Gillard has credibility issue: Labor MP

February 4, 2012 - 12:56PM


Tasmanian Labor MP Dick Adams says Prime Minister Julia Gillard has a credibility issue with some voters.

Speculation is continuing that Ms Gillard will be replaced as ALP leader with support reportedly growing for Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd returning to the top job.

Mr Adams, who represents the eastern Tasmanian seat of Lyons, says while the prime minister has support, not all voters are convinced.

"She has a bit of a credibility issue with some of the decisions that she's made," Mr Adams told ABC News 24.

"That's a message for her that she has to get out there that her credibility is sound."

He said the government had not been able to communicate its achievements to the electorate in an effective way.

"I think Cabinet has to take some responsibility for the message delivery and how their leadership is coming through for government and they need to look at themselves in a pretty hard way from that perspective," he said.

"All these things that weren't spent in the last government are being spent by this government to position Australia into the future.

"If you can't get that message out, yeah, somebody's got to take that responsibility and that's got to be done."

Mr Adams was frustrated that parts of the government's message had confused parts of the electorate.

"In general circumstances the economy is good. In those circumstances anywhere in the world the government is then pretty sound.

"I would cite the issues that I encountered when we first started to do the mining tax and people were asking me why we were putting a tax on super and we had a super tax running out there in people's minds."

He believed that the leadership issues were being "blown up" and said nobody has rung him about it.

"I've been around a long time and I've had a lot of calls over the years from people who aspire to leadership. I've had no calls.

"I've had nobody calling me to start making up lists and I don't believe there are lists being made up.

However, he said Labor heavyweights would be looking at the current polling which shows Labor a long way behind the coalition.

"Polling that is being done by the political parties, they're always the polls that you make political decisions about.

"And the machinery of the parties act on those and I'm sure my colleagues in that role will be looking at those and making decisions."

Asked if Ms Gillard had his 100 per cent support, Mr Adams replied that he supported the leader.

"If I change my mind I would tell the prime minister that she doesn't have my support.

"I will support the leader. I don't believe it's time to change the leader."

Caucus members will meet in Canberra on Sunday for a pre-parliament strategy day.

AAP


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/gillard-has-credibility-issue-labor-mp-20120204-1qyh2.html#ixzz1lNIXlaQV

Backers of Julia Gillard predict Kevin Rudd will fail if he challenges

by: Samantha Maiden From: Sunday Herald Sun February 05, 2012

ANGRY Julia Gillard backers have challenged Kevin Rudd to "bring it on" when he returns to Australia tomorrow - and have predicted any leadership putsch will fail.

The Foreign Affairs Minister is jetting out of Germany this morning, after a marathon international travel trip to spend just over 24 hours at the Munich Security Conference.

As one of the Prime Minister's most loyal supporters yesterday confided they feared the momentum for a leadership spill was now "unstoppable", Ms Gillard spent the day holed up at The Lodge.

Queensland MP Bernie Ripoll, a Gillard loyalist, issued a public challenge for the agitators to bring it on amid speculation that Wayne Swan, Ms Gillard and other frontbenchers might refuse to serve Mr Rudd if he's re-elected by caucus.

"Let them call for a spill," Mr Ripoll said.

"Let's see who commands the numbers in caucus. Let's just do it.

"They won't - and I will tell you why. They don't have the numbers."

The Gillard camp believes Mr Rudd's support could be as low as 20 in the 103-member caucus.

Labor MPs will descend on Canberra today for a three-hour talkfest in the ALP caucus room followed by a barbecue at The Lodge where the Prime Minister will talk up the tax cuts and welfare increases that will flow to families from May to compensate for the carbon tax.

Despite rampant speculation, both sides are playing down the prospect of a clash next week.

But they concede the atmosphere is "volatile" and "febrile", and could lead to a clash before the March 24 Queensland election or soon after in a special meeting of ALP caucus.

A gun-toting independent MP Bob Katter also used the Queensland launch of his firearms policy yesterday to bolster Mr Rudd's credentials, hinting he would "most certainly" be open to considering a deal with a future Rudd government.

"Everybody knows that Kevin and I are friends and have been mates," he said.

"I have great respect for him."

Mr Katter's comments followed independent MP Rob Oakeshott's warning that dumping Ms Gillard would be a "breach of contract" with the independents who helped Labor form government and he would renegotiate his deal to support the Labor Government.

The Foreign Affairs Minister's backers yesterday claimed Cabinet was now split over a Rudd resurrection with one minister predicting MPs regarded as loyal to the Prime Minister, including Anthony Albanese, Greg Combet, Mark Butler and Penny Wong, were "soft" and would go to Mr Rudd when push came to shove. Chris Bowen, Martin Ferguson and Robert McClelland are already being counted in the Rudd camp.

A Rudd campaign insider said yesterday the ALP caucus had "the biggest dose of cabin fever since the Voyage of the Damned".

But a senior Victorian Labor MP dismissed Mr Rudd as a wrecker who would never marshal the numbers. The MP, a firm Gillard supporter, estimated Mr Rudd's camp probably numbered no more than 20 members of caucus.

