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Labor’s karma not dogma their own worst enema

Mark Kenny

by Mark Kenny

07 Sep 05:55am

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Filed under: Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Labor Party, Leadership, Politics

113 comments

Exquisite for some, bitter for others, the irony or perhaps karma of Labor’s current dilemma cannot have escaped members of Julia Gillard’s embattled caucus.

Cartoon: Peter Nicholson

Last year, out of the blue and with no warning, they moved on a popular prime minister in what for most Australians was the dead of night.

On an otherwise non-descript Wednesday in June, the nation turned out the lights with one PM and awoke on Thursday with another. It was not foreshadowed in any way and has never been adequately explained.

Kevin Rudd was in a degree of political trouble, it is true, but the first-term PM had enjoyed stratospheric popularity and was respected by many voters. In Canberra, however, he had become loathed and colleagues finally decided they’d had enough.

Enter Julia Gillard - loyal deputy and effective parliamentary heavy-hitter.

Suddenly this reluctant conscript was Prime Minister. Who knew?

This is the karma bit: Rudd was liked in voterland but despised inside his own party. Fourteen months later, the reverse is true. His replacement Julia Gillard is pretty much loathed in voterland and loved in Labor.

You don’t have to be a genius to work out which one of these two models flies and which doesn’t.

Oh, and the final irony? Yesterday’s Newspoll had Labor voters - ie normal people outside Canberra - favouring Kevin Rudd as PM by a soul-destroying 2 to 1 on 57 per cent to her 24.

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113 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Super D says:

      06:04am | 07/09/11

      The great irony being that Julia Gillard is up to her neck in the crap caused by Rudd.  She has been unable to resolve the festering issues he bequeathed her.

      If the ALP were to return to Kevin Rudd I think they’d get a 2 month bounce in the polls before everyone remembered how much he sucked.

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      08:03am | 07/09/11

      We should get rid of this inept Gillard government! The fact that the Australian economy is the envy of the rest of the world, wasn’t due to their efforts during the GFC.  It was due to the excellent work of John Howard during the preceding 12 years, when he spent nothing on infrastructure during the resources boom !  See - ‘belt tightening’ pays off !

    • marley says:

      08:40am | 07/09/11

      @acotrel - well, living as I do in NSW, I know who to blame for much of the crumbling infrastructure here, and it isn’t John Howard.  Bob Carr, take a bow.

    • Sam says:

      08:46am | 07/09/11

      Super D, have you forgotten the gang of four. Gillard is up to her neck in responsibility for the Rudd decisions and can arguably take the total credit for the removal of the Pacific solution, which resulted in the horrendous restart of the economic refugees. She is also responsible for Rudd dropping the ETS, which I believe was a clever undermining approach to gain power.

    • Nafe says:

      08:46am | 07/09/11

      At least there were surplusses through the resources boom. Whats this now? the biggest ever resource boom, much larger than Howards time and we are still producing budget defecits…... Great Governments i must say.

    • john says:

      08:50am | 07/09/11

      @acotrel “The fact that the Australian economy is the envy of the rest of the world”

      try: The fact that the Australian economy WAS the envy of the rest of the world”

    • acotrel says:

      09:00am | 07/09/11

      @Mark Kenny
      You are quite right ‘karma’ is what it’s all about.  That bastard Keating should never have brought in the free market, or floated the dollar !

    • acotrel says:

      09:35am | 07/09/11

      @John
      Are we going to get into the doom and gloom thing again?  Talking down the economy for political gain can come at a massive cost, if it destroys confidence and plunges us into a depression !

    • RyaN says:

      10:08am | 07/09/11

      @Super D: did Kevin Rudd say “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead”?

    • Andrew says:

      10:25am | 07/09/11

      We have been in a recession since labor came to power.

      The new lib governments in VIC and NSW are spending out of control on new infrastructure.

    • CynicalGoatWA says:

      10:29am | 07/09/11

      And Ryan, Gillard’s new mantra is of course “There will be no government under the Carbon Tax I lead”......(with thanks to Sydney Talkback radio!!)

    • Peter says:

      10:42am | 07/09/11

      Ryan, J Howard said we would have an ETS?

    • Marilyn Shepherd says:

      01:44pm | 07/09/11

      That is simply not true.  Rudd did not mess up things as the media keep claiming and if you bothered to read anything but bile laden Newlstd stories you would know that.

    • TimB says:

      02:23pm | 07/09/11

      If Rudd was so great, why did the ALP dump him then Marilyn?

      Perhaps they were brainwashed by News Ltd papers too?

      It’s nice to see that you support a government so weak that they can be controlled that easily.

