs to stand up to the big business interests, the banks, the press (and not just the Murdoch press) and the vested interests which are all lining up to bring this government down. Gillard and the faceless men from the NSW right, who actually pull the strings and will determine her future, are just not to be trusted running a government. And, no, I am not a Lib or an Abbott supporter. Barrie do try to sound a little less partisan for Julia.
17 Feb 2012 9:16:51am
Whats being missed by the media amongst this Rudd v Gillard fiasco is that we have a government in a MESS, we have a new tax coming in that even with BILLIONS spent on tax cuts and bribes will still see prices rise, we have a record national gross debt that is rising faster than ANY EU country, we have massive waste and mismanagement of policies, boatpeople,BER,Grocery watch,fuel watch,green loans,set top boxes,lap tops for students,NBN, etc we also have the prospect of massive job losses due to the state of the economy the high dollar and more so the carbon tax. But no,lets get bogged down with which of the 2 worst PM's in HISTORY will lead this debacle, WAKE UP
Kenmore Guy:
17 Feb 2012 9:44:46am
Well done paulh! You can name some of the governments achievements. Gold star to you.
Now for the advanced part of the course, could you please explain what these achievements mean?
Or didn't you get that far yet???
17 Feb 2012 1:30:28pm
Kenmore, only in North Korea will the populace tolerate failures being declared to be triumphs.
The Australian electorate may be slow to judge, but they are very harsh when they've been let down.
17 Feb 2012 3:04:49pm
As in Iraq.....as in WMD's?
Drunken Sailor:
17 Feb 2012 9:20:25am
Gillard looked "shifty and unconvincing" because she is shifty and unconvincing. Rudd was a very poor PM, but Gillard has done immeasurable damage to the office with her squalid and tawdry performance. The approach she takes is one that may well be suited to the seedy, self serving, treacherous actions of juniors in the union/ALP ranks, but its most unbecoming for the office of PM. Its surely just a matter of time before those with some dignity in the party kick her out.
Another Aussie:
17 Feb 2012 10:27:44am
Hear, hear.
17 Feb 2012 12:25:14pm
I think its time that someone in Gillard's office started drafting her resignation speech. Without her knowledge of course.
17 Feb 2012 2:42:52pm
Had to laugh at the young female journalist who asked Rudd: "Have your staff started drafting your victory speech yet?"
I reckon even Rudd thought that was funny. ;-)
17 Feb 2012 9:20:37am
I agree with Barry that Gillard has needlessly obfuscated over her awareness of the plot to role Kev07. Her lack of candour in the Four Corners interview has lost me as a supporter. But I must question the medias role, including the ABC, in generally presenting a very narrow and negative picture of her. Why dont we get the media opinion pieces about how Rudd had to go in 2010 because polling was in absolute free fall? The only reason Kev07 seems to have legs now is because the media is writing him up as Mr Popular. Perhaps there are parallel universes and Ive been in the wrong one for a few years, looking back on Kev as historys man rather forward to tomorrows leader as the media pack seem to do.
17 Feb 2012 10:45:32am
You have swallowed the Union lie about 'polls in free fall'. Unpublished internal polling remains unverifiable.
The Unions' Party was ahead 52 to 48 and Mr Rudd was dozens ahead in preferred PM polls in June 2010. The betrayal by the AWU and Miss Gillard had nothing to do with polls.
17 Feb 2012 9:22:51am
If I knew for sure who killed the ETS - the candidates are Rudd and Gillard - then I would be clearer on the leadership issue. I believe that the spill was a dreadful mistake (one-timers panicking after a few bad polls). The best thing now, I believe, is for everyone, including Rudd, to get behind Gillard. The next election is winnable, if only because of th pathetic opposition.
But the ETS - Rudd called climate change action a moral issue. If he killed the ETS then he has no credibility. But if Gillard killed it, and then instroduced the climate tax, then her credibility is nowhere.
Hopfully neither Rudd, nor Gillard, killed the ETS leaving their credibility intact. In which case, like the spill, it was probably one-timers panicking after a few bad polls.
17 Feb 2012 10:59:02am
The only information I have seen on this issue is that it was Gillard who strongly advocated killing the ETS. I have not heard that Rudd wanted to.
17 Feb 2012 10:35:17pm
Dogong, the only information that you have is what you have read in the newspaper or heard raised on TV.
You have no information, actually.
When asked about who did or said what in Cabinet, Gillard's answer has been consistently that she believes in the confidentiality of Cabinet discussions.
If you have ever been a member of a decision making body you will know that confidentiality is essential if members are to be able to speak freely.
I was for many years a member of a State Govt. statutory committee and was sworn to secrecy - not because there was any skulldudgery going on but because (i) any leaks could lead to misunderstandings which would be dangerous, (ii) money could be made if some people acquired knowledge of decisions ahead of others,(iii) I, in particular, used to "fly" ideas for discussion, and after hearing the opinions of others vote against them, (iv) the committee's decisions then went to the appropriate Minister and were released with the imprimatur of the State Government in the Govt. Gazette and were not to be acted upon until this was done.
Cabinet discussions should be confidential. Cabinet decisions are, in due course, made public. They are then "owned" by every member of the Cabinet.
So it may be thirty years before any outsider knows who said what.
17 Feb 2012 9:26:33am
Thanks Barry. Another contribution to a story that is not happening. With some media organizations and individuals you can understand how a prejudicial slant or personal bias may take hold frequently on one issue or another. Particularly imagined issues like this one. With the ABC however, many people have come to expect high quality fact based reporting of something that is actually going on.
In this era of the 24hour news cycle, the ABC has also come under pressure to supply never ending content.
It too has developed a practice of of regularly producing content that is not news,not happening or both.
This often manifests itself in the form of copious amounts of "analysis" or "opinion", in an effort to keep going for 24.
I'm talking about you "The Drum".
Plenty of stuff to argue for or against without fabricating scenarios.
Maybe a leadership challenge may happen. It hasn't yet.
I would in fact welcome a leadership challenge, not from any bias or preference, but to shut up this nonsense.
I would ask that the ABC stop being a part of this hysterical frenzy and get back to facts.
Something is actually happening or it isn't.
It's not like the ABC needs to worry about upsetting it's advertisers.
Just it's shareholders.
Simple Man:
17 Feb 2012 11:24:47am
Great comment Rob.
"The Drum" concerns me to.
But it does serve some good purpose. It seems to occupy the time of its participants and reduce their contribution to written articles.
Perhaps because of my age and upbringing I feel like I have to treat the written words far more seriously, while flippant squawks on "The Drum" can be considered humorous and don't carry the same weight.
Still it must have an impact on those dependant upon TV.
Simple Man:
17 Feb 2012 9:28:35am
A peculiar article Barry.
The main aim of this article seems to be to destroy the idea of the cloak of journalistic ethics (whatever that means now probably something the size of a tissue made out of tissue paper and just as strong), which just seems to me to be a little strange.
I would have thought you would have wanted to distance yourself from Murdoch/NEWS/Sun, etc.
This seems more an article playing politics rather than commenting on it and doesnt seem to have anything worth saying.
17 Feb 2012 9:54:38am
You are absolutely right, Simple Man.
Its an article about nothing and is based on whispers that have not been substantiated - or will not be reported as fact.
If you can only speculate and not state the facts than so-called journalism, in this case, is reduced to gossip.
The ABC and Barrie Cassidy should be better than that.
17 Feb 2012 1:31:37pm
Agreed Patricia, but not only when the articles are damaging to Labor.
Yeah so:
17 Feb 2012 9:29:22am
Is there any further proof needed that the man is just not leadership material? This whole business smacks of self-obsession: the need for vindication, the taking back of what is 'rightfully his' (at the expense of the greater good), the conviction that he, and only he, has all the answers.
Kevin, please learn from history. It was precisely this narcissism that cost you the top job in the first place. Your dictatorial style has no place in an enlightened democracy. You have a snowflake's chance of being PM again and you're maneuverings are only further destabilising an already precarious situation. Hell you're probably even using these inherent minority-government difficulties as a misguided justification of your responsibility to act. But all that does is confirm to the public that your ego is a greater priority than the welfare of your party and this country.
Please, the time has come for you to just let it go.
Michael from Hobart:
17 Feb 2012 9:29:32am
A good effort to 'background' the reading public on why journalists keep on carping about an ALP spill. Mind you it took all my concentration to even open this story, there have been so many contributions without a skerrick of evidence. The 4% that follow politics between elections can well remember when, during his first term John Howard looked like a one term PM until 9/11 turned up and gave him something to glue to.
If the public didn't see any narrative in John Howard's leadership it is no wonder that they can't see it with Julia Gillard. I sorely wanted her to succeed, to prevail, and became increasingly annoyed at the stories without substance that were forever appearing about leadership tension in the ALP. It seemed like every journo was writing a story about the Gillard-Rudd contest when there was nothing interesting coming out of Canberra.
During the current parliamentary session I thought that the PM's real problem might be that people don't recognize what she stands for. Mind you, the opposition have often demonstrated that they don't stand for anything either. Perhaps that is a story line that journalists could latch onto, a genuine contest that engages the government and the opposition at the present time.
If journalists did that they might connect with interested observers rather than continually frustrating them.
17 Feb 2012 11:34:50am
"I thought that the PM's real problem might be that people don't recognize what she stands for." Michael from Hobart.
Precisely - she has lied , misled and flipped so frequently that nobody does know what she stands for nor whether what the PM says she believes in will be the case tomorrow . She admonishes the opposition to "tell the truth" in QT this week - Oh how I laughed at that ! Pot Kettle Black !
My mother told me when I was younger one lie leads to another . Julia should take heed of this. She should also remember that once in a hole the best thing to do is stop digging. Her credibility is shot , integrity long gone into question and hopefully her tenure as PM will be soon over .
17 Feb 2012 1:41:52pm
"during his first term John Howard looked like a one term PM until 9/11 turned up and gave him something to glue to."
Howard was elected in 1996, 9/11 was in 2001 .. he was in his second term.
Phew you almost looked really stupid there! nice escape .. oh wait!
"the PM's real problem might be that people don't recognize what she stands "
So the problem is the people? too dumb? Seriously you think it's not her problem, it's someone else's?
That's taking a sense of entitlement too far I'm afraid, into galloping self obsession and narcissism.
17 Feb 2012 9:32:21am
She should challenge him now,today,call a press conference and publicly announce a leadership ballot for Monday.
It will short circuit Rudd,remove any material for further infantile ramblings from Dr No and his disciples and free up valuable advertising space for News and Fairfax in their papers,lord knows the poor dears could do with the extra cash.
It will also spare the populace in general from the incessant pointless speculation and maybe we can all get on with life without hearing from every "political commentator" (the qualifications of which have dropped to high school work experience levels) every time somebody flushes a toilet in Canberra.
17 Feb 2012 9:34:33am
Up until this article Barrie I viewed your observations as credible and worthy of consideration.
Please, write about something other than the rubbish around the possible leadership challenge.
Whatever games Rudd is playing he does not have the courage, the nous, or it seems the numbers. Someone should just tell him to run away and play Foreign Minister and declare that he will not be challenging once and for all so the Government can get on with the business of governing.
He should have been diminished to the back bench and then just faded into obscurity.
As a Brisbane resident I have absolutely no respect for Rudd at all.
Now please lets get on with the real news.
17 Feb 2012 1:32:36pm
Rudd does run away playing foreign minister. The trouble is that he keeps coming back for new cheque books.
17 Feb 2012 9:34:57am
And so Kevin gets back the leadership that should never have been taken away and which Julia ought to have refused when offered . . . then what?
For anyone prepared to think ahead, the prospects either way are not pretty.
There's a saying in chess - 'every move weakens'. Obviously there aren't a lot of chess players in modern Labor's smoke-cleansed rooms.
Maybe if Labor believed it had something worth fighting for other than the ambitions of competing careerists, it might have a better idea of how to end its current woes and stop making the same mistakes it has been making repeatedly since Keating destabilised and then toppled Hawke in 1991.
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:48:39pm
As I see it, the problem for Labor is not so much the leader, it's the policies and how they go about selling them.... everyone in Labor said there wouldn't be a carbon tax, and now there is. Swinging voters hate the carbon tax and these guys are now paying the price for poor policy and a terrible sales job at the last election.
If Labor came up with some decent policys that appealed to the swinging voter and stopped the slimy sales jobs, they might have half a chance... although I think now everyone is planning to punish them for their current efforts no matter what they do.
Rod Hagen:
17 Feb 2012 9:35:23am
Pity Barry Cassidy, Michelle Grattan, Peter Hartcher & a host of others have been so obsessed with this matter that news of far greater importance has been barely touched upon for months.
What about real issues facing Australia and Australians?
Any chance we could have a couple of "Rudd /Gillard speculation free" weeks, while you catch up on some of it?
Tory Boy:
17 Feb 2012 11:16:02am
Real issues...like class war? The fundamental hatred the left has for choice? The scorched earth policy union-labor is currently running? I'd love to see those issues covered.
Tory Boy:
17 Feb 2012 9:36:03am
I think you are being too generous towards Rudd. Sure he wants to be PM, nothing wrong with that, in fact do we really want to elect MPs who are happy to sit on the back benches only waking up to open the odd super market?
No, Gillard is in trouble because she is a dreadful leader of a dreadful government. She has lied and cheated her way into the lodge and, now there, is dismantling this greate country of ours. Her class war against private health, private education, private employment, and so on, renders our nation impotent in the face of international competition. Her inability to control her own cabinet, let alone the government, leaves Australia drifting in storm of her own making. The only reason she is on office is because of the personal hatred of oakshot and windsor for the members of the nats and the libs. These are the two people most responsible for the despair filling the air of this country.
There needs to be an election, the politicians have failed to address the issues, now we, the people, should have our say. It could well be that labor are returned once the independents and greens are removed, in which case Australian society is moving in a direction I want nothing to do with, but at least we will know and the government would have a legitimate mandate.
17 Feb 2012 9:38:52am
I am sicked and tired reading and watching that challenge craps. Rudd had his chances to be a good PM, he blew it. Julia Gillard is doing a good job running the country.The more I see JG, the more i like her leadership and determination, she sound intelligence the way she grasped all the questions in parliament," TA look " like a second grade politician.
17 Feb 2012 11:10:49am
She sound intelligent?
The woman speaks of "Hyperbowl" in "High Dungeon"!
17 Feb 2012 1:34:31pm
Listening to the Tally Band. And then there's that voice!
17 Feb 2012 6:11:02pm
Dugong and Hermit, did your parents never teach you that criticising another person's pronunciation or appearance is incredibly rude and ill- mannered and only goes to prove your lack of good breeding. You actually sound like a couple of spiteful little schoolgirls, sitting in your bedroom at the computer where noone can see you, and bullying anyone who has an opinion different to yours over the internet. How sad.
17 Feb 2012 9:34:07pm
Bit touchy, poppy. I reasonably used examples of her own speeches to counter the claim made by Jeff5555 that Julia "sound (sic) intelligence".
"You actually sound like a couple of spiteful little schoolgirls, sitting in your bedroom at the computer where noone can see you, and bullying anyone who has an opinion different to yours over the internet."
Anyone for a game of irony?
17 Feb 2012 9:43:42am
"such a pre-emptive move would be interpreted in parts of the media as a recognition on Gillard's part that the challenge is real and her leadership is threatened"
And that is exactly what Rudd knows - Gillard is backed into a corner - either her leadership crumbles week by week through speculation, or she calls the ballot, acknowledges she is in trouble, and the speculation gets louder.
Just like not doing an interview for four corners, but leaving enough implication to lure Gillard into doing one with disastrous consequences.
Think of it this way - Gillard has a monstrously high staff turnover rate (as Rudd did before her) - all it takes is a little schmoozing by Rudd to one of her ex staffers and he delivers the whole "she was plotting all along" story to four corners gift-wrapped.
Shame he isn't this good at actually being a PM...
Get on with News:
17 Feb 2012 9:43:51am
The whole (non) issue has been done to death by tacky tabloids, just interested in selling media content at any price. The ABC should know better, oh hang on, these days, the ABC is just another tacky (electronic) tabloid!
Get on with the News ABC, you're starting to look like the Worst (west) Australian!
17 Feb 2012 1:36:32pm
All of that is true, but it doesn't stop the Labor Fan Club from cheering when pantomime Judy has harsh words for pantomime Punch.
17 Feb 2012 1:45:14pm
Oi .. some of us love seeing the ALP self destruct, do you mind!
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:44:42pm
Yeah forget about the leadership of the ALP, just concentrate on how they have lost complete touch with the swinging voter... if Labor doesn't want to change it's leader, that's up to them. I doubt it'll make much difference at the next real poll anyway...