He dismissed estimates yesterday that divided caucus 47 votes to Ms Gillard, 32 to Mr Rudd with 24 undecided as about "as accurate as an East German five-year economic forecast".

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/backers-of-julia-gillard-predict-kevin-rudd-will-fail-if-he-challenges/story-fn7x8me2-1226262766537

Gillard is the worst PM since McMahon. Discuss

Misha Schubert
February 5, 2012

WHEN Tony Abbott, at the National Press Club last week, invoked academic Robert Manne dismissing Julia Gillard as ''the least impressive prime minister since Billy McMahon'', the Liberal crowd laughed loudly. Their derision was as much for one of their own former leaders as for the woman who is struggling as Prime Minister.

Manne, considered by conservatives a lion of the left, didn't intend a literal comparison with McMahon, the jug-eared figure of mockery who presided over the Liberals' defeat in 1972 after 23 years in power.

Nor did Manne mean the worst prime minister, mindful of the damage he argues John Howard did to the country. Manne's criticism, and his argument for a resurrection of Kevin Rudd as Labor leader, was about a lack of a narrative, compellingly told, about where and how Australia should chart its course. It's a criticism shared by many of her own MPs, disenchanted and dispirited, as they gather anxiously in Canberra today to hear her pitch for the year and mull over the risks of a switch back to Rudd.

''The Australian people feel the need for some kind of largeness of the Prime Minister, a capacity to dramatise and create a story about the nation, about the world,'' Manne said. ''I thought it might happen [with Gillard] but it just hasn't. I think she just seems to be awkward and mechanical, repetitive and cliche ridden. She doesn't seem to have developed a vision or a capacity to speak in a way that interests people.''

Manne's thesis is qualified. Most of Australia's leaders post-World War II have been impressive, and in that he counts Howard too. His exceptions fall between Robert Menzies and Gough Whitlam - Harold Holt, John McEwen, John Gorton and McMahon.

Historian Stuart Macintyre disputes Manne, arguing Gillard has faced unparalleled political challenges to a prime minister's authority from a hung Parliament with so many bit players. ''She has faced a task that no one has since Menzies and [John] Curtin, and in the circumstances of the war, particularly after 1941, it was inconceivable [the two independents of the day] would desert the government.'' Fate dealt Gillard a much larger coalition to put together and a lesser hold.

''Her political task in managing that circumstance and maintaining office has been uniquely difficult in federal politics and her capacity to do so has been impressive,'' Macintyre said. Yet she may be ''the least effective in articulating a viewpoint since McMahon - we're not talking about too many PMs, here, six, and some of them were unusually eloquent''.

Academic Judith Brett, who has chronicled the history of conservative politics, sees little parallel between the ''bumbling and silly'' image of McMahon and the public's take on the Prime Minister now. Yet there is something ''implausible'' about the public persona of Gillard - stiff and defensive and guarded - which has impeded a connection with people.

''The only person who looks like a leader in the federal parliament at the moment is Malcolm Turnbull. Neither of them [Gillard nor Abbott] appear to be on top of the issues - you don't see them thinking in public, so you don't have any sense of how they are thinking about the problems of the country - you can't believe they are thinking in as simple-minded a way as their statements,'' she said.

Simon Crean, a former Labor leader and one of those in the mix if Gillard loses the leadership, takes a whack back at Abbott for invoking the Manne slight.

''He's the most negative person in the history of the country, a person who stands for nothing, passing judgments about a prime minister who as education minister did more than anyone else to inject the most significant expenditure into the greatest investment a country can make - the education of its people,'' he said.

Liberal tactics chief Christopher Pyne comes to the defence of McMahon's reputation.

''That's clearly unfair on Billy McMahon. He inherited a two-decade-old government with a small majority at the end of its natural life. She took over a two-year-old government with a thumping majority and trashed it in one election. She carries the wooden spoon in this particular race.''

Gillard's friend Warren Snowdon, a parliamentary secretary who has served four Labor prime ministers, insists she is impressive in the psychological strength she has brought to adversity.

''I've served under a number of PMs and she is right up there when it comes to self-control and not allowing herself to be flustered by the idiocy of attacks. She's as tough as teak and has real equilibrium''.

There is scant direct parallel with McMahon, whose personality and circumstances were vastly different. As academic Norman Abjorensen wrote, ''as Prime Minister, McMahon cut a ludicrous figure - a man captive of his own fantasies and seemingly not of this world.'' Gillard, for all her faults, is a realist.

As time went on, both McMahon and Gillard were unable to convince the electorate their ascension was the right choice. After eight months with McMahon as prime minister, in December 1971 one in two voters thought the switch from Gorton was a bad decision. At last count, Rudd outpolled Gillard two to one as preferred Labor leader.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/gillard-is-the-worst-pm-since-mcmahon-discuss-20120204-1qypm.html#ixzz1lTR1pYT1

The question, “If I were President I’d…” implies that if you swap out one leader, put in another, then all will be well with America—as though our leaders are the cause of all ailments.