    • William says:

      02:41pm | 07/09/11

      To Marilyn Shepherd who says…“That is simply not true.  Rudd did not mess up things as the media keep claiming”.....All I can say is that I agree wholeheartedly with Andrew who says….“We have been in a recession since labor came to power”.....You only need to talk to business people, the rot started about January 2008, two months after Labor won the election, and it has gone from bad to worse!

    • Andrew says:

      02:59pm | 07/09/11

      Actually we haven’t been in recession i was taking the piss.
      It took a while to get a bit though.
      Anyone who doesn’t like the economic conditions here, might want to look over the fence at the worlds largest economy and see where it is going.

    • Peter says:

      03:03pm | 07/09/11

      The Australian economy grew surprisingly strongly in the June quarter, rebounding from a rare contraction in the previous three months when floods hit much of the eastern seaboard.

      Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 1.2 per cent in the June quarter after a downwardly revised 0.9 per cent fall in the March quarter. Economists had tipped a 1 per cent increase for the April-June period.

    • Aitch B says:

      03:35pm | 07/09/11

      @Peter

      You’re Wayne’s brother, right?

    • Peter says:

      04:31pm | 07/09/11

      Keep talking it down please, I am listening.

    • john says:

      04:42pm | 07/09/11

      @ acotrel “Are we going to get into the doom and gloom thing again?  Talking down the economy for political gain can come at a massive cost, if it destroys confidence and plunges us into a depression ! “

      If you think the global economy is tanked now wait and see what’s coming because we like to think Europe has no debt problems, USA has only ~10% unemployment and is doing fine, Asia has no bubble bursting,whilst Australia is a 2 trillion debt riddled basket case that still has some factories left, everything is just dandy whilst wearing my rose coloured glasses.
      ...more doom & gloom?
      And what about hurricane Irene?...that was equivalent to hitting as far south as Hobart….lets keep warming this planet of ours up to see if a hurricane can reach the North Pole!

    • Erick says:

      06:07am | 07/09/11

      Just over a year ago, Mark Kenny was telling us that “rank sexism is behind the persecution of Gillard”. It’s worth revisiting that article in light of today’s one.

      Still think it’s all about sexism, Mr Kenny? Maybe Gillard just isn’t very trustworthy, as Kevin Rudd found out. Maybe she just isn’t very competent, as we’ve seen with the successive failures of all her asylum seeker schemes.

      Maybe the voters are making up their minds based on performance, not gender - unlike some journalists.

      Reply

    • Adam Diver says:

      09:00am | 07/09/11

      Erick you are gold, what a find. Kenny you are a disgrace, but at least you can admit in a roundabout way that Gillard is trash.

      One thing though Rudd’s popularity is not due to competence or personal demeanor, its pity for the way he was desposed, and short-term memories, the fact that gillard has been so bad makes him seem quite good, despite most of the policies being of his making.

    • Coop says:

      03:26pm | 07/09/11

      Ha. Very funny. Good find Erick.

      Sexism or not, the performance of the recent female political leaders and the behavour of the Labor Party at various levels is likely to ensure that we dont see another woman in leadership for a very long time.

    • Erich says:

      06:17am | 07/09/11

      Julia Gillard is a good Prime Minister and her current mid term slump is only temporary. When you see the media bias against her it’s no wonder she is down in the polls, but she will come back and win the next election. The Australiam people will see that phony Tony Abbott offers nothing but a reactionary return to the failed Howard government.

      Reply

    • Brian Taylor says:

      08:11am | 07/09/11

      don’t you wish that to be true lol

    • Super D says:

      08:22am | 07/09/11

      Comedy gold.

    • Emy says:

      08:27am | 07/09/11

      What planet do you live on? The media have not made me believe Gillard and Labor are incompetent, in fact watching the debacle occurring daily I think most of the media are too supportive of the Govt. The Govt itself and Gillard are doing a very good job themselves of convincing me that they do not have the skills required to run a country.

    • Anubis says:

      08:38am | 07/09/11

      Just what yard stick are you using to determine that Julia Gillard is a good PM? Where has she been successful? All her policy announcements are half-baked brain farts with little or no chance of succeeding. Look at the Timor Solution, announced without even consulting East Timor, The Malaysia Solution, Yeah a great success and demonstration of empathy there. Then there’s “There will be no Carbon Tax under a Government I lead”, followed with “We will be putting a price on Carbon”. The have a look at the dysfunction in her PArty, Crig Thomson - the Minister for rorting Union Funds, not that he is a trend setter their when you look at the PM’s choice in bed partners in the past like the union goose who rorted upt to a million dollars of union funds and lavished Julia with $17,000 of new clothes and renovations for her house. Makes you wonder what actually raises the red flags - she is dating a union hack and he is spending that sort of money on her, surely something must have rung in her head as not quite right. At the time she working as a solicitor representing the unions and she set up the accounts that enabled the rip-off. Regardless of the rort surely bumping uglies with a client while you are acting as their solicitor must indicate a conflict of interest and poor decision making skills,

      Back to the question - What makes you say that Julia (miss 24%) is a good Prime Minister ?