Bushfire Bill:
17 Feb 2012 9:44:56am
Barrie, from your bully pulpit you can talk about anything you like.
You could talk about how over 40,000 jobs were created last month, or how over 260 pieces of legislation have been passed in the life of the government, or even how we're the best economy in the world with all the right indicators at the right settings.
But you choose to use your bully pulpit to talk about Ruddstoration.
If you were one of your readers you would see how the media continually run this story, a story that never ends. They provide precise dates and circumstances for a challenge, but those dates and circumstances never come about.
You missed Gillard taking over from Rudd, you missed Abbott's election as leader, and you have missed every single prediction regarding Rudd. You wrongly predicted a Costelo takeover, for a period of 6 years, and the Slipper ascension to the Speakership. Every prediction was either wrong or missed altogether.
You media people are being taken for fools by Rudd. It is YOUR obsession with leadership, your obsession with being right at least once, that is driving this, not the nation's need.
It seems your attitude is that whatever is good for the press gallery is good for the nation.
You present every political story through the prism of a challenge. It is boring, it is counterproductive and it is doing great harm. It is all based on gossip, anonymous sources, innuendo, speculation and scuttlebutt. When there aren't any facts, you make them up via endless on-air brainstorming about who might do what to whom... anything to keep the pot boiling.
I, and millions of others, really do wish you would stop. I wish you would at least try to write something that is relevant, informative and, most of all, based on fact. But you can't help yourselves, can you?
Your obsession with previous failures to predict any of the leadership changes of the past 5 or 6 years, your jumped-up view of yourselves as political players, "insiders" if you like, and your privileged position - your bully pulpit - allows you to drown the airwaves and the print media with what is nothing more than cheap - morally and financially - whispering campaigns.
I have no doubt that Rudd wants to be PM again, and has probably had a few words, or more than a few words, in a few ears about it. The central core of the story is therefore probably true.
But why, oh why, do you write about virtually nothing else?
There is a fantastic story to tell about Australia, but you ignore it time and time again because of your obsessions with the inner workings of the corridors of parliament: obsessions you force on your readers. Your audiences dwindle, newspaper sales tank, people switch off, yet still you persist.
Don't you get the message yet? We're sick of it, Barrie.
17 Feb 2012 1:57:11pm
speak for yourself, I love this stuff
The hand wringing over ALP leadership, it's the stuff of the next election campaign, when the coalition can point to years of the ALP infighting to the point of paralysis. That's unfair actually, they have no idea what to do regardless, so in-fight as it's the thing the DO know how to do.
what's not to like?
17 Feb 2012 2:11:12pm
Hear Hear! well said Bushfire Bill!
17 Feb 2012 9:44:58am
A lazy article about a speculative political issue thats been beaten to death already.
How about writing a piece that breaks down the OTHER options. Show us the full deck of potential PM's from either party. Tell us who they are so we can refresh in our minds who we would like to promote at the next election.
You as journalists could spend your time educating Australians on what their options are as opposed to lazily pointing out what everyone already knows.
Im constantly frustrated by endless navel gazing journalists and the current deck of politicians that are self interested, egotistical and arrogant to the point where they forget they are meant to be planning and implementing the operational future of a nation.
17 Feb 2012 1:04:16pm
... and yet you took the time to read the article and then to post a reply, as did the some 300 other people on this post.
I think that's called hypocrisy
17 Feb 2012 9:44:59am
He said, they said, she said . . . . . .
Yet another reporter giving a third hand account of what someone said to someone else.
Where are the reporters with the first hand information?
As for the comment that Rudd is confident that he can deny the conversation because he believes that He is protected by the cloak of journalistic ethics., now theres a fine contradiction in terms.
17 Feb 2012 9:46:04am
Mr Cassidy, thank you for bringing to attention the behind the scenes activities of Mr Rudd and Mr Costello. Most of us are well aware that this kind of leadership jostling, leaking and campaigning goes on in all political parties.
Judging from the response to the 4 Corners episode, however, it appears that our nation still finds this kind of behavior less acceptable in a woman.
It is true that in the extract from the interview as presented by 4C, the PM could be seen as "shifty and unconvincing." However, to claim that this demonstrates that "straight forward and candid explanations were beyond the Prime Minister" is unfair and ignores the obvious effects of heavy-handed editing.
Your judgement also ignores the no-win position that the relentless media scrutiny of the PM's 'character' has placed her in. No doubt the PM is very well aware that, whatever she says, will be subjected to a far harsher judgement than any previous PM has experienced.
Since when did the Australian electorate demand such finely nuanced principles from their politicians? Certainly not from Mr Howard in the 'children overboard' affair.
Viewing the entire interview on the 4C website, Ms Gillard appears far more confident than depicted by 4C. Her anger in those brief minutes can easily be attributed to her obvious exasperation over the media obsession with an event that would have been forgotten, were she not our first female PM.
It is also clear from the entire interview that the ABC did indeed mislead the PM about the subject of the report.
The more important questions raised by this 4C episode than the gossip about the "trustworthiness" of our PM is why this program was made at all and why it was broadcast at this time?
Given that the substantive content was so trivial, constructed on nothing more than flimsy and spurious 'revelations', it is impossible to see the justification for dedicating an entire episode of a serious and respected current affairs program to this non issue.
17 Feb 2012 10:46:24am
that so many in the media accept blind quoting of these people shows it dominated by "he said - she said"
it's borderline unethical
17 Feb 2012 1:37:31pm
Agreed, but not just when it hurts Labor.
17 Feb 2012 3:20:15pm
Does seem rather curious that the ABC commissioned that dreadful sitcom designed to denigrate Australia's first female Prime Minister, and then follows up in the first parliamentary sitting of the year with another show designed to embarrass her as much as possible. Editing can wonderful things to distort reality.
17 Feb 2012 4:31:23pm
Gosh Poppy, do you think it's a conspiracy?
What do you think Lassie?
17 Feb 2012 6:44:59pm
Actually sweetie I am sure that it is not a 'conspiracy' , however I would be less concerned if Abbott was occasionally held to account for his daily spewing of lies , fear and smear, misrepresentations, endless abuse of Parliament Question Time with confected censure motions written up the morning before , his continual denigration and talking down of the Australian economy, or his failure to front up for any interview that is either not conservative friendly or where his office has not been given the questions beforehand . . Abbott is a coward. He would not have the guts to go on QANDA or 4C or be interviewed by Barrie Cassidy on Insiders or by any half decent non-partisan journalist. He is a protected species and he would crumble and fall apart if he had to put up with the S**t that he and the msm throw at Julia Gillard. Does anyone seriously believe that Abbott would be able to sustain this onslaught day after day after day and still get up and run the Government with intelligence and strength and grace. Not b likely.
17 Feb 2012 9:51:04am
Oh boy Barrie do you have it in for Rudd.
Your reference to Gillard and her offices preparing a victory speech as normal protocol is just plain fanciful. Did you forget that Gillard just days before the coup said she was not interested in being PM, and that she fully supported Rudd as the PM and there was more chance of her playing full forward for the Bulldogs than being PM of Australia...or was that just a big porky pie Barrie?
Lies and deceit appears to be the order of the day from the most untrustworthy and unpopular PM in Australian history...
You picked a winner there Barrie.
17 Feb 2012 11:43:37am
Well said! Perhaps, Barry, would like to accept the old adage " a woman may change her mind", or is that sexist?
17 Feb 2012 2:47:20pm
Yes it is.
Drum Major:
17 Feb 2012 9:51:17am
If what you are saying about Rudd is true, it hilights why he was removed from the leadership in the first place and why he should never be returned to it. That is, it's all about him.
What the media should be doing right now is looking critically at how the government is governing ... recognizing the good and challenging the bad ... and looking critically at the opposition ... reporting their criticism but holding them to account for an alternative vision at the very least (and scrutinizing that vision). But it's not doing that because it's beholden to My 'look at me, look at me' Kevin Rudd.
I get so sick of the Julia Gillard knifed me in the back line ... there was no knifing ... Julia Gillard told Kevin Rudd that she was going to challenge and he declared the spill. The next morning he did not stand for leader because he knew that he had lost majority support. So in effect, Rudd surrendered the leadership because he did not want to face the reality of the vote.
I'm disappointed to see good governance and at times, good opposition, overshadowed by rubbish like this debate. I am disgusted that Kevin Rudd would go so far as to sacrifice any hope of his party winning at the next election simply because his gigantic ego was preventing him from acting rationally.
Lots of people lose jobs in less than desirable ways. Kevin Rudd would do a lot better by showing people how you start over again, without malice, and with a renewed forus on your personal and professional goals.
I for one would never vote for the ALP if Rudd was returned as leader. Never.
Argus Tuft:
17 Feb 2012 9:54:24am
What is it with you media people ??
On 4 Corners on Monday night, Kevin Rudd was clearly asked (in a street interview) what his intentions were, and he responded that he is VERY happy with his role as Foreign Minister. His wife was also there and she threw in "he is VERY content".
Immediately after showing that segment, the speculation continued that Kevin was still 'circling' for a challenge. It is high time the media (particularly OUR ABC) stopped the rumour mongering and start asking some decent questions, like:-
1) Start asking Tony Abbott more about his role in stabbing Malcolm in the back, and the 'power brokers/ faceless men' involved in that debacle. (The Libs would be in power now if that had not happened, because voters don't trust Tony).
2) Ask the entire Liberal pack why they are pretending now that they feel sorry for Kevin, when at the time he was PM they absolutely hated his guts ??
3) Going on from the above, start pressing the Libs about the challenge to Mr Abbott, and whether it will be Malcolm (believable) or Hockey (unbelievable) ??
Just to re-state: Please, please our ABC, get off the rumour mongering band-wagon, and leave that to Murdoch, Jones et al. KEVIN DOES NOT WANT TO GO BACK THERE. HE SAID SO HIMSELF, PLUS HIS WIFE SAID IT.
17 Feb 2012 11:47:27am
Yes and surely Mr and Mrs Rudd wouldn't tell a fib about that would they?
Lewis of The Hills:
17 Feb 2012 12:30:59pm
So what do you really think, Argus Tuft? Will Rudd challenge before the May budget or will he just wait for Gillard to implode?
Argus Tuft:
17 Feb 2012 2:36:54pm
Yeah what I really think is that Rudd does not want the job back at all. He has said repeatedly he is happy as Foreign Minister; it is just that the media need a story. Further to that, I reckon he is smart enough to know that it just won't work if he succumbed to heavy arm twisting and agreed to "serve" as PM.
Further to that, the likely source for a lot of this "circling" speculation is the Libs. It is easy to start; takes the focus off their own leadership doldrums, and takes the media's eye off the more important issues.
Bring back Malcolm ! Forget Kevin ! Advance the Footy season !?!
17 Feb 2012 1:39:31pm
Labor beat the opposition leadership drum for months. Now it is Labor's turn to suffer.
As you sow, so shall you reap!
Peter Lougheed:
17 Feb 2012 2:18:54pm
Argus Tuft: If I read your comment correctly, it's that you want the ABC to act as head-cheerleaders for the ALP and to act as anti-Liberal attack dogs.
Argus Tuft:
17 Feb 2012 3:35:39pm
No not at all do I want the ABC to be ALP cheerleaders. More the case of we want real journalism; not just running with what ever the 'other' media toss at them.
And no, don't want ABC to be Lib attack dogs, just ask 'em some meaningful questions, so that they can have a better chance of winning soundly in 2013. It was Bill Hayden that coined the phrase "the drover's dog could win . . ". Well Gillard didn't win the 2010 election, Abbott lost it.
17 Feb 2012 9:54:45am
For the life of me I cannot understand why Gillard chose to "answer" the question in the way she did.
The only possible interpretation to her answer is "yes, I knew about it"(after all, if she honestly didn't know about it, she could honestly say "no") and saying so directly would cause less grief than the circuitous answer she "gave".
17 Feb 2012 9:57:09am
Give Rudd the Aboriginal Affaird job. Keep him very busy and can't legitimaly talk to forien govs.
17 Feb 2012 9:59:13am
Talk it up, Barry.
As Bill Shorten quite clearly made obvious last night on 7.30, it is possible for Labor to talk about their positive stories, it all comes down to what questions journalists ask. Get over yourself.
17 Feb 2012 1:40:31pm
Yes, but what Shill Borten didn't mention is that they have to invent the positive stories first.
17 Feb 2012 9:59:17am
Why are we having a leadership crisis. Let Julia rule the country till end of her term, she is the need of the hour as a top legal expert. Rudd is an excellent foreign minister may be not a good prime minister. We all like both of them. Better allow them to do their job instead of pouring fuel to get them to lock horns in midst of a global financial crisis and acute job losses. Creating problems inside a ship when it is facing a storm is not wise, losers will be all Australians.
17 Feb 2012 10:49:13am
Excellent comment CM, why don't we have an investigation on how the opposition is abusing the Parliamentary process to destabilise the Govt, and causing exagerrated division and hatred?
I note that in respect to the damage his role was doing to his own popularity, Mr Abbott has now appointed Mr Pyne to replace him as Chief Bully, guess he's expendable.
17 Feb 2012 10:51:20am
Excellent comment CM, why don't we have an investigation on how the opposition is abusing the Parliamentary process to destabilise the Govt, and causing exagerrated division and hatred?
I note that in respect to the damage his role was doing to his own popularity, Mr Abbott has now appointed Mr Pyne to replace him as Chief Bully, guess he's expendable.
Tory Boy:
17 Feb 2012 11:42:44am
Who is We? I have not met, face to face, a single person who is happy with the gorvernment, not even someone who is indifferent. No, its wall to wall dispair and disbelief at how utterly hopeless gillard is. Colleagues, clients, mothers at daycare....universal desire to get rid of gillard.
17 Feb 2012 1:22:01pm
Tory Boy thanks for reaffirming in a literal confirmation that peanuts in the comments gallery should get some nuts.
Tory Boy:
17 Feb 2012 2:21:18pm
Ah, that old left wing saying, agree or be an idiot...Well, I just went to the RSL for lunch, and still haven't met a gillard supporter....so thats both ends of lifes spectrum covered today.
17 Feb 2012 9:59:45am
Exploitation of the inclination of less informed citizens to be engaged by rumour and gossip by the media makes our political system a joke. We could design the system to be more resilient to poor media ethics. For now all we can do is recognize media sleaze for what it is and hope that others do too.
Charles NSW:
17 Feb 2012 10:04:01am
Every day we are bomarded with speculations of a leadership challenge and it is a never ending story! This is most likely due to the vested interests of the mining and tobacco companies who will save billions to see Labor fall. Added to that is the lust for power that Dr No has, who had the biggest dummy spit in history not to get the top job. Certainly the media is on their side, with their rich mates and have tried at every angle to get this hung parliament to fall.
It is a remarkable effort by Labor, Greens and Independants to, not only to hold on but they have done some remarkable work in getting reforms in place and managing a sound economy. This is also in despite the fact that the opposition has had an incredible fear campaign in talking down the economy.
Facts clearly demonstrate that this Government is doing everything that it possibly can do as a Government with all the problems they have had to face
Julia Gillard should not have to succumb her leadership to this relentless pressure aided by lies, deceit and distortion of the facts, when the fact remains she is doing her job and doing it well!
Statements such as Julia Gillard lied about the Carbon Tax is a lie in itself, yet it is repeated over and over again, including by the media. There is no Carbon Tax only a Carbon Price which are two different meanings. She knifed Kevin Rudd in the back, when in fact she challenged him for the leadership.
All this constant rhetoric, is simply a slur on her character, based without facts to bring her down! She is a tough woman and determined to do her job as she was elected to do!
17 Feb 2012 10:04:18am
"He is protected by the cloak of journalistic ethics."
I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when I read that sentence.
Journalists know if they leak, they will never get another story and key goodbye the chance of their Woodward and Bernstein moment.
Ethics. Classic Stuff Barrie.
17 Feb 2012 10:04:29am
But why would Rudd want to lead the ALP into opposition? Perhaps there are mind games being played here, and being played very well ?
Bob the Battler:
17 Feb 2012 11:12:06am
Kevin's massive ego is telling him that if and when he becomes the PM again, the great voting masses of our nation will be magnetically drawn to his charisma and intellect, and that overnight the polls would reflect an imminent Labor win.
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:39:38pm
That may well turn out to be the case if he ditches or severely waters down the ETS so that it matches China's ETS...
17 Feb 2012 10:04:59am
This only shows what sort of person Rudd is and obviously he cares only about one thing his ego.
17 Feb 2012 1:42:16pm
Possibly, but remember that there is good Kevin, bad Kevin and quite a few other Kevin's inside that body.
