Rudd was right

Exclusive:

Perkin-Warbeck

I never thought I would say it or even think it but, there it is, Kevin Rudd was right.

He said before the election that he could rely on the good sense of Australians to make the correct decision – and they did.

Former Labor Prime Ministers seem to have the gift of being right retrospectively. Bob Hawke memorably said after the election debacle that the ALP had consistently under-estimated Tony Abbott – and he is right.

Amid all of the activity of the incoming Coalition Government, it is vaguely surreal to remember that Rudd is still the PM and all of his Ministers are still Ministers and will be probably until next week. Not that anybody in the public service is taking their calls, even if they wanted to ring up and say goodbye.

Meanwhile, the ALP is busy at its very favourite blood sport – devouring each other as the fight over the spoils of defeat heats up.

One of Rudd’s senior Ministers Kim Carr has said he has spoken to Dear Leader since the election and believes that Rudd will stay on in Parliament. “He’s made it very clear to me that his intention is to get on with being the Member for Griffith and get on with representing his electors and I’ve no doubt that his intention is to stay,” Carr said.

That bit of news must really cheer up what remains of the caucus. Perhaps Rudd will hang around like Billy McMahon who, having been defeated as PM in 1972 by Gough Whitlam, stayed on in Parliament for another ten years. McMahon increasingly became an eccentric figure of fun to everybody so there is a very real chance Rudd will also – if he isn’t already.

There is no shortage of Labor folks who have gone public since the defeat and some of them – actually a lot of them - have been bitterly scathing of Rudd.

Retired ex Minister Craig Emerson who refused to serve under Rudd and quit Parliament has finally blown the whistle on who was responsible for the damaging leaks about Julia Gillard in the 2010 election – and, yes, he points his finger at Rudd. What a surprise!

He added, “Any one who does that, who is hell-bent on revenge, who is so destructive, as to depress the Labor vote in the 2010 election shouldn’t be rewarded for this sort of behaviour.”

Emerson said Rudd had been “deceitful” when he said repeatedly that he would not take the leadership from Gillard and, for good measure, added, “That was a lie at the time, it’s been proved to be a lie.”

“It’s always been about Kevin – always has been, always will be and as a consequence the new Opposition Leader would be stabilised by Kevin Rudd staying in Parliament,” said Emerson. No doubt he felt a good deal better having got that off his chest.

It should be remembered that the ALP vote when it won under Rudd in 2007 was 43.4% - in 2010 under Rudd it was 33.8%. It’s quite an achievement to loose that many votes in six years. Even when Howard was defeated in 2007, the Coalition vote was 42%.

Outgoing Minister Kate Lundy believes Rudd should quit Parliament even if it means risking a by-election in Rudd’s seat. She said “renewal” could not happen if Rudd hung about on the backbench adding, “I think that it is always better to rebuild in an environment free of the ghosts of past Leaders.”

MP Laurie Ferguson said he agreed with Emerson that Rudd had undermined former Leaders Kim Beazley, Mark Latham, Simon Crean and Julia Gillard. Just for good measure he might have added Gough Whitlam and Arthur Calwell to that list because it’s not impossible to conjecture that schoolboy Rudd would have been telling everybody who bothered to listen then that he would be infinitely better.

Ferguson even helpfully suggested a new career for Rudd “researching Qing dynasty porcelain or something like that.” Perhaps, subliminally, Ferguson was thinking about a bull in a china shop and all of that terrible destruction.

Retired MP Steve Gibbons said that Rudd was treacherous while the Victorian Labor Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews described his Federal colleagues as a “toxic soap opera.”

No doubt there will be more wanting to vent their spleen. It all will be hugely entertaining because if there is one thing the ALP is in, it is the world-class, gold-medal winning category of bitching about each other. 

Outgoing Education Minister Bill Shorten will be the candidate for Leader and there is speculation that outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will also stand. Caucus meets on Friday and, no doubt, that will be the hot topic.

While Shorten from the Victoria Right faction has the numbers in caucus, Albanese is from the left and it seems would have the numbers in the more left-inclined grass roots.

Under the new rules, caucus gets 50% of the vote for Leader while the ALP membership gets 50%. There are allegedly about 44,000 ALP members but for some curiously unexplained reason, only about 30,000 would be eligible to vote.

But what we do know for sure that it is time for Rudd to finally, at long last and this time for good is to “zip”.

Comments

[Dr Andrew Luttrell]

1.

A despot is a despot , with a suit, or in scraggy cloths,: Now , when the Commissioners of Police in every STATE Issue a warrant for the arrest of every single Despots , With a rather large CHARGE SHEET, I would expect that a few thousand would be up on Treason charges - right down to Fraud , And on a scale never Imaginable in any country ; Per head of population. Pure fantasy I did have released it ; To which just highlights the exponential growth and the inerrant Despotism's that exist here ; and these parasites accuse others in the Political monster factory that mark terrorism as an endemic problem , when they are the greater exponent of the Monster they created. Just better organised and well Funded Terrorist group. GOVERNMENT and its institutions. Prove that theory to be incorrect.

[ibbit]

2.

It always amazes me that Labor types who condemn Rudd - who was a shocker, no doubt - don't seem to understand that they played a role in the rise of the truly deplorable Rudd.

That lack of self-reflection or understanding, bodes ill for the future of Labor, and so it should. They little deserve to be let near the reins of government for many years to come.

Infinitely preferable to Labor recalibrating because intellect and Labor are not comfortable bedfellows would be the emergence of a new, serious party led by someone of intellect and political nous, rather than someone of the ilk of the current well known buffoon.

[Terry]

3.

I do hope labor plunges on in the delusional belief that the only reason Australia rejected them totally was because kevvie and jules were constantly tiffing.

The reason they lost is that they were a goddamn awful government who screwed up everything they did and left the country in a bad way. Period. Australia saw the Titanic sinking whilst kevvie and jules vied to be the captain that steered the ship to the bottom, but it sank because they both steered it into an iceberg.

[Grumpyoldman2]

4.

"Under the new rules, caucus gets 50% of the vote for Leader while the ALP membership gets 50%." Only Kevvie, the mega maniac, could have gotten away with this bit of democratisation of the corrupted, out of date, ALP. It is like the popular TV weather forecasts with 30% chance of rain. What is that? 70% chance of no rain?
Rudd's proposed in-house system seems to split their electoral base into two equal parts, leaving someone with a casting vote presumably. But I still have trouble getting a grip on exactly what comprises 50% of 'the vote'. Perhaps there is a preference component involved, so whoever looks like losing passes preferences on to the others? Wonder if the AEC will scrutinise the vote and produce a few extras when needed.
And when are the police going to follow up on how Rudd set up the family company with government contracts in his wife's name?