    • acotrel says:

      09:42am | 07/09/11

      @Tiny Dancer
      ‘Isn’t she just great? Grand.  Clearly we are all just stupid.  That explains it.’

      ‘Many a true word spoken in jest’ ?

    • Felipe says:

      11:42am | 07/09/11

      Clearly Erich you are still regurgitating the government’s line about Tony Abbott.  Mate,  it isn’t working.  It is just a reminder to us that the government is feeling down and out.  They have under estimated Tony Abbott and now they are in no man’s land.  Gillard is still being supported by L Oakes, B Cassidy, P Kelly, M Franklin, M Kenny, M Farr, P Coorey, D Marr, D Speers, M Grattan etc etc I can go on and on with names so I dispute your accusation of media bias. “Gillard is dead woman walking”.

    • TEZZA says:

      12:00pm | 07/09/11

      So the Labor spin doctors have finally found out a way to combat Erick - their most telling critic (on the Punch website at least).
      They put up a troll called “Erich” to pronounce anti-Erick views, in the belief that half the readers wont notice the difference in spelling.
      Cheap shot.

    • Mr Denorris says:

      12:19pm | 07/09/11

      I see ‘Comical Ali’ is going under the alias ‘Erich” nowadays.

    • James In Footscray says:

      02:24pm | 07/09/11

      Oh I thought that was ‘Erick’ - I nearly had a heart attack!

    • Jim says:

      06:40am | 07/09/11

      He may have enjoyed ‘stratospheric’ popularity before the 2007 election, but that quickly dropped. People have short memories - as bad as Gillard is, she has only recently dropped below KRudd poll results when he was knifed.

      Reply

    • Macca says:

      06:44am | 07/09/11

      Labor’s problems are all of their own doing. Poor performance, lazy execution,all-round incompetence and a desire for spin above substance during Rudd’s first few years was overlooked due to his personal popularity as PM.

      The ALP has since cried foul; that they are the target of a Right-wing media campaign to ruin them, or that Tony Abbott is simply being obstructionist. Both complaints completely ignore the reality of failed policies too numerous to list.

      The greatest irony; the BER was seen by the ALP as one of their most successful policies. Somehow, they thought handing billions of dollars to state governments that were renowned for their mismanagement was a good idea. When criticized by the media and public for waste, the ALP complained of a Murdoch-led conspiracy to bring down the government. Then, just to top it off, they decided to remove the prime minister whose successes they were still trying to celebrate with the same process that personified the incompetence of the stare government that was most wasteful.

      Let’s go through that again; you hand billions of dollars to the states. The media claims the states has been wasteful in the use of the funds. You defend the a ruins of your prime minister and the states, claiming the media is against you. You then sack the prime minister, under the influence of the same people responsible for the mismanagement at state level.

      All the ALPs problems are entirely self-made.

      Reply

    • Against the Man says:

      06:51am | 07/09/11

      Well, the ALP is learning a difficult lesson. Gillard doesn’t care as long as she has power. Only the desperate loyal ALP supporters who have invested so much are hanging on…........sad, pathetic….......same ol’ Labor smile

      Reply

    • LeftRightOut says:

      07:00am | 07/09/11

      “Suddenly this reluctant conscript was Prime Minister.” - reluctant conscript? You’re kidding, right?
      Gillard is the one who was holding the knife. She should be unemployable after this. Not only has she demonstrated a complete lack of competence, she’s shown immense disloyalty.
      I wouldn’t give her a job, regardless of what political doors she might be able to open - her political capital is spent, so her post politics value has crashed.

      Reply

    • Bazza says:

      08:32am | 07/09/11

      Don’t fret for Ms Gillard, she will get a job as an ambulance chaser after the next election.

    • RyaN says:

      10:13am | 07/09/11

      @LeftRightOut: she won’t need a job after she leaves what with that big fat pension she is going to get out of holding on just long enough to qualify.

    • BobM says:

      10:25am | 07/09/11

      Or she’ll end up on the Board of some publicly funded company set up by her Labor mates so that they can continue rorting the system….

    • DB says:

      12:46pm | 07/09/11

      Maybe she just needs to set up another union account?

    • RyaN says:

      12:48pm | 07/09/11

      @DocBud: maybe she can start a brothel thereby keeping the money spent by Labor MP’s and union officials like Craig Thompson in the party.

    • Against the Man says:

      08:04pm | 07/09/11

      Funny how ALP supporters can’t see how sad their so called leader is with everyone taking pot shots and giving less respect than turd. so sad indeed.

    • St. Michael says:

      11:06pm | 07/09/11

      If I was a tobacco lobbyist, I’d give her a job.