Tigerman :
17 Feb 2012 10:07:25am
Why the hell dont you so called journalists get off this subject.Are you that bereft of ability and research capability that you are unable to find a more positive view about politics,and why must all your views be so one sided.
Rudd does no have the numbers to launch a coup and that is obvious so therefore the matter is a non event.Move on to real news,for heaven sake.
Th opposition is only rattling on about this as they have no policies to put to the people.You,the media in general and the right wing side of the media,are complicit in the continuing prattle about leadership change.Time for some decent input from you lot of seemingly incompetent hacks.
Wendy In Doubt:
17 Feb 2012 10:10:14am
The ALPers should cease worrying, Bill Shorten is coming to the rescue. Hahhahahhhaaahha, Bill Shorten to the rescue, it cracks me up every time. Bill Shorten ..... hahaahhahhahaa.
But seriously, does it matter who leads the ALP now that the plotters have proven their chosen candidate cannot deliver on behalf of the majority of electors. Julia Gillard's job security is the same as Craig Thomson's .... zero. Everyone knows it except a handful of deniers. Although I had believed Labor was only likely to lose 30 seats at the 2013 elections, the news from Labor's favourite media outlet (the ABC) suggests that 40 seats are at risk (7.30 Report earlier this week) guarantees the backbenchers will ensure Kevin Rudd is returned to the Prime Ministership. The only question is when.
Because Senator Mark Arbib wants to go the Olympic Games in London at taxpayer expense, any move may have to wait until his dream has been played out. He isn't going to allow his 'numbers' to cancel his dream. What are Bill Shorten's priorities? I don't know, but why would anyone want their vote controlled by this man?
Ima Dill:
17 Feb 2012 4:34:35pm
Spot on Wendy.
Because Mark Arbib and Bill Shorten own the votes of many caucus members, these two characters will be reluctant to pass 'their' votes to Kevin Rudd before they have too. Arbib spat the dummy at the pre-Christmas reshuffle because he wants to go to the Olympics so it is unlikely the backbenchers whom he owns will be able to pressure him before the Olympics.
Oh, yeah, Bill Shorten to the rescue! I love that!!!!!
Doug Quixote:
17 Feb 2012 10:16:20am
So journalists protect their sources? Except when it doesn't suit them, it seems.
17 Feb 2012 10:17:27am
Who advises Gillard to act the way she does? I agree with Cassidy, the way she interviewed on Four Corners - obviously not telling the truth and just stating the same answer over and over again - was a disaster. I must blame the people who advise her: they don't seem to have any acumen in advising Gillard on how to approach the issues so she seems credible instead of creepy. And who writes her speeches?! They never seem to be able to get the point across, they're cliche ridden and boring. Are these people too used to providing speeches for national and state conferences where it doesn't really matter what is said, you don't persuade or educate anybody, because the numbers are what's important - not the policy or argument.
17 Feb 2012 10:22:06am
Here we go again!
Barrie you just need the flimsiest excuse to get stuck into Kevin Rudd.
The nasty sentence about "...and in one conversation he laughed about the prospect of Gillard stumbling again." just shows your true colours.
All the recent problems were Julia Gillard's own making.
Why are you trying to blame Kevin Rudd for it?
17 Feb 2012 10:22:49am
Where is all this leadership crisis "news" coming from? Rudd himself said he was happy to be foreign minister and in another interview said that he didn't want to go back to boganville (the lodge). This is fueled by media rumour and hype.
17 Feb 2012 10:23:14am
they are both liars and not very good ones either! I am surprised that anyone falls for their dishonest rhetoric and supports them.
17 Feb 2012 1:14:24pm
Not as good liars as Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, Julie Bishop, Christopher Pyne though. And nowhere in the league of the great John Howard and his stooge Peter Reith - now they were consummate liars.
I think there may be a very serious epidemic of People Living in Glass Houses and throwing stones, throughout this whole beat up - lets be honest!
Peter T.:
17 Feb 2012 10:23:20am
"Julia Gillard had one of her worst weeks in politics because essentially trivial matters were badly handled." What an extraordinary statement! Gillard lying to Australians is hardly "trivial".
17 Feb 2012 10:23:24am
Rudd should continue to do what he is doing, nothing. Rudd has never said he wishes to challenge, always says he is happy where he is. On the other hand Gillard said she would not challenge , would support Rudd and was happy where she was as his deputy.
Its obvious that Gillard lied, so whats new, she does that as a matter of course, just to keep in practice for the times she actually needs to lie. Rudd on the other hand may be lying, we will have to wait and see. We do know Rudd is vindictive and revenge is a dish best eaten cold. Rudd has nothing to lose by continueing on as he is, we know he deeply dislikes Gillard, what we do not know and this is the major issue in the story, does he dislike her enough to take down the ALP government as well as her? I would think yes, however I have often been wrong before and will be wrong again.
Whatever happens it makes for interesting times.
17 Feb 2012 1:43:12pm
It's always fun when Labor turns its hate on itself.
17 Feb 2012 10:26:34am
I have been bashing political journos for quite some time now in my posts to articles such as Barries, and will continue to do so while the media keeps producing these leader speculation commentaries. Why? They have lowered the bar to below ground level in terms of their ability to come to terms with the real issues of Government affecting all Australians.
They think that the credibility of a leader is of paramount importance to us. I say think again. Most people know, except political commentators apparently, that politics is a very dirty game. Many of us know thaty equally in the corporate world many CEOs did not get there by sheer merit alone (admittedly a few did). Taking credit for other peoples work or ideas and back stabbing rivals while moving up the ladder is part of the course for becoming a CEO. Call it the human condition. However, shareholders dont care about credibility issues if this CEO produces big dividends. The same applies to political leaders. People decide their worth on how the govern not by their ruthless deeds to leadership positions.
This sick journalistic obsession with Rudd and Gillard, Howard and Costello, Hawke and Keating, Fraser and Gorton this list goes on and on. Its like watching Big Brother reruns time and time again. It seems that a fart in the corridors of Parliament house has our journalistic class panting with their saliva dripping tongues hanging out and their tails wagging. They have been sniffing something in the wind ever since Gillard became PM in a hung Parliament. In all of this time this sniffing has led them to a smelly dunny and clogged sewerage system. To date there has been no leadership challenge. Its like the boy crying out wolf once too often. Rudd has not got the numbers and probably never will. In all likelihood he and his twenty something rude and disrespectful staffers leaked to Laurie Oakes and caused Labor to almost lose the 2010 election.
We have a hung Parliament where deals are done more openly, rather than behind closed doors. If only we had a media that covered it so that the public can be better informed about bills and policies that affect their lives. Sadly, the media are a one story reporting machine. Telling us about unnamed sources driving them to this obsession about leadership speculation is very lame indeed. It is not the credibility of politicians they should concern themselves with, but rather their very own credibility as a decent fourth estate.
17 Feb 2012 10:27:54am
If Gillard leads into the next election, my guess is two terms in opposition. If they have another ridiculous bloodletting exercise and Rudd leads into the next election, I would expect three terms in opposition. The media might love this sort of thing but the voters dont.
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:37:15pm
I think if Gillard leads into the next election, it might be longer than that because it's going to take Abbott ages to get rid of the carbon tax and then there's Labor's deficit to pay off. Abbott will make sure he gets maximum milage out of Labor's mistakes...
Queensland JAK:
17 Feb 2012 10:28:11am
Whether this is true or not the display of unpleasant temperaments, particularly from leading members of the opposition, is extremely alarming. Is our future really in the hands of these shallow people? Do people with more depth of character avoid a political career? I would dread attending a dinner party with personalities like those displayed on television during question time. At least members of the government are focused on problems and inspire respect for that reason.
Petulance and viciousness are what we witness from people whose formal dress and grooming contrast wonderfully with their infantile deportment.
Gavin H:
17 Feb 2012 1:14:35pm
My view
ALP opposition time
Gillard to election 2 terms minimum
ABR (anybody but Rudd) a decade.
Rudd a smidgen of hope if they go to an election and Abbott remains opposition leader
Rudd vs anyone but Abbott - 2 terms minimum.
17 Feb 2012 1:44:44pm
After four years of Labor, a partially trained cocker spaniel couldn't do worse.
Leave out the FUD.
18 Feb 2012 1:00:51am
After a decade of coalition we got the GFC. An un trained cocker spaniel would have done a lot better.
17 Feb 2012 10:28:21am
So much for the once respected profession called journalism.
After reading this astro article, I am convinced there will be lots of unemployed journalists.
Sounds like you in the wrong job anyway.
17 Feb 2012 10:28:27am
If what Barrie Cassidy is saying is true then Rudd is a) disloyal to the Labor Party
b) deserves to be called in and "hauled over the coals".
Cassidy says that he knows, names, times and places.
Then he should tell us what they are and let Rudd deny what Cassidy claims as true.
Why isn't Cassidy doing so? It would be a monster scoop. It would be a public service.
But that aside - If Rudd is playing games, either as payback to Julia Gillard or as a practical joke on the media (and the people of Australia) then Gillard has to find a "game-buster".
Sending Rudd to the backbench is probably unwise. Doing a cabinet shuffle might be better - making Rudd Minister for Immigration, for instance, putting Stephen Smith back as Foreign Minister and Chris Bowen Minister for Defence.
Alternatively Gillard can sit it out until Rudd finds that he will never have the numbers ("Just joking, folks." or serious) and either he, or the Media and Abbott give up.
What is important that the measures already passed - Carbon Abatement etc are implemented and Abbott is frustrated until the next election when it is very unlikely that he will repeal anything that brings in revenue.
17 Feb 2012 10:28:36am
"Protected by the cloak of journalistic ethics"?.
Come on. Give me a break!
17 Feb 2012 10:30:06am
All through the 1980s and early 90s there was a fight going on between Howard and Peacock, and neither could stop the other from undermining their leadership, and neither had an overwhelming majority.
It killed the Libs for 13 years. Maybe we will end up with the same, Gillard and Rudd, although I don't think that Gillard has the ticker.
Rudd is no Costello. At the end of the day, Costello always caved in. Rudd won't.
He has its faults, no mistake about it, but he cut through in 2007 and got enough trust to get us away from Howard and Work Choices. It wasn't Gillard, it wasn't Arbib, it wasn't Shorten, it wasn't Albanese, nor the rest.
It was Rudd who won the day, and not much thanks from his colleagues in the end for this either.
17 Feb 2012 10:30:41am
Would Rudd win the next election if he regains the leadership?... No!
Would Rudd lose the next election and in the process seriously damage Labor's prospects in their post-election future?... Yes!
Would Rudd challenge, lose, go to the backbench and forget about his international plans as a Foreign Affairs minister?... No!
Is this media frenzy about Labor the only hope for Tony Abbott to ever become prime Minister? Yes!... Why? Because he is hopeless, incompetent and just a stooge for the big end of town. Without the protection of the media Abbott is nothing.
What should Labor do?... Show internal discipline and keep working hard for the good of the country.
What should backbenchers worried about their "job" do from now to the election? ... Roll up their sleeves, work bloody hard in their electorate, winge less and proactively inform (and listen to) their constituents about the new laws and the real status of the Australian economy.
What should the Prime Minister do? Keep her cool, keep a collegial attitude with her caucus and the Greens/Independents, continue with the program, respond to international contingencies with the best technical advise available. Do not expose yourself too much to the media, expose yourself directly to the people!
17 Feb 2012 1:48:25pm
Alpo, remember the pledge to wear out her shoe leather?
Gillard has "exposed herself directly to the people".
After a few days she realised just how much people resent being taken for fools. People trust her even less now.
Still, if you want her to go back to wearing out the shoe leather, who am I to stand in your way.
17 Feb 2012 3:34:39pm
Hermit, you know as I know that time will tell. Keep up the good fight, the second half of 2013 is still a long way.
17 Feb 2012 2:44:25pm
What should Labor do? What should the Prime Minister do?
I have been thinking about this.
Cassidy describes it as "Rudd circling". I was inclined to disbelieve this - thought that Rudd could not be that stupid. But if what Cassidy says is true, Rudd is malevolent and/or misguided - not to be trusted. Should not be PM again.
Gillard cannot send Rudd to the backbench because that would enshrine his martyrdom.
Rudd will not take himself to the backbench, as Keating did. (Remember that Hawke had made a promise to Keating and broke it. Gillard has, not yet, been charged with making or breaking a promise to Rudd, unless it was that he could be Foreign Minister, and that's what he has been.)
Gillard cannot kick Rudd out of the Labor Party - martyrdom.
Here is a possibility. Gillard negotiates with the independents that their tacit support (as soon as the major bills are through the Lower House) is withdrawn and sacks Rudd from the ALP, making him an Independent. Gillard goes to the GG and says, "I no longer command a majority."
The GG has to call Tony Abbott and say,"Can you command a majority?"
Abbott has to say No or go to the Independents and negotiate for their support.
Scenario 1. The Independents support Abbott, who must then act as PM till 1213, with a hung Parliament and a hostile Senate.
Scenario 2. Abbott says "No. I can't, or won't, govern."
Gillard re-approaches the Independents and asks if they will let Supply etc through for her, then goes to the GG and says, "Problem solved."
Outcome. Either Abbott is in a hole because he is PM of a hung Parliament with a hostile Senate
Or he has had a chance to become PM and backed off.
Rudd is now a backbench Independent with no hope of Leading the ALP again.
17 Feb 2012 10:46:47pm
That's a clever suggestion, Lucy. I like it.
17 Feb 2012 10:30:45am
I think John Clark and Brian Dawe covered this story very well on the 7:30 Report last night.
Ethel Gumnut:
17 Feb 2012 10:35:31am
I'd trust the credibility of Barrie Cassidy over the likes of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard any day on a story like this one. The only labour pollie with any shred of 'old labour' values left is Simon Crean, and he is clearly not in the running because we are not allowed to have more 'senior' prime ministerial candidates these days.
Lewis of The Hills:
17 Feb 2012 10:37:26am
"she looked shifty and unconvincing" because she is shifty & her first instincts is to obfuscate & lie. Surely everybody can accept that you do not bring down & replace a sitting PM on a whim & at the spur of the moment. Why couldn't she just say of course I knew about it two weeks prior but hadn't made up my mind. Old news, I've moved on - NEXT.
17 Feb 2012 1:51:22pm
Lewis, that is the problem with telling lies.
Once the first lie was told, she had to keep making up more lies. Once the truth started coming out she had nowhere to go.
The truth will set her free, but will she pay the price?
17 Feb 2012 10:37:48am
the sooner the unions decide who should lead their party the better.
The country cannot go on any longer with this paralysis.
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 11:10:36am
Any evidence of this so-called "paralysis"?
Perhaps it's just in the minds of the lunar right.
17 Feb 2012 1:18:15pm
Paralysis, no of course not, the country runs itself while the big game, the really big game is who is the most self obsessed ALP person at the moment .. currently ahead is Julia with Kevin furious it is not him.
The ALP obsessed media also cannot get enough of this .. it is almost as good as the secondary sport, attacking the coalition.
The egos in the ALP are so vast, yet brittle that if a moment passes when they are not the center of attention, they wail and start making off the cuff announcements to get the attention back.
these schemes and decisions blow up in their faces and then they don't know what to do, so go back to internal politicking.
It's a circus, the coalition don't even need to attend, as the ALP does their job for them most of the time.
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 3:25:34pm
Hmmmm. Unemployment falling. Lowest public debt and deficit of any advanced economy. The country's Treasurer the holder of the International Finance Manager of the year award. A 'Triple A' rating for the first time ever from three ratings agencies. Economy continuing to grow despite the worst global conditions in three-quarters of a century.
Meanwhile, on the Coalition side, there is a policy vacuum and a 70 billion dollar hole in their costings.
Spot which party is the "circus".
17 Feb 2012 4:12:04pm
Hmmmm. The coalition are not in government.
The ALP only had policies the moment before each election.
The ALP were negative for 11 years and voted against every economic reform, it's what oppositions do, they also had no policies between elections, why should they.
70B black hole was a canary trap for a coalition leaker, and it worked.
You have to understand the people don't who run the country, don't matter.
The government, who run the country are a circus, the coalition may be a sideshow, but they don't matter, which part are you struggling with?
You seem to have become part of the ALP choir, chanting about things that don't matter as if they do, and in the process can't see what's going on.
Wayne's award was from a magazine for goodness sake - does that impress you?
We have a mining boom going, nothing to do with any government, which is why we have AAA ratings, also why the economy is growing there, while jobs are lost everywhere else it is so big.
So your :facts" are just vapid ALP claims for things they fell over, what have they actually done, apart form all the policy disasters, 2 more boats yesterday, how's that "we'll stop the boats" thing going, Pink Batts, klunkers .. I could go on but it would be cruel.