That must be why we’ve created a tradition of rampant attacks on our politicians. Are they too conservative for you? Too liberal? Too religious? Too atheist? Too gay? Too anti-gay? Too rich? Too dumb? Too smart? Too ethnic? Too philanderous? Curious behavior, given that we elect 88% of Congress every two years.

A second tradition-in-progress is the expectation that everyone else in our culturally pluralistic land should hold exactly your own outlook, on all issues.

When you’re scientifically literate, the world looks different to you. It’s a particular way of questioning what you see and hear. When empowered by this state of mind, objective realities matter. These are the truths of the world that exist outside of whatever your belief system tells you.

One objective reality is that our government doesn’t work, not because we have dysfunctional politicians, but because we have dysfunctional voters. As a scientist and educator, my goal, then, is not to become President and lead a dysfunctional electorate, but to enlighten the electorate so they might choose the right leaders in the first place.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
New York, Aug. 21, 2011

i been through

gillard,rudd,howard,keating,hawke,fraser,whitlam,mcmahon,gorton,mcEwen & holt.....

this government with rudd/Gillard wins hands down as the most untrustworthy incompetant pack of morons

Have you Aussies still got this Gillard as Prime Minister? How long will it take you to get rid of her?

Have you Aussies still got this Gillard as Prime Minister? How long will it take you to get rid of her?

The one saving grace of Julia Gillard is that Tony Abbott threatens to be even worse.

I doubt it.

I don't think Tony Abbott will be a good PM, but at least he won't be alligned with the extremist Greens party. Alot of these ridiculous policies are Greens policies which the ALP needs to bend over for in order to stay in power.

I doubt it.

I don't think Tony Abbott will be a good PM, but at least he won't be alligned with the extremist Greens party. Alot of these ridiculous policies are Greens policies which the ALP needs to bend over for in order to stay in power.

I doubt it.

I don't think Tony Abbott will be a good PM, but at least he won't be alligned with the extremist Greens party. Alot of these ridiculous policies are Greens policies which the ALP needs to bend over for in order to stay in power.

Julia Gillard accuses opposition of muckraking

by: Paul Osborne From: Herald Sun February 08, 2012 6:20PM


PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has accused the opposition of muckraking and evading debate on the economy, after the coalition tried to censure her over the Australia Day fiasco.
The strategy failed but all eyes were on independent MP Andrew Wilkie who sided with coalition MPs, for the first time since Labor reneged on a gambling reform deal, during a vote to suspend parliament.

The suspension motion was put on Wednesday to force Ms Gillard to answer questions about the involvement of her office in the protest at a Canberra restaurant on January 26, which caused a security scare.

Mr Wilkie told AAP he supported the motion because "there are so many claims and counter-claims swirling around about the Australia Day scuffle and a parliamentary debate would have been one way of finding out the facts of the matter".

Prime ministerial media staffer Tony Hodges quit after passing on information to a union official, who in turn reported Tony Abbott's presence to Aboriginal tent embassy representatives, who mistakenly believed the coalition leader had called for the embassy to be moved on.


In a heated question time and suspension motion debate, opposition business manager Christopher Pyne and other frontbenchers quizzed Ms Gillard over the role of her other advisers and whether she had a "black ops" unit dedicated to undermining Mr Abbott's credibility.

Mr Pyne said the incident, coupled with the broken election promise on the carbon tax and the torn-up deal with Mr Wilkie, had "cast a shadow" over the government's integrity.

"Comparing her to Lady Macbeth is unfair to Lady Macbeth," Mr Pyne said.

Ms Gillard, who had used question time to talk up the government's economic credentials, said the opposition raised the Australia Day issue because its economics team was at odds over when a coalition government could deliver a budget surplus.

"Their muckraking and recklessness, their petty politics, does them no good," Ms Gillard said.

"The national interest just passes them by."

The prime minister, who met with manufacturing union bosses earlier in the day, also said Mr Abbott was trying to be like the Clint Eastwood movie character Dirty Harry.

"The leader of the opposition stands for doing the dirty on the car industry," she said, referring to plans by the coalition to cut $500 million in government funding by 2015.


Mr Abbott, who visited a Canberra school on Wednesday to talk about online safety, said the prime minister had shown a lack of concern for sacked workers when she spoke last week about "growing pains" in the manufacturing sector.

"These are real people," he said.

Ms Gillard said the government was "all ears" when it came to automotive workers and that Australia needed a strong car industry if it was to modernise its economy.

Promoting her theme of creating a "new economy", the prime minister on Wednesday announced a key plank of the national broadband network: a $620 million deal to put up two satellites to provide the most remote parts of Australia with high-speed broadband within three years.

- AAPhttp://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/julia-gillard-accuses-opposition-of-muckraking/story-fn7x8me2-1226266048933

Which ones are included in 'a lot of these ridiculous policies'?

Carbon tax, the gay marriage issue, the NBN, although that wasn't a Greens policy.

Carbon tax, the gay marriage issue, the NBN, although that wasn't a Greens policy.