      Partially because I hate cigarettes, but also on performance: anybody with that thick a skin, that much shameless guile, and that much unshakeable optimism in the face of disaster is a perfect fit for William Morris and friends.

    • nihonin says:

      07:07am | 07/09/11

      Not much to add to this article, Labor got it wrong, maybe they should have taken the impending/possible loss at the upcoming election, with Kevin Rudd at the helm.  The party would have had at least retained some respect, something it seems to have lost lately with most Australian voters.

      I have a cassette in my walkman and have it ready to play Dead or Alive, I’ll need it playing as I read the Labor rustie responses to this article.

      Reply

    • jayjay says:

      08:53am | 07/09/11

      cassette???? walkman????? is it the 1980’s again?

    • Adam Diver says:

      09:02am | 07/09/11

      Thats a true conservative jayjay smile

    • nihonin says:

      09:16am | 07/09/11

      If it was jayjay, we’d have the last competent Labor government in power, no it’s not the 80’s but ‘you spin me round’ was a hit in the 80’s and walkmans and cassettes were the order of the day for mobile music.

    • nihonin says:

      10:15am | 07/09/11

      So the type of music I use in the comment makes me a ‘conservative’, guess you must listen to Somewhere over the Rainbow.

    • Mahhrat says:

      07:07am | 07/09/11

      The entire problem with this government has been its utter disregard for what the greater public want to have done.

      I just don’t understand it. 

      I get that Paul Keating did some things that made him vastly unpopular for a time, but at least the things he did seemed to have been done with some degree of competence.

      Ah well, this should be over by Christmas.  I can’t see Julia doing anything before then that would save her job.

      Reply

    • fml says:

      11:36am | 07/09/11

      I dont see how anybody can say with conviction, that this is what the “greater public” want. A couple of polls, that would have asked how many people??

      I think logic should be used to disagree with policy, not everybody agrees with me, so the prime minister has to go.

    • Mahhrat says:

      03:25pm | 07/09/11

      @fml, I don’t know about you, but I voted based partly on the Carbon Tax statements Julia made before the election.

      Knowing it was probably crap, I voted for Andrew Wilkie. 

      And I’d do it again.

    • thatmosis says:

      07:09am | 07/09/11

      While she is overseas seems a good time to knife her in the back if the last PMs knifing is anything to go by but putting a failed PM in her place will do nothing except make Labor a bigger laughing stock than it is now. What a bunch of losers we have as a Government and what a burden on the Australian People. This Government and its leaders will go down in history as the worst Government that Australia has had the misfortune to be saddled with bar none.

      Reply

    • Phil says:

      07:13am | 07/09/11

      Labor should reinstate Rudd and then let he public boot him out. As a liberal voter this will probably keep then better represented than if they stick with Julia but fair is fair. She is toxic even rusted on laborites see this. Cannot survive. She is a dead woman walking.

      As I said to one labor helper member at the 2008 election. I knew Rudd would win but hoped they couldnt screw the economy/country in one term. Julia in less than 14 months is showing what a shit fight a labor green socialist utopia is

      Reply

    • Brian Taylor says:

      07:21am | 07/09/11

      Suddenly this reluctant conscript was Prime Minister.????
      she’d been plotting for a year to take the job Mark or don’t you read any other news except your own?

      Reply

    • Knemon says:

      07:49am | 07/09/11

      One of Kenny’s better articles! Karma works in wonderful ways, it wasn’t that many years ago when Gillard was one of the greatest opponents of off-shore processing of asylum seekers…it’s come back to bite you Julia, Karma indeed.

      Reply

    • Matt says:

      05:49pm | 07/09/11

      Your right Knemon. The Karma coming back to bite Gillard goes well beyond knifing Rudd.

      According to Gillard, “every boat is another policy failure”.
      That makes about 220 failures attributable to her.

      She is damned by her own words on this and so many other carping criticisms she made whilst in opposition.

    • Ian1 says:

      07:55am | 07/09/11

      Labor’s dilemma? 

      Let’s take a brief look at the misappropriation of Union funds, which we now see unravelling as more widespread than just the Craig Thompson scandal.

      For a start, as a Commonwealth regulated authority, the Unions enjoy exclusive access to represent workers in their industries.

      Second, as Union fees and subscriptions enjoy tax deductible status, there is the onus on the Unions to use the funds as appropriate in the representation of their workers and the administration of Union business.

      What we are seeing revealed, is that there is a rank stench wafting up from the quagmire of corruption in labour politics, and as the Australian Labor Party gains most of it’s support from die-hard unionists, indeed even it’s MP’s, it begs the question whether they are actually meeting their fiduciary duties as the law expects.  Whether they make an executive decision that they will pay a private members unrelated legal bills or not is irrelevant.  It is of dubious legality to begin with.