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 4:38:13pm
The economy has been growing for almost 20 years. The growth started under the Hawke-Keating Labor government before the Coalition got into office in 1996 and has not stopped since. This despite being in the midst of the most serious global downturn in three-quarters of a century.
For a comparison of economic performance under both parties during times of external adversity, consider what happened to the Australian economy last time the Liberals were in office during a severe global downturn.
It was the 1980s and the treasurer was John Howard.
By the end of the Coalition's time in office (1983) Australia had the 'Trifecta of Misery':
Double-digit unemployment
Double-digit interest rates
and Double-digit inflation
... all at the same time!
The only time in history that all three indicators have gone into double digits simultaneously.
The only time in history of "stagflastion": the combination of recession and high inflation.
The Coalition presided over debt and deficit that climbed year after year.
And Australia's worst recession since the Great Depression.
A Liberal economic 'record' they would prefer to brush under the carpet.
Academics Anonymoues:
17 Feb 2012 11:56:25pm
What has any of that got to do with the current government's paralysis?
Man, you've gone way off track.
4 corners:
17 Feb 2012 10:40:21am
If you watched 4 corners you would know the only one holding Gillard back is Gillard
17 Feb 2012 10:41:59am
It should be of consequence that somebody in her office was preparing a speech in the event that she might win a leadership ballot. The alternative is to expect the public to believe that she was unprepared to make the challenge. Another reason is that she is probably using one of Howards likely old tricks, namely that of plausible denial (which is an abuse of subordinates). In the 4 Corners program she failed to answer the question of whether she knew. Would she have been happy with her staff wasting time on the speech if there was no intention on a challenge?
While it is unremarkable that it was happening the sleight of hand (mind) should not be overlooked.
Labor is in a bind. Rudd did have his flaws. After ambushing Rudd, Gillard mucked up policy wise and delivery wise. Two wrongs do not make a right does not wash and openness is not the order of the day. Also, there is nothing wrong changing leaders in the first term if it is done reasonably.
And Costellos credibility holds up much better than Howards.
17 Feb 2012 10:44:29am
"Equally unremarkable was the showing of polling unfavourable to Rudd to colleagues. Why wouldn't she?"
That's not the issue, Barry. The issue for the electorate is that she says she can't remember the specifics of such a significant action on her part.
At best she came across as sneaky and devious. At worst many viewers would have thought she was simply lying.
17 Feb 2012 10:46:31am
Kevin Rudd would do well for Australia to consider returning to Queensland and stay there.
So much damage has occurred within Australia thanks to this bloke. Who needs this?
What worries me more so is his friendship and dependence on his right hand deportment of feral affairs and tribalism adviser, two egos out of control at present.
As long as Kevin Rudd continues to cause trouble, Labor will continue to suffer.
17 Feb 2012 11:48:30am
How soon they forget. In 2007, Kevin Rudd led federal Labor to its first election win since 1993. Four and a half years later, this feat hasn't been repeated, as no-one won the 2010 election outright. So in the 19 years since March 1993, Kevin Rudd is the only federal Labor leader to achieve an outright election win. Seems to me that Labor could do with more of this kind of "trouble".
17 Feb 2012 10:17:45pm
Now add in the states, Ian...
WA lost, NSW lost, VIC lost, QLD...?
Rudd is the only electable Labor person in the country...
Freedom of Speech:
17 Feb 2012 10:48:39am
Does it really matter who leads the Labor party to defeat ....
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:34:26pm
Only if your a Labor MP trying to save your seat...
17 Feb 2012 10:48:56am
Barrie, this is a case of me too to an issue that is nothing more than chinese whispers. I had higher expectations from you. It is not as if there are no serious matters to investigate and write about. What about the collapse of Australia Air for instance? Why did it happen? what does the government and the opposition have to say about it?
17 Feb 2012 10:51:25am
What is becoming increasingly apparent from the refusal of journalists to leave this alone is that Rudd and his misguided minions are feeding the media on a daily basis. They must be. And you guys are lapping it up and putting it about, doing his dirty work for him, feeling like 'insiders' and loving it. You're being used.
Give it a rest. Rudd should put up or you should shut up. And then please, let's move on.
17 Feb 2012 10:54:04am
I am tired of this relentless campaign. It is so evident that big business runs this country, and a well-intentioned and able person is being run into the ground at their behest.
All this blurb about lies and broken promises is pretty much a beat-up, and Julia does not have a monopoly on needing to shift ground in order to keep a minority government operating.
I think it is about time people thought about what this is doing to the country and our PM, and also about what happened to the notion of a "fair go". By accepting all the press nonsence we are turning into a nation of bullies.
17 Feb 2012 1:52:57pm
Yes Golly, most of the Labor fan club wishes the whole thing would go away.
17 Feb 2012 4:17:55pm
Yep, am enjoying very much, it's great seeing all the rusted on ALP types squirming and trying to somehow blame Tony Abbott or John Howard as per the usual ALP script, but it's just not getting traction any more.
They really do get nasty don't they?
17 Feb 2012 10:44:09pm
Yeah, I really can see how you love how so much legislation is getting through without any scrutiny at all because everyone is talking about a non-existent stoush in the ALP.
The ALP is getting away with legislative murder and you guys are obsessing with a side-show. Clever.
Oh, and even IF the coalition wins the next election, they can't get enough places in the senate to overturn previous legislation unless the Greens agree. Like to see that.
grace pettigrew:
17 Feb 2012 10:58:06am
"I know the names of some of those he [Rudd] has spoken to....He is protected by the cloak of journalistic ethics".
What unmitigated rubbish Barrie. What "journalistic ethics" are you talking about?
Protecting the anonymity of self-serving leakers so they can continue to secretly destabilise a properly functioning government without any public criticism or comment?
That is not "ethical" behaviour by either the leakers or the leakees. Name them! Let the sunshine in.
Are you a journalist bringing us the truth so we can judge for ourselves, or an inside player with a political agenda of your own?
Ryan P:
17 Feb 2012 12:19:52pm
Barrie, can you please respond the the above comment and explain how it ISN'T 100% true?
Ryan P:
17 Feb 2012 10:59:11am
I really never understood everyone's fascination with Julia taking Kevin's job. To me it never seemed like a big deal.
I mean, since when have we been so sentimental about our politicians? If Kevin was impossible to work with, get rid of him! We are trying to run a country here!
Ohh, and in before "ohh running a country hey? Julia Gillard is the leader of the worst government in Australian history"... yeah yeah heard it all before, get a new script.
17 Feb 2012 10:59:50am
Yes Barrie, you are at it again ! We wonder what did Rudd do to you that you will find every opportunity to strike against him. And you a veterean journalist , we ask where is your objectivity & impartiality? Maybe you don't need any reason to strike against Rudd, simply that you wil always be a GIllard supporter no matter what , You will never question her integrity no matter what she does.You will stand in her camp even when the cows come home!
17 Feb 2012 11:00:48am
Barrie, I agree that Hewson was no leader. And Costello quit when the going got tough when he had the chance to lead his Party back from the wilderness which Abbott has been able to do with little credit from most of the Canberra Press and the Labor Party. So your comparisons of the ethics of Rudd and Costello may well be right.
But you are showing your colours as a Gillard cheer leader.
"It is of no consequence that somebody in her office was preparing a speech in the event that she might win a leadership ballot!"
It is to me. There are many consequences. When I was a manager I wanted to know everything that my staff was doing. I find it absolutely unbelievable that ANY decent manager would be unaware that their staff would be preparing a speech for the contingency that they were about to replace their boss.
If this bizarre proposition is true for Gillard what does that say about her control? Still I suppose for some-one that sends her bodyguard to national security meetings (thanks Kev) and allows them to organise a little race riot against her opponent whilst she is out of the office, says it all.
"Gillard needs to lift her primary vote". Who for? You? The Labor Party? The country? I have never EVER heard you say that Tony Abbott NEEDS to do anything.
Its more like:
"But Mr Abbott remained cautiously silent on the issue, and that's the way he's likely to remain. Or "This week Tony Abbott may have gone a stunt too far." Or "Coalition statistics stealth winning the numbers game".
Barrie what we really need in this country is not for Gillard to lift her game but an election to put this country back on an even keel. Can you draft a nice article along those lines?
17 Feb 2012 11:02:22am
we must leave the PM in place at any cost because the voters should have the right to pass judgement on the steady stewardship of the country, and the rolling out of the new economy. It is critical that labor hold the line and see the implementation of the carbon tax and the inspiration it is giving to our industries. We are all waiting for those high paid jobs building windmills, bolting together solar panels and wave generators. Don't spoil the show with a leadership change just yet.
17 Feb 2012 11:04:47am
I don't buy the premise that the matter was "essentially trivial". We had the overthrow of a sitting PM. The current PM had the opportunity to say - yes, politics is harsh and I acted decisively. But instead, the PM chose to spin a story that suited the moment but now looks increasingly dodgy under scrutiny. Thererfore, like so many of the PM's problems, the die was cast by the PM 18 months ago.
Aside from the gravity of the matter, it is extraordinary on 2 levels:
What could have been presented as "decisibe action" - has become a massive own-goal with no easy way out (the PM has to annoint a successor, or brave it out)
The reasons given for the coup are still there, (governmnet lost its way, dysfunction) but intriguingly, the strategy is apparently no longer valid.
For the record, I believe that the government has not lost its way - merely that its way - creating new constituencies through centrist government and corporate welfare - are completely incompatible with "good economic management", productivity imrpovement and welfare creation - which are the only sustainable ways of maximising "job security"
17 Feb 2012 12:04:25pm
Of course, that should read "wealth creation" - perhpas I am falling for the 1984 double speak....
17 Feb 2012 11:07:17am
The elephant in the cabinet is Swan. He could probably garner far more votes than Rudd and, after all, there is a long history of Treaurers challenging successfully.
Rudd lost his position more for health reasons than for any lack of political will. Gillard put Rudd into power in the first place and wasn't prepared to spend a protracted period as Acting PM when Rudd had to get his heart valve replaced and his gall bladder removed.
Pity she just isn't up to the job.
Bill from Freo:
17 Feb 2012 11:11:04am
Great article Barrie. It pulls the pieces together and gives a broad perspective that has helped me understand what is going on. Thanks.
17 Feb 2012 11:18:59am
One way or another the ALP will pay its primal transgression against Kevin Rudd. We are currently absorbed with Julia Gillard and the albatross around her neck, and it isn't Kevin, it is the party itself, Mark Arbib, Thompson, etc. A party that opposes unfair dismissal wrote a new chapter on unfair dismissal when its factional pygmies knifed and humiliated Rudd. The hardest CEO in the land would have taken pride in an action that offended the sense of decency that most Australians have. Many saw their own fears of dismissal in what happened to Rudd.
What this act did and continues to do was to expose the hollowness that the ALP had become. Rudd sought to quarantine the NSW culture, instead it took over.The lack of a policy compass came out in the 2010 campaign and still comes out, most recently in the Australia day fiasco. Of course all of this has obscured the sleaziness and betrayal that brought Tony Abbott to his position. It also obscures the work of the talented ministers in the Gillard government.
17 Feb 2012 11:19:42am
Barry you seem to be obsessed with Gillard. First the woman in the lodge story and now this. Are you trying to boost the number of stories critical of the government so that Aunty's bias count is balanced. This, as with the woman in the lodge story, is unimportant. While the press carries on about possible leadeship issues and parliamentary question time is filled with the irrelevant mumbling of Christopher Pine about whether Julia has check somebody's mobile phone records, the important issues of climate change, asylum seeker processes, large companies making super profits and the value of the Medicare scheme to Australia's health are pushed aside. It is time to get past personality politics and the inane focus on celebrity analysis and assasination and get the Australian public upo to speed on the issue which matter.
17 Feb 2012 11:20:12am
Thanks for bringing some sense and fact into the discussion Barrrie.
I seem to recall there was a bit of media hype over the Costello/Howard tussle; as there was over Keating/Hawke but not to this level of hysteria
My advice to Julia Gillard would be to make a statement along the lines that in a parliamentary democracy ANY member of a political party has a right to aspire to the leadership and if Rudd or anyone else wishes to challenge for it 'bring it on' but until that time comes I am and will remain Prime Minister and will continue to do my job to the best of my ability.
To anyone thinking of mounting a challenge and his or her supporters I ask them to think about the damage the speculation is doing to the Government and to either put up or shut up and get on with their job.
I will ask Australian people to judge us not by what the media hype and speculation says but by what we do and on every measure this Government has done seasonably well. I would also ask the Australian people to consider just how ell this hung parliament has worked.
17 Feb 2012 11:23:54am
I find it difficult to understand the 'can we trust her' angle.
Gillard wasn't voted in by the public. Her party wanted her in to save the Labor party.
So what if she changed her mind on the carbon tax? Is that devious, or just a better understanding of the issues involved? Wouldn't it be worse if she stuck to her guns if she no longer knew it to be the best option?
Anyone who researches the why of the carbon tax will at least see that Australia needs to compete with the world into the future. Coal won't last forever.
Only those whose elevators stop a few stories short believe that the tax is just a measure to help prevent global warming.
Who cares about the 'Rudd challenge' or the endless 'can we trust her' debates.
Look at the policies and where they'll lead us - that's all that matters.
17 Feb 2012 12:46:35pm
It would be nice if policy was all that mattered. The Libs might have to go and get something other than DOOOOOM! for one thing.
Unfortunately the government has completely lost control of the message. They are in total reaction mode, unable to get themselves heard above the din of the Libs and their sidekicks - the media.
I'm not sure what disgusts me more at the moment - the way that the media is running the show, or the fact that the government is letting them.
I imagine that if Uhlmann tried to run roughshod over some of the pollies of yester year, he would have had bruises to show for it.
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 3:27:40pm
There is no such thing as an anti-Liberal media outlet.
The Liberals have the advantage of the most one-sided media in the free world.
Take that away and they would have (and be) nothing.
17 Feb 2012 4:37:19pm
In one word, the anti-Liberal outlet is .....
not a single conservative on their staff of writers. Anti conservative, anti skeptic, anti anyone who isn't as far left as the collective requires.
Definitely anti-coalition.
There, fixed .. you're welcome.
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:33:27pm
Yeah I agree. Who cares? ..... It's probably only the Labor caucus members whose seats are threatened by Gillard's lie on the carbon tax that give a damn?! The rest of us are quite happy to give Gillard the boot at the next election! LOL!
17 Feb 2012 10:39:11pm
It's a long way off to the next election.
When people get that tax cut and don't notice any effect of the carbon price....and Tony A says he will take back the tax cut...he won't cream anyone.
Screw Loose:
17 Feb 2012 11:24:46am
Funny how the press decided not to report Costellos comments about the Lib leadership when he asked them not to. Wonder if they would do the same if Julia asked the same od them.
17 Feb 2012 11:26:28am
Well Barry you certainly stirred up all the usual suspects with nothing better to do than than slag off at each other on this site. Complete self indulgent time wasters always writing stuff that influences nothing and no one. Well done.
17 Feb 2012 1:01:14pm
Oh I dunno. Sure beats apathy ,ignorance and gratuitous insults.
CJ Dickinson:
17 Feb 2012 11:29:10am
It is easy for journalists to stir the pot by insisting that they know of several people Rudd has spoken to. It is in their interest to create gossip and keep things in the forefront of the public and they can refuse to reveal their sources. After all what does one do when there is no worthwhile news to report - a bit of 'creative' journalism will always keep the journos in work!
This sort of journalistic 'gossip' has fueled the tabloids both here and in UK for years.
17 Feb 2012 11:29:25am
When will the clowns in the press stop all this utter rubbish and start doing their jobs . that is reporting an unbiased
coverage of events, instead of all trying to outdo each other to see how low they can sink into the gutter I think the
public no matter what political views they hold have just about had with the garbage being reported at present
SO get some guts and report facts not just what your cronies tell you to do
Lu Lu:
17 Feb 2012 11:30:32am
Julia Gillard had a bad week because lazy journalists haven't got the skills to examine policy .
All I can say is she must be incredibly capable and effective as a Leader to mantain the high level of support in her caucus .
Some ideas for the media ,we the public would love some real reporting . We would love journalists to talk about things that matter like Australia's place in the world , our economy , our education system , our health system , superanuation , the enviroment .
So Rudd has 20 followers , so what, he is not even close ! I reckon Steve Bracks has more chance than RUdd and he is not even in Federal Politics . The only reason some in the public have affection for Rudd is because they feel sorry for him . Gradually the public is seeing that Gillard is far more capable and better suited to Leadership .
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:31:42pm
I'm all for Gillard going to the next election! Abbott will CREAM her... Can't you see the "no carbon tax" lie is going to hurt Labor if they keep Gillard on as PM for an election campaign? But as I said, quite happy for Gillard to face the reckoning at the next election...
