Today sees the end of Kevin Rudd’s Prime ministership, the victim largely of particular sub groups and factions.He was a good man with an incredibly complex period of history to navigate. He won great respect for his skill and diplomacy at the Global Climate Change Conference.
He tried to grapple with the big issues without much suport, particularly from the Christian community.
He was a rare creature in Labour politics; his power base was not in the factions. He had hoped to neutralise their power but it was one of them that triggered his demise. There was some worry amongst those in marginal seats and in caucus about the polls, still it was the non elected leaders of a certain right wing union that “Got rid of him.” I know on one occasion when he was out of the room the new deputy Prime Minister said “We’ve got to give him some of the things he believes in.” I personally like deputy Prime Minister Swan. I have worked with him on one occasion, but I don’t think Kevin Rudd received enough help to achieve outcomes on those issues he deeply believed in. Maybe that’s the reason he felt he often had to act alone.
I have seen too many good people lose out in party politics, dropped from no 1 or two on the Senate ticket to an unwinnable place on the ticket. One Labour party old timer said to a new Conservative politican, “If you want a friend here in Canberra, bring your dog.” Maybe its time to do more than complain about our politicians; maybe its time to befreind them. Prov 17:17 says “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is made for adversity.”
I like what you have said above Mal.
I am just wondering why you have’nt said anything about Julia Gillard. Surely the goverment of our land has not slipped that far down the plug hole that we need someone in there that is living in a defacto relationship?
I just hope & pray that the next election will come around even faster now & people will have the commonsense to Vote in Tony Abbott.
I am sadened by this turn of events, struggling to understand what has gone on and feeling that there is “mischief” in the whole affair.
People’s lives will be affected by these changes, and the people I am most thinking of at the moment are Kevin, Therese and family. On a lighter note….it will be a big upheaval for the pets too.
Your joking?
Perpetuating the racism of the intervention. Continuing the Howard racism on asylum seeker. Just throwing away his commitment to the ‘greatest moral challenge of our time’.
Not much support? He was hugely popular – and he threw it away to kow-tow to the big polluters – who he was going to pay to keep polluting.
How did he grapple with climate change? By opting out of doing anything? How did he grapple with poverty? By making Centrelink restriction nastier? What big issues are you thinking of? Health reform which was insignificant – tweaking with funding formulas (but not too much). What were his significant initiatives to make housing affordable for more Australians. I don’t recall any. He was willing to guarantee the banks deposits and allow them to reap extraordinary fees from these depositors.
He wasn’t a creature of the factions. He was a creature of the opinion polls – he who lives by the opinion polls dies by them. I doubt a presidential style of leadership is much of an improvement on a factional one.
No doubt some good people lose out. I don’t see any evidence that Kevin Rudd was one of them. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that Therese would have done a better job – I think she would at least have done something.
have to agree, he might be a nice bloke but he failed to deliver on any of his key policy issues. Each one was touted as of high moral value but either they set unreasonably high expextations or hs simply failed to push through and deliver.
Rudd promised much, essentially he painted himself in ’07 as a nice version of John Howard – fiscally conservative keeping stability but willing to do the “nice” things Howard wouldn’t. He comes across now as having been elected on hype then governing the nation by spin. Gillard’s spinning ability by far exceeds Shane Warne’s.
The Stimulus was a waste, creating a huge national debt all based on old flawed Keyesian economic theory. Now we’ve got a Prime Minister we didn’t vote for from factional Labor infighting coz the polls turned on them, I’m never voting Labor again. At least the coalition doesn’t waste billions of dollars the way Labor has proved itself again of doing. The Greens would simply just be a worse form of Labor.
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