      Labor wonders why their support is at record lows, in fact less than 10% above the unionised workforce.

      Seems people are sick and tired of the power base and faceless men running the show, at the expense, and using the expense accounts of the majority.

      The days of the binding caucus are through.

      Reply

    • Polly Waffle says:

      08:16am | 07/09/11

      The doused Red Head or the Dudded Rudd, or the Phony Tony.  This trio adds nothing to the word statesmanship, neither do their parties.  And Carer Sarah is bringing down the Greens with her open border policy.  Is it time for new party with a leader who can lead?  Or are we doomed to this merrygoround of kindergarten kids.

      Reply

    • Babs of Sydney says:

      09:40am | 07/09/11

      Polly - Waffle on all you like but Phony Tony is baloney - Just because words rhyme doesn’t make it so.  Julia is inept (no rhyme there) Kevin is arrogant (nope no rhyme there either.  Tony listens and supports the majority of Australian’s wishes and that’s why he is gaining in popularity(try rhyming that one).

    • JC says:

      09:22pm | 07/09/11

      I think the Government should allow onshore processing of asylum seekers and integration into the community whilst their claims are processed.

      The only proviso is that the processing centres and community integration must be located in the electorates held by Sarah Hanson-Young, Bob Brown and Christine Milne.

    • PJ says:

      11:36pm | 07/09/11

      JC: Why not all Greens candidates in the federal sphere? Let’s make it the major centres of population in their electorates. That’s what, Melbourne (Bandt), Sydney, Melbourne again, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart [the Senators] (plus another for Tasmania if you count Wilkie).

      Also, whilst we make this move towards party-implements-policy-as-government of their electorates: Labor electorates get the MRRT and carbon pricing (but no GST because they didn’t introduce that, and they get the Labor-Electorate-Broadband-Network); Liberals get the ETS Howard gave them, the GST and have to pay back the stimulus under Rudd. Also, they get a cake if they can explain how the GST applies, and a less regulated IR market, but also pay a fee to keep all non-citizens out of their electorate (even those pesky British backpackers, who clearly didn’t come here in the circumstances we decided on). Nationals get tariffs imposed on all their goods in and out - Greens probably get no publicly provided services other than people preventing them from any activity which harms native wildlife or injuring the interests of anyone else. Definitely no electricity from coalpower.

      As for foreign relations between the nations of Labor, Liberal, National and Green (not to mention the independent duchies of Oakeshott, Windsor, Katter and Wilkie) - clearly the Liberals will stop the boats from non-Liberal electorates in Tasmania, even as the Greens in Melbourne welcome all. Also expect to pay a lot for bananas from the Katter Country, who have banned supermarkets in their nation.

      In summation: yes, all the options are terrible, but the very presence of options makes them just a little less terrible.

    • TimB says:

      08:30am | 07/09/11

      Still persisting with the myth that no-one saw Rudd’s knifing coming?

      I don’t know why anyone was shocked. It was obvious that Rudd was terminal.

      Gillard moreso, its just painfully ironic that Gillard’s greatest weakness (the hung parliament) is also what’s keeping her alive. Had she been in charge of an outright majority, she would have been knifed months ago.

      Reply

    • Wazza says:

      02:41pm | 07/09/11

      I agree, anyone that knows the labor party knows how much Rudd and Julia hated each other prior to the knifing of Beazly, goes back to the days of Latham, she supported him (great call), and Rudd and Swan did not. Any pretence of inter faction friendship is just that pretence, there are people in the federal caucus that quite literally do not speak to one another at all.

    • old fart says:

      08:42am | 07/09/11

      firstly, catchy title, very clever.  however, “Labor voters - ie normal people outside Canberra ”  is an absolute falacy.  Canberra, is considered a safe labor seat, and thats a problem for the locals as the liberal party know it is and when in government give the ACT the bare minimum or duds the ACT and when the ALP is in Government it knows it is and gives the aCT the bare minimum or duds it.  A real win/win situation, not.
      Perhaps the ACT should become a swinging seat so the parties will woo the voters.

      Apart from that,  this is all could have been history.  What would have happened if Rudd had decided to contest the leadership instead of not contesting as he did. He could have argued his case to the caucus and perhaps won and stayed on, but he decided not to contest and gillard became PM unopposed.  What matter sis that there was an unopposed vote and Rudd didn’t contest.  The other version of events is circulated by the opposition and is believed in the voters mind because they have heard the myth long enough and Rudd has never uttered a word to dispel it.
      Gillard’s only error was to be conned into telling a popular leader that she was going to challenge him. Her other undoing is that she believes that she cannot engage in her normal “pit bull” tactics within the parliamentary debate because she is PM.  I bett Abbott was banking on that.  He has had open slather.  All she has contributed is silence in the main

      Reply

    • Steve says:

      12:05pm | 07/09/11

      What is the one place in Australia where we know there is a concentration of public servamts? Canberra.