17 Feb 2012 10:37:36pm
You mean when people get their tax cuts that come with the carbon PRICE, they will not notice?
17 Feb 2012 11:33:56am
Kevin Rudd est verberando a mortuis equum!.. with a lot of help from Barrie and his colleagues. He presents as a man with no integrity, no loyalty to his party ( in fact, quite the reverse) and being guilty of hypocrisy when he attempts to destabilise not only Julia Gillard but the government as a whole. His obvious wish is to become Prime Minister again, he cannot see that his own behaviour is destroying any chance of that ever happening. He does not appear to have learned from the mistakes of the past and his ego will not allow enlightment. He had his chance and he blew it! Julia Gillard has achieved everything that Rudd could not,maybe Kevin should question why that is so.
17 Feb 2012 11:36:10am
Reading the comments above I can reach one conclusion - the old ABC, along with Cassidy and his mates, sure collect a lot of Labor supporters And, silly old me, paying taxes to keep the ABC going and thinking the organisation will make sure it has balanced , fair reporting. Now, Barry, didn't you just publish two articles telling us the Gillard problem is all about her being female? Now. you tell us that possibly the most important days in her life - the challenge and coup - are buried 'cos she was so busy doing other things she didn't know about the polling or the speech and what else? Come on, Barry, even a leftie like you could not say that with a straight face! It's not that she looks shifty or shows poor judgement, Barry. It's telling fibs, and worse, telling them when they can be checked out for the truth. We know there are lies, dammed lies and what politicians say but really this is blatant disregard for the voters. It is why Labor are now terrified by the propsect of an election. It's not about Tony Abbott, it's about good honest government dumped in recent years.
17 Feb 2012 1:05:06pm
Great job at defining the old adage that there is no fool quite like a silly old fool.
17 Feb 2012 4:09:30pm
On reflection you could easily say that applies to us both,silly me to.
17 Feb 2012 1:46:58pm
Yeah, honest government was dumped when "Honest John Howard' came into office. The bar has gone below ground level ever since, and now extends to an Opposition leader who lies every day of the week. Gee, are'nt we in mess? I wish we had a decent media keeping the bastards honest. Not to be, sigh!
17 Feb 2012 4:40:45pm
So you don't remember the L.A.W. tax cuts of Paul Keating that he promptly broke his promise on, or were you too young.
The government follows in his tradition.
Why do you want to keep the opposition honest, what sort of weird world is that important in, surely the idea is to keep the government honest?
The ALP limpets all are convinced the main game is to prosecute the people with no power, such is their media and minion management.
Take a bow ALP media managers! You are without peers.
Doug of Armidale:
17 Feb 2012 11:36:46am
The electorate will long remember this grabbing of power with an unmanagable coalition cobbled together out of a failed campaign, paralysis of government, marking time , putting off the needed election just as long as possible. Nothing will save this incompetent rabble, even with JC leading. At least Abbott would have called a double dissolution by now and is the only reason the indies went with laabor. The lesson willstand a long time.
Ture Sjolander:
17 Feb 2012 11:44:32am
What a narrow "family circus" the Australian politics show us!
John of WA:
17 Feb 2012 11:46:37am
Why does Rudd have to say he would never aspire to be PM again? Of course he does. So do a dozen others. So what? No doubt if/when Abbott gets the job and he screws up (let's be kind and give him two months) they will start running to Turnbull asking him to rule out a challenge. Journalists need to get over themselves. It's getting rather tedious.
17 Feb 2012 11:47:10am
This is how it should be dealt with
A meeting of Federal Cabinet should be called. At that meeting Julia needs to do the following things
1) Sack Kevin Rudd and remove him to the back benches, along with her assurance that he will never again grace the front benches while she is Prime Minister.
2) Any cabinet member who does not agree with her being Prime Minister should resign within 24 hours.
3) Tell her cabinet colleagues that there are serious leaks within the party, these are undermining both her and Labor. The people responsible for these leaks must be found and removed from their positions within 24 hours.
4) If the following measures are not taken, she will hand in her resignation as Prime Minister - and Labor will be left to clean up the mess.
Its time for Labor to purge themselves of Kevin Rudd and his supporters need to either get into line or risk being outed.
Gavin H:
17 Feb 2012 1:18:49pm
You do understand that Gillard can't win an election?
That's the only reason why Rudd is being talked about!
17 Feb 2012 2:55:38pm
If Rudd were sent to the back bench he would still hear what was happening in cabinet he would be very annoyed with Gillard and seek revenge. Even if he heard nothing of what was happening in cabinet he would still be privvy to much dirt from when he was PM and then FM.
Gillard in better off having Rudd inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in. If she or anybody else in the ALP had a solution, then tehy would act on it. Gillard has to cop it, if she were a good enough leader to be way in front in the polls, both as prefered PM and the ALP way in front as the prefered government she would not have the problems she has.
The facts are she is NOT good enough and the ALP with her as leader are NOT good enough. She is way out of her depth and dragging down a government that looks bad by having her as PM.
Gillard is the main problem, perhaps if she resigned as PM, did not contest the leadership and stayed on the front bench the APL might regain some ground, maybe get in front in the polls and win the next election. She must go, not in a challenge, just resign, most of the problems of this government are due to herand would go with her.
John Butcher:
17 Feb 2012 11:48:37am
Barrie Cassidy and the rest of the Canberra Commentariat really ought to watch last night's 'Clark and Dawe' and get a bit of perspective on the media's obsessive fascination with picking over the carcass of so-called 'leadership tensions' in the Labor Party. Go to the link and have a laugh: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-16/clarke-and-dawe-with-some-huge-news/3834912?WT.svl=news5
17 Feb 2012 11:50:11am
Hallelujah this is the restoration of your superior journalistic skills of old Barrie, to the point, objectively wise and informative,my two bob's worth, Conniving Kevvie should put the country in first place and not his ego,sure he sadly got rolled such is life what is glaringly obvious that it is unhealthy both in physical and mental way to be consumed by the megalomaniac-like position he's adopting,to try and do something the same way and achieve a different result is a measure of his learning skills, unfortunately it appears "Kevin's here to help" his damaged ego in a loose /lose situation.
17 Feb 2012 11:51:54am
By the use of that (old) heading Photo, Mr Cassidy is stirring the possum ad nauseum, attempting to establish a quid pro quo scenario from previous mediation photo ops.
17 Feb 2012 11:56:47am
I would be surprised if the Liberal Party has not done polling on Turnbull v Costello. I would be surprised if senior Liberals weren't discussing it over a sherry. Whatever Abbott's claims are as leader, regardless of how effective or otherwise he is as a leader, his stocks must be tarnished by Labor's Dr No campaign. I would also not be surprised if the Libs don't jump first, given the apparent instability in Labor. If they did, it may give them an advantage that would last all the way to the election. Would Turnbull make a better PM than Abbott, Gillard, Rudd or Shorten? It doesn't matter. I am just surprised that the entire media caravan is focussed on Gillard v Rudd and none of them are looking over their shoulders.
17 Feb 2012 11:57:27am
Yes, I agree with Mick.
It's much better to let this Costa Concordia of a government to run aground with their current Captain.
17 Feb 2012 11:57:41am
It is surprising that the many comments made that Rudd did not do anything.
Well, he kept 200 000 in a job and prevented, by doing that, at least 100 000 people having to loose their homes!!!
Not a bad effort!
17 Feb 2012 11:58:18am
"That she remembered little of it is also unsurprising. She would have been pre-occupied with issues like, should I challenge and will I have the numbers? Equally unremarkable was the showing of polling unfavourable to Rudd to colleagues. Why wouldn't she?"
Gosh! Why weren't you there defending Bill Clinton when he needed you?
That Monica was in his office was unsurprising. Of course he was pre-occupied on the phone, and with more important issues. Equally unremarkable was that he didn't remember having intimate relations. Why would he?
Ambushed by a few direct questions. Soo unfair. Only a small matter of honesty and integrity.
But hey, let's not quibble over minor matters like premeditated sabotage of a head of state, using unelected bovver boys and sexed-up polling to do the dirty work, shall we?
17 Feb 2012 12:00:01pm
The leadership issue is unimportant compared to our economy and how to deal with present pressures. Hopefully the public is making it clear that they are tired of journalism based on conversations between mutual back scratchers. A commentary on how the parties are trying to deal with our current situation, padded with some suggestions from the broader community might be more new worthy. (if you dont get the scoop on the leadership challenge I'll think a lot more of you Barry).
17 Feb 2012 12:02:22pm
Barry you are obsessed. Find something else to talk about, please.
17 Feb 2012 12:05:17pm
The media is obsessed by a leadership challenge that is not actually happening. They've been writing and talking about it for a year.
And still it continues to not happen.
But will they admit they were wrong and move on?
Not on your nelly!
Meanwhile, in the real world, the government continues to introduce and pass new legislation, and dominate in Question Time, and the economic news continues to improve. None of this is reported, as the headlines seem to be permanently reserved for a year old non-story that, in news just in, is still continuing to not happen.
The opposition continues to get away with having no policies, a 70 billion dollar black hole in their costings, blaming everything on a carbon tax that hasn't been introduced yet, and talking down the economy in a mind-bogglingly irresponsible way.
In other words, this leadership challenge clearly only exists in the fevered imaginations of The Media Who Cries Wolf.
17 Feb 2012 4:42:51pm
"The opposition continues to get away with having no policies"
Well yes, of course they do .. if you're not in power, who cares if you have a policy or not.
What a strange thing to be focused on.
The pint is to have policies when you go to an election, the way the ALP had no policies between elections
17 Feb 2012 12:12:19pm
The Australian economy is the envy of the world. The PM gets the job done and the Legislation through. End of story.
17 Feb 2012 12:16:15pm
The Bear quotes:
`It is of no consequence that somebody in her office was preparing a speech in the event that she might win a leadership ballot.'
No consequence?
The Bear respectfully disagrees. Thi si the sort of thinking that has the ALP, and politics generally, held in such low esteem.
The Bear thinks Barry has gone way native ...
17 Feb 2012 1:48:12pm
Bear your opinion would be better placed in the forest as is the accepted practice.
17 Feb 2012 3:36:25pm
No idea what you are trying to say, Brian. Dropped on your head when you were a little one, is that it? So sorry to hear ...
Joe Kehrr:
17 Feb 2012 12:19:22pm
It is the extremely fortunate timing of China's need for Australian resources which has kept the Australian economy afloat. That is all.
When that income stream dries up be prepared for worse conditions than have beset the US or Europe, for it will be then that competent government becomes essential and not just a speculative venture. And we have not got one, nor much prospect of one deriving from the current pool of small minded, short-sighted and spectacularly incompetent career politicians who spend their days idly barking at one another.
17 Feb 2012 1:19:42pm
Mining accounts for only a few percent of our GDP, and only a few percent of employment.
Try again.
Joe Kehrr:
17 Feb 2012 2:25:28pm
Try what again?
17 Feb 2012 3:30:01pm
You wrote it is China keeping us afloat. It obviously isn't. Try again.
Joe Kehrr:
17 Feb 2012 8:01:14pm
My point was that the government is incompetent and if the economy is doing well it's just good luck.
But I'm intrigued. If there's no money in mining why is it the only industry getting super-taxed? I've been asking colleague all afternoon and none of us could think of an industry that comes close to mining in revenue except possibly tourism.
Joe Kehrr:
17 Feb 2012 3:11:09pm
Soooo.... we don't need a competent government just yet? Phew.
17 Feb 2012 12:25:39pm
Gillard is not up to it, Rudd is a megalomaniac and the thought of an Abbot government is too horrible to contemplate. Where are you, Malcom?
17 Feb 2012 1:29:11pm
Malcolm has realised he's in the wrong party and is trying to work out how to cross over directly into the leadership of the ALP. the unions despise him.
He'll never be leader of the Liberals, they despise him, and he only has popularity with ALP voters, who of course won't vote for him.
So, now do you understand where Malcolm is?
HE"S IN THE WRONG PARTY and you think he has leadership qualities, sheesh!
17 Feb 2012 2:40:41pm
Where did people get the idea that Turnbull is a moderate?
He isn't. He's as right wing as they come. And his sole contribution in politics so far is to try to frame Rudd through the OZcar scandal.
Fraud, in case you don't remember. What a stand up guy!
He seems to be a saint to the left because he doesn't deny global warming. Neither did Howard or Abbott until they were told to by their financial backers.
17 Feb 2012 3:40:43pm
Fair point, he sure made a mess of that - and again, why do people think he has leadership qualities?
Hey, did you see his piece in the new lefty media online site, Globe l Male I think (?), or something like that .. they adore him! In the article he is just as bad. it was on Prof Bunyip's site is how I know these things.
On reflection I do now see the attraction of a carbon taxer to the average ALP limpet .. hmmm. They all post how he would be a great Liberal leader, I thought they were half extracting the you know what and half in love.
Still, I do reckon he'd make a good ALP leader, apart from all the knives in his back, I think it would be just as amusing as it is now. It would be like watching a rattlesnake juggler, blindfolded, with a chainsaw (running) thrown in, as well as a bowling ball and a grenade.
17 Feb 2012 12:26:10pm
OH GIVE IT A REST Pleeeease - preferably forever. Rudd is playing with you silly journalists and loving every minute of it. He doesn't have the numbers! He swaggers down the street looking like a fool and you journo's follow like love sick clowns.
How much precious time are we going to waste on this drivle.....he said ......she said?
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:27:43pm
the problem is that SOMEONE will have the numbers and very soon, because Labor cannot afford to let Gillard go to another election as Labor's leader.
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:28:38pm
Oh by the way, I'm sure it'd make Tony Abbott's day if Gillard WAS the Labor leader at the next election. Dream run for Tony if that happens...
17 Feb 2012 12:28:27pm
Write this story about Abbott and its ABC bias . Write it about Labor and its just truth.
17 Feb 2012 12:29:37pm
Just 2 weeks after Hawkey met Gillard and her fellow pollies at The Lodge in Canberra and gave them his advice, his former press advisor bobs up on the ABC website and proffers his advice! Surprising? not really!
17 Feb 2012 12:29:44pm
Longest running slow news day ever.
Jack of All Tradies:
17 Feb 2012 12:32:34pm
"I know the names of some of those he has spoken to. I know where he said it in his office on a parliamentary sitting day and I know what he said. He told them a challenge would happen; he told them he was prepared to lose the first ballot and go to the backbench; and in one conversation he laughed about the prospect of Gillard stumbling again."
Spoke to whom and when Barrie?
I think we pay Journalists at the ABC to report fully and fearlessly, not talk in riddles and waste bandwidth on untestable assertions.
17 Feb 2012 12:32:40pm
There is only one reason Julia is not sending K.Rudd to the back bench & that is he may go to the cross bench. That would be a wild card in itself but Rudd is a wildcard himself, so I guess you finish up with a double wildcard?
17 Feb 2012 12:32:53pm
I'm trying to think of a third candidate that would have the best chance at a challenge... ....
Stephen Smith comes to mind, he's the only labor man anyone in WA would be able to respect, and unlike Rudd he's fresh and undamaged material.
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:26:30pm
and he hasn't made a squeek about challenging either. Do you really think people will be pleased to have another "suprise" pm foisted on them? Voters prefer Rudd because he's preparing them for the challenge.
If Smith isn't making any noise, he shouldn't throw his cap in the ring.
Steve T:
17 Feb 2012 12:34:00pm
I have switched off- this is such crap journalism. News Corp lite...
17 Feb 2012 1:26:13pm
And yet .. here you are, posting.
17 Feb 2012 12:36:17pm
An ongoing leadership campaign is the pattern of an opposition as the challenge can be justified as the way to help get government. However, when in government, ongoing challenges destablise the very government which the challenger purports to support. Labor members in the event of a leadership challenge must send a strong message to Rudd that his challenge is a farce and that his return to the back bench will be permanent. Much of Gillards so called credibility issue are related to the ongoing campaign by Rudd supporters. They started in the election campaign last year with strategic leakings and haven't really stopped. I was hoping that the Four Corners program was going to explore this rather than going for the 'easy' gotcha game and the instant headline. A disappointing Four Corners more like tabloid TV.
17 Feb 2012 1:35:23pm
Well said Marita, you've nailed it.
The ALP were more comfortable in opposition and cannot come to grips with the responsibility of government, beyond spraying money around, they don't know what to do.
Their pattern of opposition behaviors, includes attacking the coalition relentlessly for no other reason than it's the only time they look confidant and actually competent.
They are comfortable with that line of behavior.
The 4 Corners "game", is exactly what was done tot he coalition for years, they didn't complain and just accepted it was always going to be biased against them.
