After modest carousing following his second elevation to Prime Minister - no more than half an hour - Kevin Rudd fronts a press conference to outline a re-Kevinated Labor government.
“The fight against the ravaging of the natural environment by the poison of carbon emissions remains a fixed and vital element of Labor’s plans for a better Australia,’’ he says. “However, a penalty price of $23 a tonne of carbon is excessive in current national and international circumstances. A Rudd government will reduce that, for a limited period, to $10 a tonne.”
That single policy switch, produced after six months of consultation with Australian business executives, suddenly re-aligns Labor’s electoral prospects. Suddenly, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has to confront a carbon reduction program which is cheaper than his and well within the parameters of global responses. The carbon tax is no longer an all-purpose weapon against Labor.
And the price cut would ease the pressure on household budgets.
Of course, Greens Leader Bob Brown is furious, but the new Prime Minister, in his own words to confidantes in private, “couldn’t give a rat’s arse”. The objective is to prepare an election campaign which will eliminate the Greens as necessary allies.
There is not much policy involved in the Rudd-Gillard battle of nerves. Kevin Rudd’s backers have told reporters that as a renewed Prime Minister he would not change policy much if at all. He would sell it better.
However, it is difficult to believe Mr Rudd would take the Prime Ministership and the only change he would make would be to his office’s stationary letterhead.
He has been thinking about policy outside foreign affairs and asking questions of experts. At times in his public speaking one gets the impression he considers himself still, or again, the leader.
“It seems the world is finally discovering the fact that industry policy is not such a bad thing,” he told the Australian Industry Group earlier this month.
“I said when I became Leader of the Opposition I never wanted to be Prime Minister of a country that didn’t make anything anymore. That remains my view.”
If Mr Rudd were returned to the Prime Minister’s office, and were to make policy alterations or replacements, the carbon price reduction would be a neat fit and a continuation.
His Emissions Trading Scheme, proposed and then shelved when he was Prime Minister, had a $10 price. And it would tempt Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull, who as Opposition Leader had a similar scheme.
Perhaps more significant for Mr Rudd’s perilous electoral future, the move would bolster his standing within the business community, whose residents have seen a fair bit of the Foreign Minister over the past six months.
Mr Rudd doesn’t have the Caucus votes to challenge, and might never do so. But the possible policy realignment are interesting to consider.
If he is returned to The Lodge it will be without the help of some of Australia’s biggest trade union blocs, such as the giant Australian Workers’ Union. Mr Rudd has never been beholden to unions. He doesn’t like what he sees as their rigidity. He might see a second opportunity to undercut a central policy stream Tony Abbott has been trying to develop to appeal to big business.
Two days after his re-instatement, at another press conference, Mr Rudd announces he is proposing greater, industry-specific flexibility in individual contracts.
In effect it is the a return to Australian Workplace Agreements but with greater protection for workers. And these contracts would only be available to the mining industry.
Big miners have had the following proposition put to them: “You spent almost $30 million fighting my mining profits’ tax; this measure will be worth millions more to you. So I just want to pump up the tax a tinch more than Julia’s rate.”
It would be a triumph of extra revenue to be promised to the electorate.
The Fair Work Australia Act of Julia Gillard would be eroded under a slow but sure Rudd process. Cop that AWU. Meanwhile, the unions behind the new Industry and Manufacturing and the Arts Minister Kim Carr from the Victorian left would be given some redemptive concessions.
Workplace Relations Minister Stephen Smith, a West Australian, will have to make the detailed announcement.
The new Foreign Affairs Minister, Martin Ferguson, will also announce changes in his area when he returns from three weeks of global consultations.
The Prime Minister’s announcement of a new ministry would come with fulsome thanks to Julia Gillard and respect for her decision to sit on the back bench as chair of a special committee on education.
Wayne Swan’s shift to Veterans Affairs—but with a restricted policy range—would be part of the announcement. Cop that again, AWU.
But the principal appointment would be former Immigration Minister Chris Bowen to the Treasurer’s post. Mr Bowen’s first duty is to reveal that the 2012-13 Budget will have a modest $1 billion deficit. Why force a surplus in these risky times?
Perhaps the most difficult task of a member of the new ministry will be that of Nicola Roxon, who as the new Immigration Minister will have to outline the new prime Minister’s plan to send asylum seekers to Nauru where they will be all but guaranteed a permanent visa for Australia within a short period.
Mr Rudd had earlier said he would continue to back the Malaysian deal, but that was going nowhere.
Much like Simon Crean, who has joined Ms Gillard on the back bench.
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@karalee_ yeah, have concluded same after cursory look at a few. Scary that some brands might actually use them
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