      The 2 Federal seats from the ACT are 2 of the safest ALP seats in the nation. Nothing short of decentralising the public service could ever change that.

    • MarkS says:

      09:00am | 07/09/11

      “Last year, out of the blue and with no warning, they moved on a popular prime minister”

      What planet where you on, it was clear that Rudd was a goner for weeks & the issues had been building for months. As for being popular, by the time he was dumped he was unpopular among all but a small group of clueless luvies.

      When Rudd was elected I sipped pink champagne, by the time he was sacked I was calling him Krudd & wondering if he was a worse prime minster then Fraser.

      Reply

    • TomZ says:

      10:25am | 07/09/11

      Well said. Even for a light weight propaganda flapper such as Kenny, that statement really leaps out at the reader.

      I am constantly amazed at the way these drone ALP journos blithely keep trying to re-write history. You would think that some of them would develop some pride.

    • Anna C says:

      09:24am | 07/09/11

      I don’t have any sympathy for the Labor Party. They are the authors of their own demise. Julia Gillard, Mark Arbib, Bill Shorten and Paul Howes thought that their decision to remove Kevin Rudd from the Lodge would pay dividends. Well going by the latest polls they were dead wrong. It’s all down hill from here.

      Reply

    • Max, of Rocky says:

      10:28am | 07/09/11

      They believe their own propaganda and work the principle that if you tell a lie enough times enough people will believe it.

    • BobM says:

      12:46pm | 07/09/11

      Now they are hanging on to the only thing they have left - two years until the next election. They are all saying it in chorus, including ‘suck eggs voters’ Bob Brown, ‘two years until the next election, blah, blah….’  And if it were not so, Julia would have been ‘dead, buried and cremated’ on those poll numbers already!

    • Boo says:

      09:37am | 07/09/11

      What goes around comes around, as will probably be the case for Tony Abbott.  What impact it will have depends on when it occurs in the cycle and the conditions at the time.  Tony has an air force of chickens that could come to roost.  And it will be us, the public, that choke on the feathers as he walks off into the sunset with his generous pension.  And the liberals will be voted out (as opposed to labor being voted in) and unless better people are put in place, the cycle of voting out incompetants will continue.  Sad thing is, both parties have a ‘better foot’ to put forward. 

      I’d say this is the kind of karma we get for not having many more marginal seats.  Too many rusted ons willing to believe whatever tosh is served up to them.  Pollies knifing each other is just ‘business as usual’.  The bad karma is ours I’m afraid.

      Reply

    • Where did these bloody chickens come from? says:

      11:38am | 07/09/11

      The only chickens of any consequence are the economic ones left behind by our esteemed Mr Swann.

      Those chickens will come home to roost and when they do I hope we have a coalition govt to deal with it.

    • Boo says:

      12:31pm | 07/09/11

      Ahh yes, because having a leader of the opposition who will say and do anything to gain power is of little consequence.  Chickens are chickens, good luck to Tony trying to convince the public which belong to whom. Maybe he will just blame it all on labor and if that fails go into one of his favourite head wobble death stares?

    • Max, of Rocky says:

      01:04pm | 07/09/11

      @ Where did these bloody chickens come from

      Hope they are not the ones that turn into emus and kick your outhouse down.

    • Boo to you too! says:

      01:32pm | 07/09/11

      “Maybe he will just blame it all on Labor” -  Well they are to blame for their predicament are’nt they??? Who else is there to blame - your imaginary chickens perhaps?  Tony Abbott just has to look across the floor to see the flaws and come next election feathers will fly for sure unless they chicken out and lop her head off early so that our nation doesn’t end up in the soup (chicken that is)

    • Steve says:

      01:47pm | 07/09/11

      Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard when in opposition were prepared to say anything to get in power:

      They attacked Howard’s Pacific solution. Their changes have failed.

      “Climate change is the great moral challenge of our time” Policy dropped after Copenhagen.

      “There will be no carbon Tax”

      Agreed to Wilkie’s pokie reform knowing it is impossible to achieve.

      Knifed Rudd to retain power.

      When you think about it a bit it is the ALP who have been prepared to say anything or do anything to gain/retain power.

    • Boo says:

      04:37pm | 07/09/11

      It stikes me that with politicians and their fan clubs, it goes that if you can’t say something nice about a person, heap scorn in their enemies. 

      Tonys a bastard, Juliars a beehatch.  I get it.  Well, two wrongs don’t make a right unless you are drowning in the red or blue kool aid.