All the ALP supporters are outraged as they are not used to seeing their own dealt with that way.
To the rest of us, the media appear to be finally coming out of the cosy relationship they held with the ALP for 11 years, attacking government.
The changing of leaders is, you are quite correct, their constant obsession with elections which is sad because it is now clear to everyone, they have no idea or intentions about nation building.
it's all about re-election.
Angus Black:
17 Feb 2012 12:37:27pm
I don't understand why Labor doesn't get it - it is a matter of trust (or, more precisely, the lack thereof).
Trust is hard to build but very easy to lose. It really doesn't matter what Gillard does now, she's over.
17 Feb 2012 12:40:10pm
So even by your own admission, there is no danger of a leadership challenge any time soon. 30/103 is nowhere near enough. So what is the point of this article!?
In any case, a ballot now would do absolutely nothing to deter a challenge further down the road. If anything it would confirm to everyone that it's not just a media making stuff up, but that something really is up and the leadership issue would only get worse. And no, we wouldn't even get to see the numbers behind Rudd because he knows he has no chance right now and so he wouldn't put his name forward. He wants to keep his front bench position and he doesn't want to publicise how far he is from the top job.
Look, I'm sure it's all very exciting for you Barrie to speculate like this, but your job is to report the news, not to create it out of nothing.
17 Feb 2012 12:41:40pm
Why oh Why ? !! did she not get rid of him in the first place , now she can't because he would be even more the "poor little woe is me" figure he has become , every time she gets her head in front its either Tony Abbott or Kevin Rudd chopping it off with their News Ltd Pals doing daily polls and bringing up stupid things like did she know of the speech being written 2 weeks prior to her ousting KR , who cares if she knew or not it is all so trivial , how many Politicians have not prepared a speech in lieu of their takeover i would bet nearly all , and i for one will not vote for Kevin Rudd he is the most Egotistical man in Politics and why should anyone have to put up with his tantrums and bullying again
17 Feb 2012 12:44:45pm
For all those wondering why all the attention to something, that may or may not happen, by the media, think back to when KRudd was rolled and it only became clear on the night.
Now the journos want to be part of the action and not actually sitting in the bar whilst the news occurs, and by G_d, if they can't get him up, then they sure as hell are gunna have a decent go to make up for their own inadequacies the last time.
If these so called intelligent reporters were to actually sit down and look passed the end of their noses, they might just realise that they are not actually doing any factual reporting (nothing new here) but unattributed hot air fermentation, ad nauseum.
Come on Journos, how about doing something that approaches journalism, and actually have solid facts, not speculate to make the"body" of the story.
Capt Dash :
17 Feb 2012 12:46:50pm
Is being the Prime Minister really that great? Seems to be more like school children trying to win a popularity contest. Worry about having a united and policy driven labour party and run a unified Government instead of carrying on with these pathetic factional wars. NEWSFLASH: Noboby cares!
It shows these people are more preoccupied with the title in front of their name then serving the community.
17 Feb 2012 12:50:48pm
You are one of the people responsible for the poor state of the Australian media.
You just can't help yourself. You tune into any "expose" on Kevin or Julia, or Tony, such delicious gossip to hear over dinner or whatever. If not that, then the sport or the 'how fat is she' reality programs.
And the advertisers love you. They track what you watch and read, and make sure that their dollars are spent during muck raking current affairs programs, sport, cooking and "reality" shows.
If you started to watch serious shows, say with more than a 2 second grab about what is causing the problems in Europe, or the US, or human rights in China and ignored the exposes, the advertisers would pour money into these timeslots and the muckraking and inane media commentary would disappear.
Just like that.
17 Feb 2012 12:51:46pm
well we have all seen how bad labor is lately, just look at qld, they are so desperate they are using parliamentary privelege to cast dispersion on the opposition, just goes to show that the female labor leaders are ready to lie to keep power, they are both in the same boat, neither is electable so they lie to cover their bums. Gillard is shocking, she has constantly lied to the voters and now it has been taken up by bligh, labor has lost all of their pride and are stooping to new lows, we do not need these idiots running the country.
17 Feb 2012 12:53:19pm
Barrie, this will she wont she with Gillard and the will he wont he with Rudd is a flame fanned hugly by the media.
The media these days are the people that decide what will and what will not make news. They fiddle with the content, implications and would be's if they could be's. Clearly the media have now become supporters of their own causes. It is pretty easy to see where a journo stands on an issue - as he will be barricking for his own side - openy in the case of some media outlets.
Most in the media have lost the professional touch there are but a handful of true professionals - that you can actually count on one hand - in this country where you dont know what party that journalist supports.
17 Feb 2012 12:57:48pm
If the media had been questioning the processes, decisions and practices of the government from day 1, we would not be in the position now where we discover have an ineffective government.
The media only seem to occasionally wake up to the fact they are supposedly unbiased reporters of news and affairs, and not barrackers, or partisan supporters who go to the government for instructions on how they can best harass the opposition.
When Howard was in government, the media pursued his government relentlessly, every stone was turned over and every foible questioned.
Now I see "reporters" asking how Julia would like them to behave.
I see surprised journalists who cannot understand how we got to the position we are in. Here's some news for free, it's because you're still chasing the coalition and they have no power, the ALPGreenIndies are in government and are rarely questioned.
If the coalition did not do the sterling job they do, there would be zero questioning, apart from around 4 or 5 conservative journalists, one of whom is merely an opinion columnist.
Barry, you're so one eyed it amazes most of us you have any distance perception at all.
Gavin H:
17 Feb 2012 1:00:18pm
Other journalists obviously treat what is told on the understanding of confidence with integrity, do you not do so Barry?
The main question is Gillard not Rudd, she cannot win the next election.
So a leadership change is inevitable.
Candidates are Rudd and anyone else but Rudd.
The public will not accept any other candidate than Rudd as a viable choice unless the party would do things like tear up the carbon tax and install a more punishing refugee policy. They can't do this as they don't have numbers to do so. Only Rudd can bring in Katter.They must be tearing their hair out.
Also going on the answers that Julia gives as long as Rudd doesn't mention the word leadership he isn't talking about leadership is he?
17 Feb 2012 1:01:44pm
Barrie, I can't agree with your view that writing an acceptance speech 2 weeks or more before a knifing, or lobbying with polls is nothing special. It is a statement of intent. Gillard intended to challenge, perhaps when the timing suited her. To say that she only made up her mind on the day is nonsense.
I am amazed at some of the comments from Labor lovers claiming that this current leadership issue is media driven. Open your eyes.
I doubt that Gillard would be comfortable with Rudd on the backbench. He will no longer be bound by cabinet confidentiality. Perhaps we may then hear more about the machinations of the gang of four in the lead up to the knifing. It would appear that on Gillards advice, Rudd made decisions as PM that ultimately lead to his knifing. Watch for major leaks if Rudd is on the backbench.
But ofcourse for Labor lovers, it will all be the fault of the media. Bring on an election. Get rid of this dishonest PM and her incompetent rabble.
17 Feb 2012 1:03:35pm
Thanks Barry for making this so plain. There is not the slightest doubt that Rudd is fuelling the expectation of a challenge but the journalists are not passive by-standers here. They are fuelling instability within the party. The government is governing well and continuing with a progressive agenda. Rudd is not wanted by most in the Party and should just be told to shut up or depart. The numbers on the floor would be more problematic but at least the government could get on with the job. I recall Abbott once saying that Rudd was a toxic bore. In this instance, much as I hate to say it I agree with Abbott - at least to the extent that Rudd is toxic. Like Howard and Costello before him he is prepared to undermine his leader at every opportunity - as indeed does every parliamentarian aspiring to leadership. Either be open or be gone.
17 Feb 2012 1:07:13pm
So is the crux of your story the fact that there are ambitious back stabbers in all political parties and that Ms Gillard being less trustworthy because she has lied about her ambitions and challenged Rudd is a beat up and totally out of balance?
17 Feb 2012 1:11:38pm
Call an election and resolve all the issues, complaints, whinges, finger pointing and mostly rubbish contained in this thread ...
17 Feb 2012 1:15:27pm
Any respect I might have had for Rudd has gone.
Plotting is appalling and Julia does not deserve such tactics when ruthless, unforgiving and thoughtless Australians keep attacking her.
I believe Tanya Plibersek and Penny Wong that Julia has what it takes.
Never has any PM had such unfair attacks!
It is Abbott who is unfitted for leadership.
17 Feb 2012 1:16:10pm
I am a rusted and welded on labor voter.... this leadership drivel from Rudd is killing his own chances at the next federal election with a poorly disciplined government. Surely he can't honestly believe he can rule as he previously did. 'How can you govern the country, if you can't govern yourselves?'
Rudd is clearly sour, bitter, resentful and not playing a team game (OK a Team Rudd game).
Lets not forget the Independants may well walk from the minority government, force an election and out of government. Sure they Indepenedent like the positon they have at the moment, but at what point will they break and run?
If Rudd returns to PM or Labor leadership it might just drive me to vote for Chris Pyne, at least he is fighting for his party (at the moment).
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:24:48pm
The problem is the caucus needs to ditch Gillard before they go to an election, otherwise there won't be any jobs for the party faithful.
People didn't react well to Gillard's "suprise" knifing... how will they react to another "suprise" knifing do you think?
At least everyone can see Kev coming from 2 miles away!
Gavin H:
17 Feb 2012 2:53:50pm
While Rudd is undoubtedly in it for himself.
Do you doubt that he truly believes that overthrowing Gillard is best for the party?
I don't and at least 25-35 agree with him and 30 more are undecided if its best for the party or not.
Do you think that Shorten et al think that Gillard is best to lead the ALP to the next election?
No they don't they just don't seem to have a viable alternative option at this time and some of them hate Rudd and are blinded by this reality.
17 Feb 2012 3:44:35pm
For goodness sake man, Rudd is in it for Rudd, always was always will be.
Once you realize that, you know where his motivation comes from and no, it's not to make you or your place in the world better.
Have you noticed how his whole UN gig just died out, if Julia was smart, and she's not, she would have bankrupted us to get him a role in the UN, but she didn't out of spite.
This is the ALP today, rusted on person, a spiteful odious place where combat is joined for the sake of egos and nothing else, a little little world.
17 Feb 2012 1:17:02pm
Good article Barrie. Just a few points.
1 I am astonished the media missed what was to me the most important par tof the 4 corners programme. That was the comments from Kevin Rudd's former speech writer who said Rudd ran a chaotic office and drove people up the wall. As one who did not like the way Rudd was dumped it made me have a rethink; I now see a reason and justification as to not only why he was dumped but how essential it was for the good of good democratic government under our parliamentary system of Government that he be dumped.
2 But the media and the opposition has focused on the drafting of a ;'ictory' speech= TWO weeks before the actual challenge. Wow-two whole weeks!! If we are to believe the media Kevin has been campaigning for the top job for months- wonder if he has a victory speech in mind.
3. I believe that Gillard made the FINAL decision to challenge on the night of the event. That is not to say she was not involved in discussions about it- of course those who saw the need for a change would have suggested it to her- so what!!-where is the crime in that?- was it OK for Peter Costello and Keating to aspire to the top job but not Gillard?
4. Whilst I appreciate the need for it; I do have a problem with the journalistic right to protect sources- it provides every gutless self interested trouble maker, stirer and attention seeker an avenue to spread gossip . What is to stop any journo from making up a storyv or fly a kite quoting an 'unnamed source"
5. I refuse to believe anything I read or hear unless there are NAMES. But what will that do to the integrity of journalism? Well it may improver it significantly- it may force the weak rumour mongers to put up or shut up and stop all this b/s speculation so that we can focus on the real issues-like the new global (not Gillard's) economy which we are NOT prepared for.
17 Feb 2012 1:26:02pm
Lift your game Julia. Your biggest immediate threat are your minders, the ones who let you treat the concept of integrity with contempt. They've almost knocked you off before the electorate has a chance. Rudd is the least of your worries.
17 Feb 2012 1:38:57pm
Lets face it Rudd does not have the nurries to challenge Gillard , so why does'nt he just come out and state he will not challenge.
He travels the world with the foreign affairs portfolio and this will be curtailed if he has designs on the top job.
I hope and think that the Labor caucus has enough nouse not to even consider Rudd , I don't care how many queeenslanders love him,I ,don't consider him leadership material.
17 Feb 2012 1:43:12pm
News Editors and Government critics are salivating at the prospect of a leadership Challenge. The overkill is simply rude - playing into the hands of an opposition that has almost climaxed with delight! This is a perfect example of how the media in this country can influence political outcomes and undermine democracy!
If I were Julia I'd be turning up the heat up on possible phone hacking by media outlets in this country - I wonder how they'd respond if the guns were turned back on them?
Is the coverage proportionate on the issue of a possible leadership challenge? Of course it isn't!
Tony P Grant:
17 Feb 2012 1:43:23pm
Credibility and Journalism...I know you are a sane man Barrie.
Journalism is at best a B grade drama each day. Continually regurgitating "myths and mischief" till even the better journo's like yourself start to believe you own nonsense and propaganda!
If you "journalists"don't keep up the barrage Abbott is gone...your superiors know this and "thy will be done"...or else!
I find policy and that very important "value' to this nation has been lost by your profession (?).
Nothing but a total disgrace!
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 3:33:16pm
The only thing keeping the Coalition afloat is the one-party media.
17 Feb 2012 4:21:51pm
Maintain the hate, that's really good for Australia that is.
17 Feb 2012 1:48:23pm
You report:
"I know the names of some of those he (Rudd) has spoken to. I know where he said it in his office on a parliamentary sitting day and I know what he said. He told them a challenge would happen; he told them he was prepared to lose the first ballot and go to the backbench; and in one conversation he laughed about the prospect of Gillard stumbling again."
Here is a straight question, Barrie:
Since Hartcher and Coorey wrote a joint article in the SMH this week is it not they who were the journalists in Rudd's office?
Here are other straight questions:
If Rudd was briefing them with the intention of creating trouble for Julia Gillard why does this have anything to do with "journalistic ethics" or confidentiality of sources?
Were they sworn to "spread the word" but preserve Rudd's halo and innocence?
Is Rudd angling to be SENT to the backbench so that he can play the martyr, but not game enough to take himself there as Keating had the guts to do?
It would seem that Rudd is prepared to destroy Gillard and the Labor Government and even ruin his own chances of returning to power in doing so.
At this point we do need to know the truth about Rudd.
You say: "Yet the Foreign Minister has categorically denied ever having spoken to any journalist about the leadership."
Final question: Who is lying? You?, Rudd? or the other journalists?
David Free:
17 Feb 2012 1:57:11pm
As soon as a journo starts commenting on the supposed "leadership struggle" I switch channels or read somethin else. An unclear and supposed "20 or 30 supporters" of Rudd does not a challenge make. And Rudd always says he is enjoying being foreign minister which I genuinely think he does. If he had more support he may challenge for the PM but he doesnt. End of story. Please read this journos or your reputations will get worse. Uhlmann is so annoying I dont watch 7.30 Report anymore.
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 3:35:08pm
Hundreds of thousands of people have switched off the 7.30 report and its newfound "balance" under Chris Uhlmann.
17 Feb 2012 1:57:19pm
"But as every day goes by, the chances are he will build on that support." Really???? Who's likely to defect? No-one in the present cabinet as they all remember what it was like with control freak Rudd as PM
As usual Clarke and Dawe gave the best summary of the week to this issue. What is the issue? That the journalists weren't in on the story of the last change and sure don't want to miss any new change? There is no story - get over yourselves.
17 Feb 2012 1:59:24pm
hey barry, ever thought that kev may be paying you back.
17 Feb 2012 2:01:33pm
The headline in the Australian shows you once gain how biased newspapers are and we talk about journalistic ethics. The ANZ CEO had a comment to make of all politicians, however the headline talks about the ANZ CEO criticizing Labor. This is not the only case of mischievous misreporting when a comment against political interference is a criticism of the Govt. when the coalition said the very same thing. So lets stop talking about ethics in journalism and the media, it does not exist and presumably not taught as an university media subject.
17 Feb 2012 2:08:01pm
Barrie, you appear to be increasingly becoming a player rather than a journalist. This reads like a personal threat to expose Rudd. Have you become too involved?
Think First...:
17 Feb 2012 2:17:13pm
Thanks Barrie - nice read for a Friday lunch...
I think Labor has two very distinct and real problems at the moment. The first is that their leader, rightly or wrongly, has a serious credibility issue. The Carbon Tax declaration (there will be no Carbon Tax) and the leadership declaration (its more likely that I will be full forward for the Western Bulldogs than Prime Minister) have resulted in a situation where the vast majority no longer trust the PM at all and rarely beleive anything that she says.