    • Gratuitous Adviser says:

      09:43am | 07/09/11

      Kevin Rudd took bad advice and made a huge mistake.  The mistake was not following through with the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation and the subsequent double dissolution forced on by the Greens.  The public would have supported him with their vote and he would then have had a mandate to implement the scheme.
      He was publically and disgracefully deposed by the ever influential AWU and their love children, resulting in the beginning of the end of support by the normal ALP voter.  This allowed us to realise how the ALP had changed, for the worse.  We felt betrayed and the “whatever it takes” faction has been proved to be politically corrupt, inept and taking the party to the abyss.
      By-the-By.  For those vehemently opposed to the “Carbon Tax”, I foresee that if Julia cannot get it through parliament this time, then a Liberal Government (with or without Tony) will introduce something along the same philosophical line in their 2nd term.  Like it or not, it’s inevitable. GA has spoken.

      Reply

    • john says:

      09:51am | 07/09/11

      To all those voters ...remember the jingle Kevin 07 & that ‘memorable’ tally room night where people lined up to see that historic win. Choke on your shit sandwich and let Labor govern for the term you voted for and stop changing your leaders & minds like drunken whinging whores, grow a spine! You may have to call upon our finest to defend this country again one day!!

      For shame labor voters using democracy like a weather vane to change course every time they fall over with their party - pick yourselves up fix your fuck ups and move on. Surely the labor party cant be as useless as tits on a bull?

      Reply

    • ibast says:

      09:52am | 07/09/11

      “Kevin Rudd was in a degree of political trouble, it is true, but the first-term PM had enjoyed stratospheric popularity and was respected by many voters. In Canberra, however, he had become loathed and colleagues finally decided they’d had enough.”

      I think the part of the story that is missing is that Rudd was clearly despised by someone senior within the Murdock empire and they were making it their missing to destroy him in the eyes of the public, and succeeding.  There looked to be no end to that.

      Still the change didn’t make sense for Labor.  With Rudd they would have gone to the election with a reduced margin but comfortable enough victory.  With deposition a loss was always likely.

      Reply

    • Steve says:

      11:27am | 07/09/11

      I disagree. I think that Labor would have lost under Rudd.

      The timing of the instalation of Gillard was excuisite. A few motherhood statements such as “sustainable Australia” ,“fixing” the mining tax and the euphoria from many about the first female PM lasted just long enough to scrape through.

      To that extent the strategy worked for 2010 but may not look so good after 2013.

    • ibast says:

      02:09pm | 07/09/11

      from memory they dropped about 20 points in the polls when Gillard became Prime minster and still scraped through.  It would have been difficult for Rudd to loose that in those few months.

      Abbott, Akerman and Alan Jones had made as much mileage as they were every going to out of the insulation affair and all but the hard core conservatives could see through the School Building muckraking.

      No, it was only the fact it was Gillard, that Abbot got so close.

    • Steve says:

      03:58pm | 07/09/11

      Memory is a funny thing. My memory is that Gillard got a surge in the polls and scraped in.

      Rudd was in decline and would have lost the election.

    • Rick says:

      05:07pm | 07/09/11

      A loss was likley if the NLP had a leader that people actually liked.However the LNP got the dud in Abbott and loss was never likley for labor.

    • Occam's Blunt Razor says:

      09:55am | 07/09/11

      Dear Mr Kenny,

      You use the term “reluctant conscript ” to describe the Real Julia.

      She was about as reluctant as I would be if Megan Gale asked me out on a date.

      As for conscript - she acted of her own free will.

      Lift your game.

      Regards

      Reply

    • Tanya says:

      10:05am | 07/09/11

      Spot on, Mark!

      There was certainly no accounting for the *Aussie* mentality! They can talk about it when educating workers in foreign call centres and joke about it in the tourism industry but a bunch of political heavyweights can’t intuit that a blatant backstab would not be well received by the electorate!

      Reply

    • old fart says:

      10:10am | 07/09/11

      it’s a pity John Faulkner is in the Senate

      Reply

    • Max, of Rocky says:

      12:56pm | 07/09/11

      Sure is, does not deserve to be there.

    • No 1 Rosie says:

      10:23am | 07/09/11

      I just had to post after reading this article because of the scrutiny I received when I mentioned after Rudd was knifed by his supposedly loyal deputy that the only outcome for Julia was bad karma. The people have received their share and now the bad karma has turned to Julia and the Labor brand. Rudd and the people are free of the bad karma while we await our chance to finally send this Gillard minority govt packing their bags.

      Reply

    • Bernadette says:

      10:28am | 07/09/11

      Simple straight forward question, is the title supposed to read “enema”?
      If it is then my thoughts are ‘sad attempt at humour from the journalist’ If it is a typo and supposed to say ‘enemy’ then it it hilarious that people at the Punch are either stupid or cheeky enough to let it through. Either way -pretty lame.
      PS yes the headline made me read the article, kind of, well I opened the page and scanned it with my eyes.

      Reply

    • Outraged says:

      06:36pm | 07/09/11

      You were the only person to pick-up this typo! LOL

      The Punch Team should send you a prize or something!

      Where are the proof-readers?!

    • Max, of Rocky says:

      10:52am | 07/09/11

      They will only dump Gillard when the pain she is inflicting is greater than the pain of an election.

      She only has to say to them she will resign and retire from politics and Labor is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

      Reply

    • Frank says:

      11:07am | 07/09/11

      I would like to hear from someone, anyone, please, what it is exactly that Tony Abbott intends to do if/when elected and what, essentially, he stands for.  Please.  Can we start talking about that now?  Or does nobody know this.

      Reply

    • Max, of Rocky says:

      11:45am | 07/09/11

      Respectfully suggest you look at the policies on the Liberal and L-NP websites.  8-)

    • Fiddler says:

      11:52am | 07/09/11

      try going to the Liberal party website and look at their policies. Pretty simple really

    • Michael says:

      12:24pm | 07/09/11

      http://www.liberals.org.au

      Read it yourself become educated, stop being led about by other people.

    • Steve says:

      12:25pm | 07/09/11

      Max. What is with the 8-) stuff? Isee it all the time

    • Max, of Rocky says:

      01:09pm | 07/09/11

      @ Steve


      smiley face with glasses - I wear glasses, sometimes re-entry shields.

      8-)

    • Frank says:

      01:37pm | 07/09/11

      Max and Michael, don’t know when the last time it was that you had a look at their website, but it doesn’t say much specifically about what they want to do.  Lot’s of info about how Labor sucks, mostly. 

      So, I take it from your responses that you don’t really know, either.

    • PTom says:

      02:44pm | 07/09/11

      Frank,

      It going be like the NSW election all the Liberal lackeys and the Media want to talk about was how bad labor was. The even whinged when someone question Liberal policies by saying how bad NSW Labor was.

      So much for the alternative government principle.

    • Lenny Bill says:

      08:18pm | 07/09/11

      Sensible government that actually gives a damn and doesn’t believe that taxing the people will save them from themselves! Bring on Abbott and a SENSIBLE Government!

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      11:14pm | 07/09/11

      @Lenny Bill- Yeah, right, Abbott and sensible government are an oxymoron. LNP government means the same old shit, just repackaged.

    • Lenny Bill says:

      10:18am | 08/09/11

      Shane….And we’re getting quality govenment from the Labor clowns who can’t govern themselves let alone the country.
      They’re too busy waiitng for Shorten’s knifing team and focussing on watching their own backs rather than the country which they believe can float along and be taxed out of existence…Labor are a joke and we need a sensible Liberal government to get things back on track!

    • Mark says:

      11:27am | 07/09/11

      “The government has lost its way”

      BWAHAHAHAHAHHA

      At least the Rudd government had a “way” to lose, Julia. 

      Kevin to his credit had a degree of political nous, he convincingly won an election from opposition.  His issues began when he started listening to the likes of Gillard.

      She’s had no idea from Day 1 and managed to lose majority government.

      Worst excuse for a PM in Australian history.  They should erect a statue of her at Liberal Party headquarters – she’s the gift that keeps on giving.

      Reply

    • Max, of Rocky says:

      01:15pm | 07/09/11

      They probably will put a statue up for her, maybe at Parliament House.

      Engraved on it : First Female Prime Minister of Australia.

      No kudos, no laurels just the fact she was,  most appropriate.

    • Against the Man says:

      08:00pm | 07/09/11

      The beauty is her legacy of shame will haunt the ALP and their minority supporters for decades to come.

      Even I couldn’t have realised that destroying the AL would be so easy - just unleash Rudd/Gillard to let their selfish egos do the job slow and painfully.

      Lovin it all the way smile

    • H B Bear says:

      12:37pm | 07/09/11

      Rudd was sinking like a stone when he was knifed.  He had completely lost control of the mining tax - helped ably by that useless idiot Swan.

      I think much of the current anger was the inability of the electorate to vote Rudd out in general election.  And it looks like Labor are going to do it again.

      Reply

    • Humphrey B Bear says:

      05:22pm | 07/09/11

      the 2011 NSW Coalition Government Budget distributed wealth away from the poor to the needy rich.
      the 2011 NSW Coalition Government Budget proved beyond doubt that Coalition voters should either be ignored or dead!

      Reply

    • red dog says:

      06:48pm | 07/09/11

      labor will win the next federal election on Sept 8 2011 easily

      Reply

    • red dog says:

      06:49pm | 07/09/11

      labor will win the next federal election on sept 8 2013 easily

      Reply

    • Boss Jim Gettys says:

      05:07pm | 24/09/11

      I make this 240 words. Please don’t ever accuse another politician of resorting to a “thought bubble”.

      Reply
 
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