The "real Julia" didn't help either.
The second problem for Labor is that they have already changed Prime Ministers once. While I acknowledge that our parliament works in such a way that this is entirely legal, ethical and democratic, it does create mistrust. It also means that the vast majority also beleive that it could happen again.
This means the only way that Labor can realistically change leaders and win the election, is for PM Gillard to retire. If there is a spill motion and she loses, so do they. They know this (well at least the smart ones do) which is why there is solid suport for the PM, when ordinarily the polls and her performances would have resulted in a change of leadership by now.
Unlike many others, I do not think Labor made a mistake in replacing Kevin Rudd. He was unpopular at the time and his style was seriously starting to turn voters against him. I think the mistake was that it was executed with a little too much precision. It seemed a little too clinical.
The only chance of PM Gillard being replaced before the election is if the backbenchers who are going to lose their seats, panic and choose to back a spill, in the desparate hope it will save their seat.
I'm just glad the other Labor Ministers are getting on with their jobs, or we would be in serious trouble....
Spin Baby, Spin:
17 Feb 2012 2:18:26pm
This is all only a problem because the Labor caucus CANNOT afford to go to an election with Gillard at the helm... hence there MUST be a leadership change at some stage before the next election for Labor not to get wiped out. You can argue that Journalists should not be beating up this story, but the fact remains there MUST be a leadership challenge at some stage before the 2013 election.
17 Feb 2012 2:20:54pm
If what Barry has said about Rudd's leaking to journalists is true (it probably is), this is just another good reason (if any were really needed) why Labor is better off without Rudd as leader. Rudd has zero credibility and integrity at this time, amply demonstated by his 'dog in a manger' behaviour. In our non-presidential system of government the PM is not elected, its the parliamentary members who can command a majority who select and elect a Prime Minister. They have made their decision on Rudd for the period of this government. Rudd should accept that decision and not consider making a bid for the Labor leadership until after the next election.
On on another related issue: Why do have to rely mainly on the right wing media to do our political polling? Why can't the ABC begin doing its own polling and add a little 'balance' of its own.
For example, we need a routine question on the relative popularity of Turnbull to compare with Abbott. Gillard is always compared with Abbott and Rudd. Why not Abbott vs Turnbull?
Think First...:
17 Feb 2012 3:51:59pm
If the two party preferred polls reversed and had the opposition seriously trading the government, the leadership speculation around PM Gillard would disappear and the speculation would begin on when Turnbull would replace Abbott.
Its not bias issue, its that Labor are seriously trailing and leaders who are as far behind as PM Gillard is, rarely survive long as opposition leaders, let alone Prime Ministers.
17 Feb 2012 2:22:28pm
The Red Queen strode anxiously along the corridors of the Castle; King Krudd the First had returned from exile and was assembling an army of Knights and Barons to storm the Fortress. Something had to be done. A riot of peasants could be organised, but this had backfired badly on the Red Queen the last time she tried it. So she strode, yes, a scheme but what scheme??
hgase verdadero:
17 Feb 2012 2:25:10pm
"Nothing else is breaking through.." Well why for goodness sake? because as The Australian's Niki Savva said on Insiders recently - the journalists are fascinated by this constant leadership speculation - too bad if the readers aren't. The journalists give Rudd his oxygen - it a symbiotic relationship. Journalists dont report, or investigate, or challenge anymore. They have become a self-referential club with their own agenda, and there own internally competing commentaries.
Paul Taylor:
17 Feb 2012 2:25:50pm
United & working together, Kevin Rudd & Julia Gillard can again form the bedrock of a formidable team. The economy & the 24/03/2012 QLD state election: that's what both should be concentrating on & not trivialities & diversions of media suggestion & accusation - what better example than the electoral turnaround 2 weeks out from the August ,2010 Federal Election... where the emphasis & agenda was switched from a similar media discord to economic facts & achievements of Labor.
Kevin Rudd would have to be a complete idiot, Barrie, to challenge Julia Gillard for the Federal Labor Leadership if what you say is correct about leadership strategy revelations in his office, to a journalist, on a parliamentary sitting day - so much for the cloak of journalistic ethics & integity...more like a leaking sieve! You wonder why politicians now would want to talk one on one in recorded interview, when there is a good chance you will be broadsided. Julia Gillard would also have to be a complete idiot also, given the parallels you draw with the Margaret Thatcher leadership challenge, in your DRUM blog 'Slow to warm up to a woman in the Lodge' dated10/02/2012, to put her leadership to a ballot. YES, "a pre-emptive move would be interpreted in parts of the media as a recognition on Gillard's part that the challenge is real & her leadership is threatened" - so why the emphasis, Barrie, on your opening paragraph...can we all be that stupid!
Good suggestion & reverse psychology: It's a non-sitting week & Kevin Rudd has a golden opportunity to travel the state of QLD drawing crowds & doing all he can for Labor in the state election - particularly the seat of Ashgrove. Support Anna Bligh with the facts relating to economic accomplishment in the face of the GFC, a string of global disasters, 3 years of catastrophic floods & devastating cyclone "Yasi"; like money put into stimulus packages & new infrastructure & emphasise the lack of LNP environmental credentials ( bet uranium mining is on the agenda like in NSW). Challenge the LNP on their privatisation agenda & how they intend to balance the QLD state budget - THAT'S HOW YOU REDUCE THE PRESSURE ON LEADERSHIP!
17 Feb 2012 2:32:56pm
Why don't you all just stop rising to the bait the Journos put out. We have all (nearly) agreed that it is a non-news story, but what get the headlines? the economy, no - too difficult to comprehend, the Coalitions total lack of policy, no - that's irrelevant. Gillard 'lied' ? Eeeeeeeeee!
How many politicians (Still alive) do you know that has not 'bend the truth' even slightly? Now be honest with yourself!
Give the public a beat-up of irrelevant gossip, be it Primeministers, footy stars or whatever, and the braincell goes into overdrive. Get a grip! Just look, at last count there have been 373 comments about another 'DEEP insight' about Rudd v. Gillard, drivel, drivel, drivel .......
17 Feb 2012 3:49:08pm
Its the blatant nature of Gillards lies that cause a problem with the electorate.
The two worst being
1. The Carbon Tax lie which was strongly couched and was made the more blatant, and emphatic, as it was made during an election campaign.
2. The second was Gillard reneging on a signed (emphasising signed) document made with Andrew Wilkie.
Both examples point firmly to Gillards dishonest nature leading rightly to electorate and jounos questioning her lack credibility in anything she does.
To clear the air and get back onto an even keel we need an election as I can see no other resolution to the mess created by Labors henchmen when they opted to knife Rudd and install the dud that Gillard has become
17 Feb 2012 6:26:46pm
Jimbo, why bother posting?
You only achieve by your simplistic take on these issues to shout to the heavens your fan boy views of the Liberal Party, not an educated comment on any problems with Julia Gillards prime ministership.
"The air" would be a lot clearer without such "analysis".
17 Feb 2012 9:09:35pm
Did she lie YES - on both counts.
On that basis she is dishonest, a liar and lacking credibility!
Do you seriously believe that its not a true, be it simplistic, assessment?
If you wish to counter the argument present a case to prove she did not lie in her pre-election commitments on the carbon tax. Then prove she did not lie to Wilkie, despite signing a document of commitment with him.
Bet you cant as these are recorded facts.
17 Feb 2012 2:39:33pm
LOL Barrie. This isn't about Julia or Kevin....and you know it.
This is about the media predicting a stoush which hasn't happened.
The longer it doesn't happen, the stupider the media look.
And if your numbers are correct, it isn't going to happen for some time.
So the media have a problem. They have predicted something that on the numbers is not likely to happen. Stupid. Simply daft.
However, rather than admit they made a mistake, the media are desperately trying to use their power to precipitate a confrontation so they can say 'See! See! There WAS a story!!'
Because the longer it goes without a confrontation, the worse the media looks and the more credibility the media lose.
With mainstream media going down the gurgler as fast as it is, the media can't afford to have people find out what a big mistake this story is.
Trouble is, you guys haven't got enough favours owed you by the government that they should roll over and do your bidding by having a confrontation that will allow you to save face. You have been licking up to the coalition, and the government does not need to do you any favours at all.
And your problem is that with numbers as low as Kevin has, he cannot afford to challenge, and Julia cannot afford to be worried about it for a long long time yet. By which time, nobody will be listening to the media on this.
17 Feb 2012 2:48:10pm
Barrie, yesterday Rudd said the past was 'history' and has accepted that mistakes were made under his stewardship. As for Gillard well time will tell whether or not a vacancy will exist for the party leadership but given the tenacity of the PM I cannot foresee a leadership challenge in the near future, after all the Gillard government is making significant positive reforms in a number of areas which the polls should eventually seize upon.
17 Feb 2012 9:30:39pm
Where is Rudd's statement reported? I haven't seen it and would like to. I hope that it is true and that Cassidy is wrong.
17 Feb 2012 2:49:28pm
Alan Kohler said on ABC News today that anyone would think we lived in Greece the way Australians are reacting to the economy. The problem is Julia Gillard is telling us every is OK.
And we no longer believe anything she tells us.
17 Feb 2012 4:20:59pm
Dont be so sure that we arent following down the Greek path.
The only real black hole Im aware of is Labors borrowing of $100 million every day; and paying $100 million every week to fund the debt.
In one year this would amount to you and I being liable for the repayment of $41,700,000,000.00 or $41.7trillion(!) and thats not taking into account accumulated debt and borrowings to date.
These are Labor's spending record with numbers the like of which has never been experience in our history.
A surplus will only take into consideration the repayments required and not the debt - in short Labor is borrowing its way to a surplus.
We need an election before its too late and we do end up on the Greek path!
Old Bill:
17 Feb 2012 3:03:12pm
It is increasingly plain that Rudd would prefer to destroy the government rather than allow Gillard the chance to succeed -compare his attitude and behaviour with the dumped captain of the Melbourne Football Club. One of them showed maturity and dignity and it wasn't Rudd.
17 Feb 2012 3:16:06pm
As you are a respected political journalist, can you advise (a simple observer like me) what the main issues are in this scenario:
Some members of a major Australian political party lose confidence in their party-elected leader;
The disenchanted members privately confide with other members and it turns out there are many other disenchanted members;
The disenchanted members (now many) instigate a process for a leadership contest;
The old leader loses and the party elects a new leader (the old leader is given a senior position within the party).
Im thinking Barrie, the important considerations are: is it relevant to the outside world why a party loses confidence in the leader they elect; is it appropriate for political parties to change leaders; should people outside of the party be commenting on the internal machinations of a party; or are there more important things to worry about.
I very much look forward to your respected opinion.
PS: The scenario refers to: political party - Liberal Party; old leader - Malcolm Turnbull; new leader - Tony Abbott.
Ron E Joggles:
17 Feb 2012 3:33:33pm
Barrie writes "But as every day goes by, the chances are he will build on that support." No, he won't, Barrie - they don't like him any more.
Why don't you and all the other self-important journalists just let the PM get on with the job, without being constantly needled about this?
17 Feb 2012 9:10:35pm
Ron I think at the end of the day the elected members face loosing a seat and are prepared to do whatever it takes to win. Wouldn't you if you were in their place. The PM has now been in power for 18 months and as you see the primary vote has been low the whole time. The party knows if it continues they all face possible election defeat therefor something must be done to resolve the problem. Polling over time has shown a trend, the PM is not popular.
They now have approx 18 months till the next election, what to do?
When they ditched Rudd they honestly thought they had a better chance of winning the next election with Gillard and hence keeping the seat. So faced with the same question 18 months on is it not logical to assume a similar switch might occur?
The question really is, can they pull off another PM switch, not make it look like a political hatchet job and increase the primary vote in the next year and a half.
17 Feb 2012 3:48:02pm
It's almost insufferable that people still go on about a leadership challenge from Rudd because he was ousted by Gillard.
Care to take the knife that stabbed you in the back and stick it back into your attacker? Now that's sensationalistic journalism.
Sick Of It:
17 Feb 2012 3:48:36pm
Pull yourself together, Mr Cassidy! You're supposed to be one of the most senior journalists in the country. Yet you're writing gossipy soap opera stuff. Again and again. People are tired of this personality-centred rubbish!
Cut to the real issues that do affect people - policies, the economy, the legislation being passed. Contrast the parties' respective policy positions and the implications for real people. Put the scrutiny on both parties and leaders so that the public may be informed by balance and comparison.
If you cannot or will not write about matters in the public interest, then kindly get the hell off the public payroll.
Drunken Sailor:
17 Feb 2012 5:05:11pm
638 posts and counting suggests people are anyting but tired of this personality-centred rubbish. Which is why we see this type of personality-centred rubbish dished up on the Drum time and again. You have to understand the "talkback" model and what will get readership/listenership. Thats all the Drum is doing - it just does it in a nasty leftist way all the time.
17 Feb 2012 6:16:47pm
Actually DS, I figure that the people posting on this site are political tragics. You know, the Sunday morning 'Insiders' (for those in the centre) or 'Bolt' (for those on the right).
I doubt people out in the real world care too much about Julia vs Kevin.
In fact some of the commentary from business leaders and market analysts is starting to be along the lines of 'get back to things that count'.
Drunken Sailor:
17 Feb 2012 10:14:19pm
Precisely - highly partisan political tragics but tragics none the less. But from the media's point of view this stuff is such easy pickings - the target audience targetted by the Drum is slightly different but basically it and bloggy things like it, and talkback radio, are delivering the same product as those terrible celebrity gossip magazines you see at the checkout at the supermarket.
The articles are obviously designed to ellicit a strong response - one that will get on-line arguments going like we see above us here. The Drum feeds us a constant diet of sanctimonius offensive indignant rubbish from some of the left's most distasteful champions, while talkback radio does it from the right, but the media model is the same. Silly us to consume this crap.
The only really worrying thing is the ABC's clear partisanship. You would think you were listing to the ACTU News, not the ABC News of late.
17 Feb 2012 10:14:55pm
Does your post indicate that you are a political tragic!
Its better to be pro-active than pathetically apathetic.
Could it be that articles like Barrie's wake people up to expressing points of view (many such posts of them as you can see).
It's healthy. I grew up in an age (B4 Goff) in which families voted on traditional family lines. Now at least there are discussions like these to formulate/change ones vote.
More of this kind of article please Barrie!
Don Gibson:
17 Feb 2012 4:08:51pm
Look up the Foreign Correspondent program on Bavaria and see what properly financed, properly lead, properly managed companies and economies do. Australia is a joke by comparison. We are good at digging very deep holes and transporting large quantities of our mineral wealth to the coast. Stop worrying about Rudd and Gillard and focus on our nation. It needs help.
17 Feb 2012 4:14:38pm
What is this all about is there really a leadership battle or is it just media hype, because it doesnt make any sense? With the Gillard Governments watered-down version of mining resources tax still to pass through parliament is this another orchestrated ploy to cripple the passage of the remaining bill? Given the election is still some time away and Gillard Government still has time to make up lost ground, why go down this leadership route and risk destabilisation. Who else is there to lead but Kevin Rudd, if the Government doesnt improve at a later period? In my view, he needs to be patient, because his time will come again.
From memory, the last time Labor changed leadership, coincided with the Rudd Government pursuing a 48% mining resource tax. When ousted, Mining Magnate - Clive Palmer claimed credit for his demise. Therefore, iIs this another external ploy to undermine the Labor Government. See Tycoons claim credit for burial:
17 Feb 2012 4:20:09pm
What is this all about is there really a leadership battle or is it just media hype, because it doesnt make any sense? With the Gillard Governments watered-down version of mining resources tax still to pass through parliament is this another orchestrated ploy to cripple the passage of this remaining bill? Given the election is still some time away and Gillard Government still has time to make up lost ground, why go down this leadership route and risk destabilisation. Who else is there to lead but Kevin Rudd, if the Government doesnt improve at a later period? In my view, he needs to be patient, because his time will come again.
From memory, the last time Labor changed leadership, coincided with the Rudd Government pursuing the 48% mining resource tax. When Rudd was ousted, Mining Magnate - Clive Palmer claimed credit for his demise. Therefore, is this another really just another external ploy to undermine the Labor Government. See Tycoons claim credit for burial:
17 Feb 2012 4:28:41pm
I do not believe it is coincidence that this PM bashing got agreat deal mdore shrill since Julia Gillard started to get some primary vote traction in the polls. Suddenly all stops are out. Wake up Australians you are being manipulated by
the power elites in this country. They are acting out of pure self interest.
17 Feb 2012 4:44:10pm
Would this be even an issue if there was not the fact that the current government is always teetering on being hamstrung and hung by cabinet numbers? All of Gillards main woes have been because she does not have the room to move the twits, troublemakers and egociles out of the way and try to get on with more important matters such as running the country.
If Abbott won the numbers of the independents (he did try but failed) the long knives would be sharpened and he would perhaps be in the same situation that Gillard currently faces. Turnbull, Hockey and Pyne come to mind.
Oh well all this inking and discussion is good for the digital kitty litter I suppose!
17 Feb 2012 4:46:39pm
I heard the statement "I'll be back" attributed to Rudd to his staff there on leaving the lodge. Is there TV or radio footage of this ??? His continuous campaigning and lack of true support would support this.
Why no mention of the leaks during the election campaign on the 4C program, Surely this was one of the most relevant facts often attributed t Rudd.
17 Feb 2012 4:47:33pm
Message to the entire Parliamentary press corp: ENOUGH ALREADY!! Honestly, if I wanted this kind of material I'd be buying Women's Weekly or New Idea.
17 Feb 2012 4:50:38pm
Julia wouldn't know how to lie straight in bed. Its all spin and obfucation, in parliament and in her media interviews. Why can't she just be straight and say she has been thinking about what to do regarding the leadership as people were unhappy with Rudd and the government was in danger of careering off course. She had not made up her mind to challenge until the day it happened when she was approached. There is nothing wrong with this story yet Gillard and the whole Labor party choose to spin, spin, spin and the Australian public are sick to death of it.
People also don't really get why Rudd was dumped. Gillard needs to tell the public because she has to cop all the flak about being a back-stabber.
17 Feb 2012 5:00:48pm
What I find fascinating about arguing with climate change denialists is that when you make an argument that really can't be refuted, they reply by totally ignoring everything you just said, changing the subject , and off they go.
Entertaining really.
17 Feb 2012 8:47:45pm
I find the same fascination about arguing with rednecks on any subject from asylum seekers-to the economy -to how well the parliament (the hung one) is running despite all the hysterical undermining tactis of the rabble on the opposition benches
17 Feb 2012 9:35:21pm
Well, as a scientist, no proposition is ever proven by consensus. Take E=Mc(squared) one would believe it to be correct by consensus? HOWEVER - No its seems been proven wrong and particles can move beyond the speed of light.
A puny and obscure theory that humans can affect nature is beyond my ability to understand on the basis of a consensus.
We need a global enquiry that does not set out to condemn alternate views whatever they be. That's the scientific way...
I think climate change is more than likely as earth has had cycles of heat and ice age in the past, but Im concerned at the focus on mans influence. Lets call it an anti-pollution and tax to eliminate the pollution and every-one can relax and feel good about cleaning up our environment...
17 Feb 2012 5:02:38pm
What do we want out our politicians?
1/ Maybe some form of Hippocratic Oath...first do no harm!
2/ look after those most vulnerably.
3/ be on goods terms with as many as possible...nation.
4/ Be respectful to our neighbours, across our "watery divide".
Basic decent Christian philosophy?
Now look at the Coalition and Labor?
Which party has a history of "harming Australians"...Coalition how many wars?
Which party have been the visionaries for health and education, do I need to name all the policies....Medicare etc.
Pensions and assistance to families in education?
The coalition are big on "religious rhetoric" but always seem to be attacking those least able to protect themselves...both local and yes, even boat people...Abbott's great mantra...we stopped the boats!
So whatever the machinations within these two political groups...one is all talk when it comes to progressing the nation!
Hypocrisy abounds within the Coalition... ably supported by our media and business community!
17 Feb 2012 5:53:59pm
Wow! Talk about being one-eyed!
This is what the "all talk" group achieved: 10 years of stability under Howard's tenure with surpluses galore and $20Billion in the kitty handed to Labor.
This is what the other party (Labor) has achieved:
1) Lied to get into power and Lied to Wilkie and more lies
2) Pink batts a shambolic scheme ending up killing Australians (do no harm?) and costing an arm and a leg
3) Julia Gillard School Memorials Halls program a study in incompetence more money down the drain
4) Resource Rental tax with back flips, back flips, back flips, ...
5) Carbon tax that is Calculated to cost more than it collects
6) Despit the windmill on steroids claiming our education ststem is the envy of the entire world - We now learn our education system has fallen behind our Asian neighbours
7) Financial mismanagement in Labors borrowing of $100 million every day; and paying $100 million every week to fund Labor's debt. In one year this would amount to you and I being liable for the repayment of $41,700,000,000.00 or $41.7trillion(!) and thats not taking into account accumulated debt and borrowings to date.
I could go on to item 23 but the above is a good indication about just how bad thigs are getting by the day
17 Feb 2012 7:11:03pm
Well said TPG- take a look at many of the comments made by coalition supporters-they are so full of hate-they hate:
Unions-Asylum seekers-The poor-The Indigenous-The Unemployed-Gays-Clean Energy-Paying Tax-The Prime Minister-Muslims-Labor-The Independents-Hung Parliament
Do they like anything or anyone?
And hypocrites like Hermit claim the ALP supporters are powered by hate??.
17 Feb 2012 8:40:50pm
Wow! A bitone-eyed!
This is what the all talk group achieved: 10 years of stability with surpluses galore and $20Billion in the kitty.
This is what the other party (Labor) has achieved
1) Lied to get into power and Lied to Wilkie and more lies
2) Pink batts a shambolic scheme ending up killing Australians (do no harm?) and costing an arm and a leg
3) Julia Gillard School Memorials Halls program a study in incompetence more money down the drain
4) Resource Rental tax with back flips
5) We now learn our education system has fallen behind our Asian neighbours
6) Financial mismanagement in Labors borrowing of $100 million every day; and paying $100 million every week to fund Labor's debt. In one year this would amount to you and I being liable for the repayment of $41,700,000,000.00 or $41.7trillion(!) and thats not taking into account accumulated debt and borrowings to date.
I could go on to item 23 but the above is a good indication about just how bad thigs are getting by the day
17 Feb 2012 5:19:04pm
All of this is fine and dandy Mr Cassidy, but you may well recall Jack Egerton saying in 1957: "The time for logic is gone. Gair must go".
17 Feb 2012 5:47:22pm
I wonder if the journalists of the Australian media, actually believe half the dribble that is peddled in the print and on the idiot box. To use a sayibg of Rudd's, "fair suck of the sause bottle " !!!
Most of the average Aussies dislike the two faced redhead in charge of our country, and now ,we are going to be taxed so much harder with the looming GST, and to think that some stupid politically correct boffins are telling us all "it's for your own good and for the evnviroments" !!!
Once Labor is voted out of Goverment again, it will be an aweful long time before they get back into office .They seem to have forgotten the massive victorty the Rudd won for them, a failure that's boomed to be repeated until the Labor party learn their lesson from it ....!!!
bernice finlayson:
17 Feb 2012 6:01:35pm
Barrie I completely agree with your analysis with one exception. What makes you think that if the PM does as you suggest and of course will win it, that KRudd's agitators will stop. I think the PM knows this so what is she supposed to do keep throwing it open?
I just want everyone to get off her case and let her get on with leading the government in their wonderful reforms. Noone is giving her credit for her negotiating skills in getting these reforms passed in a numerically challenged government.
I don't think anyone in caucus including Kevin who I respect as a person, has the qualities the PM has to handle TAbbott so well in Parliament...noone is as gutsy and talented as this woman. The Party is darn lucky to have her.
17 Feb 2012 10:49:45pm
Ms Gillard does not seem to be able to lay a glove on Mr Abbott.
Didn't Mr Rudd wipe the floor with Tony Abbott in debates, especially the health debate?
Ivan E:
17 Feb 2012 6:10:20pm
Neither Ms Gillard or Mr Rudd will bring on a leadership stoush.
If they do the Government will fall with no hope of re election.
That's the reality of the leadership challenge which appears to be an intricate smokescreen that has encircled the whole country and pretty much every media outlet.
If this nonsense can be maintained for another 18 months then the Government of the day will survive and possibly have some remote outside chance of forming the next Parliament.
I sit patiently waiting and watching for one of two possible events that would upset the apple cart.
One as we all know is a negative result for Labor regarding the Fair Work Australia investigation.
If that happens it's game over, if not it's still game on.
Can you figure what the other possible event may be. ?????
17 Feb 2012 8:53:53pm
The problem with the fair work Australia outcome is that everyone knows what the result should be. After all how does one explain the money inappropriately chalked up on this ministers credit card. The electrorate has decided irrespective of any whitewash that may be delivered by Fair Work.
The other one would be when people wake up to: Financial mismanagement in Labors borrowings of $100 million every day; and paying another $100 million every week to fund Labor's debt. In one year this would amount to you and I being liable for the repayment of $41,700,000,000.00 or $41.7trillion(!) and thats not taking into account accumulated debt and borrowings to date. That is a real black hole!
17 Feb 2012 6:32:34pm
Fascinating. 681 posts in one day to a story "no-one is interested in".
BSA Bob:
17 Feb 2012 6:46:27pm
A few nights ago I watched Laurie Oakes intoning over "gotcha" footage of Gillard's staff arranging the set at a bookshop prior to a presser. This on a channel that night in night out seems to have a camera crew just sitting about in a factory when"well I'll be...it's Tony Abbott!!!"????
And you say here Gillard was intentionally "ambushed" by what was once Australia's most respected current affairs program. Easily enough done when selecting a minute or two's clippings from forty or so. The most interesting part of the 4Corners program for me was the reporting's utter lack of focus on its own part in the Rudd removal. In contrast to its obvious & admitted self obsession as it demands to make itself a participant in current events.
Damn you all.
17 Feb 2012 6:49:45pm
I say bring on the challenge,that way we dispatch Gillard now,and Rudd at the next election.That way we will rid ourselves of this deplorable Labor party for a generation.
17 Feb 2012 9:51:54pm
17 Feb 2012 11:49:01pm
WorkChoices for your grandkids. Yes!
17 Feb 2012 7:14:39pm
I don't envy Rudd if he dares to come back.
Barrie Cassidy is determined to "do Rudd real slow".
17 Feb 2012 7:31:04pm
Gillard should wait till after the Qld election. Bligh will lose - and maybe want a new job - how about Rudd's seat of Bulimba - would work and she would win it (inner city Brisbane love her) - however with Rudd gone Qld may get a bit harder to win federally - but better than him being a drag for a year or more as he has been. And Gillard might get a boost about being really tough.... .....
17 Feb 2012 7:31:33pm
Gotta make sure we keep up and win the ed kashen( education) race says Gillard. So can anyone in the ALP ever have the courage to admit that the voting public just dont want her as PM. everyone seems to piilory kevin Rudd but hey why is Gillard given the kid glove treatment by male jornalists in particular what is this a question of infatuation.? well the voters arent infatuated they are infuriated by her she cant lie straight in bed! Gillard doesnt believe in keeping her word she has done more chops and changes than a my kichen rules contestant. so for the fewcha- ie future of Australia we need Gillard deposed aspa well she showed Rudd no mercy and she sure sucked the oxygen out of his prime minstership, so some media and ALPshould get off Rudds back! When is the ALP going to FORM A VIEW like Gillard herself indulgently did thats its time she goes she aint no Keating nor Hawke her credibility is in tatters acroos the spectrum from the removal of Rudd to the carbon tax backflip to the Wilkie pokie backout. So Gillard its time you go put the ALP and the national interest ahead of your own self interest. Gillardshould form a view to step down have humilityto say she got it all so got wrong and hand the leadership back to Rudd then she might be credible again ! And the ALP will look like it has learnt its lesson and the ALP should also make reparation and restitution to Kevin Rudd who has taken a pounding from the critics that have proferred too often inane excuses like he made his colleagues work too hard! Obvioulsy Rudd had a strong work ethic that should have been admired not ever denigrated.
17 Feb 2012 7:32:46pm
Please can we all join M.O.R.G.U.E.
Moritorium On Rudd Gillard Unedifying Exposes
17 Feb 2012 7:59:34pm
"They went along with that, but two years later, had a change of mind. They went on the record and outed Costello because they argued, "The strength of Mr Costello's denials today (April 14, 2007) go to matters of credibility for the man who still holds hopes of one day leading the nation." Indeed.
Come on Barry!!
It wouldn't have been because they are rusted on Labour suppoters, like yourself, and decided to kept this supposed "Iron in the Fire" event till later, would it?
Politicians (& ex Politicians), 2nd Hand Car Salesmen, Snake-Oil Salesmen, Lawyers.......do I need to go on!
Red Henry:
17 Feb 2012 8:24:01pm
More of the usual anti Rudd tripe from Cassidy; a man previously convinced any prospect of a Rudd return was fantasy. Why is it that those desperate to stop Rudd are always acting just as expected, yet any similar moves by the man's supporters are greeted with howls of disloyalty?
The NSW Right concocted polling it claimed as fact and leaked a story to the SMH that Alister Jordan was ringing around concerned about Gillard's loyalty. All fair and fine Barrie? Rudd was knifed and then subjected to an ongoing campaign to assassinate his character. All bets are off, no holds are barred.
17 Feb 2012 10:08:18pm
I cant believe the negativity towards a woman who is getting the job done,the misogyny is barely hidden.Daily in the house in response to the negativity and antagonism directed at her she gives the 'budgie smugglers' across the chamber another twist,another squeeze and all we get is a collective whimpering ,(Malcolm Turnbull excepted).There is not an alternative policy,a vision for the country ,to be heard from anyone.Does anyone seriously believe there will be a better world for us without Julia Gillard as PM?Abbott is totally ineffectual as Opposition Leader,and with Julie Bishop,Bronwn Bishop,and the "mincing poodle' going in to bat for him he is made to look even more off the planet.
17 Feb 2012 10:34:51pm
There are two groups of people in this world that operate without ethics: Terrorists and Journo's
18 Feb 2012 12:48:08am
Of course he will challenge,the total wipe out of Labor in QLD will be a sign of what will happen at the next fed election.With Rudd they may be able to save some seats and mount a challenge in 2035.
18 Feb 2012 12:51:47am
The two decoy's used to divert the attention away from a lack of credibility is...the sexist issue and that this is a media beat up.
One only needs to read the Blog's to see who is concerned that Labour is being led down the gurgler.
Time is wasted playing party room games and organising Who's In Who's Out BBQ's, instead of focusing on delvering a credible package for the Election.
My vote will go to a credible Leader, at the moment there are non on either side.
The main players are on the bench.
Der Tag:
18 Feb 2012 1:13:48am
gguru is the only one amongst you who has realised the significance of the Queensland election.
If the polls are right, Anna Bligh's government will be savaged. The only doubt seems to be that Campbell Newman might not get the 7% swing he needs to capture a city seat.
Kevin Rudd seems to be campaigning strongly for the incumbent Labor lady. (I've forgotten her name, haven't I?).
So, in six weeks' time the states will be solidly anti-Labor, which will make national politics impossible to control from Canberra. A Prime Minister's job will be even more difficult than it is now.
If Newman wins, it will be a rejection of Rudd. I think, therefore, he will not want to risk a challenge to his Prime Minister after the Queensland election if he is seen as a loser.
I predict, therefore, that a Rudd challenge to Julia Gillard in the party room will happen before 24th March, or not at all.
bette windsor:
18 Feb 2012 1:24:21am
Rudd was finished when he lost PM job.
Can anyone in their right mind, imagine Father No as PM, while Malcolm is waiting in the wings, with his new body.
The libs spat the dummy at loosing the election, they have tried white anting ministers, and now the latest is to stroke Rudds ego, to get him to believe he is electable. The libs in bed with the press have perpetuated the myth, he wants back, so now Rudd believes it.
Labor has worked its butt off, with legislation through parliament, the libs (who lost the election) have wanted an election for the past 18 months, don't even have a policy. So if an election where called next week, there would be some hastily put together policies.
18 Feb 2012 2:01:25am
While I don't agree with everything she's done, I confess I have been a Gillard supporter. But I know of only one or two of my colleagues and acquaintances who are also supporters. I have argued in her favour time and again - pointing to our robust economy and the necessity of a carbon policy - all things that she has delivered on. But its been getting harder and harder to convince ANYONE other than rusted on Laborites - and increasingly fewer of those - that Gillard is the leader we need. Then came the Lobby Hotel debacle, followed by her disastrous appearance on 4 Corners. In the latter she had a golden opportunity to put the bloody issue to bed for good. All she had to do was be calm and give a straight answer. But she blew it. I'm sure she didn't plan to but nonetheless appeared shifty and evasive. After seeing this I thought to myself 'that's it - she's had it!' Credibility, trust - gone. Absolutely fatal in a PM - all the more so in one that came to power as she did. In the end she's done herself in. Its a huge pity that our first female PM should go this way but I think after the last week its now inevitable. Really, all Rudd has to do is be patient.
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