can't help but think that lots of this is staged as a part of the ALP's media cycle.....

That would make as much sense as amputating your foot to cure an ingrown toenail.

perhaps, but anything is possible from these clowns, and it's been done before.

What's been done before? A sitting government party stage a fake leadership battle between factions to gain media exposure? Care to give an example?

Kevin Rudd had dinner with Kim Beazley before all hell broke loose

by: Simon Benson From: The Daily Telegraph February 24, 2012

IT was after Kevin Rudd returned to his hotel from dinner with US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta and Australian Ambassador Kim Beazley in a private Pentagon dining room that "all hell broke loose".

The Foreign Minister had arrived in Washington at 4pm on Tuesday, US time - straight from a busy G20 summit schedule in Mexico where he met US secretary of State Hillary Clinton - and, after more than an hour at his hotel, headed straight for the offices of the world's most powerful and secretive leaders.

Over dinner and a bottle of good red the three men, with key staff from the US defence department and the Australian embassy, discussed the most pressing issues facing the world and its leaders: The war in Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear ambitions and security in the South East Asia region. "It was a great meal," a source at the 90-minute meeting said.


It was 9pm when Mr Rudd finally retired to his room at the Willard Hotel on Pennsylvania Ave, the dress circle of Washington DC, just a stone's throw from the White House.

Perhaps Mr Rudd had been channelling the ghost of Martin Luther King, who penned his speech "I have a dream" in a room in the Willard in 1963. But it was when he received his nightly briefing from staff on the domestic news in Australia that the festering leadership question came to a head.

Mr Rudd was told that Julia Gillard had refused four times to repudiate cabinet colleague Simon Crean for his personal attacks on Mr Rudd and accusations that he had been disloyal over the past 48 hours.

He knew several cabinet colleagues were urging Ms Gillard to sack him, despite having no hard evidence to justify such a move. He was also aware of a story that had been leaked to members of the press gallery - allegedly by cabinet colleague Tony Burke - that he had sent one of his supporters, Alan Griffin, to speak to the clubs industry on November 21.

It was alleged that he had promised them to go soft on poker machine reform if he became prime minister.

The report was due to say how Mr Griffin had given out a list of Labor MPs who Clubs Australia should target, sources said.

Mr Rudd provided Channel 7 with a statement threatening to sue if they ran the story, on the basis that it wasn't true.

Mr Rudd was furious. He called several colleagues back in Canberra, who revealed to him that momentum was beginning to leak away. It was then he decided the current situation was "untenable".

At 1.20am on Wednesday, Washington time, he held a press conference where he resigned as Foreign Minister.

Waking journalists and camera crews, he announced he was handing over his duties to Kim Beazley in an unprecedented constitutional switch of executive power. All other engagements, including meetings in Europe on the future of Syria and the European financial crisis, were cancelled.

Ms Gillard had refused to back him against attacks from within the Labor Party, giving him the excuse to quit, claiming his integrity had been questioned and he no longer had the confidence of the Prime Minister.

On the contrary, Mr Rudd believed that Ms Gillard had sanctioned sending out the caucus thugs to attack him while he was overseas in a different time zone and unable to defend himself.

If so, Ms Gillard would be responsible for the resignation of one of Australia's most energetic foreign ministers and would have to explain why to the public.

Unbound by cabinet confidence, Mr Rudd realised he would be liberated to talk to colleagues and start actively campaigning with impunity.

He then called his wife Therese and his family and talked for an hour about what he should do and reassured them about his course of action.

A cabinet colleague of Mr Rudd, who believes Mr Rudd already has 39 votes out of the 52 he would need to win a ballot in the 103-member caucus, said it was the only course of action he could take.

"He has seized the initiative. He has bought himself flexibility. He can challenge now or later," the source said.

Mr Rudd booked a Qantas flight back to Brisbane, via Dallas, to get him back to Brisbane by Friday morning.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/kevin-rudd-had-dinner-with-kim-beazley-before-all-hell-broke-loose/story-e6freuy9-1226278859336

What's been done before? A sitting government party stage a fake leadership battle between factions to gain media exposure? Care to give an example?

was reffering to the media cycle that the ALP adhere to strictly, especially the NSWALP

.
It's open warfare as Julia Gillard confirms Monday leadership ballot

by: Matt Johnston, Jessica Marszalek From: Herald Sun February 23, 2012 4:40PM

UPDATE: CABINET Minister Chris Bowen has declared he supports Kevin Rudd to run in a leadership ballot against Julia Gillard, saying he believed the former PM made decisions in a "orderly and efficient" way and has a lot to offer the Labor party.

Ms Gillard today announced a leadership ballot will be called at 10am on Monday to settle the issue finally.

Mr Bowen came out in defence of Mr Rudd after scathing attacks from Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard, speaking very highly of the former PM but stopping just short of confirming Mr Rudd had his vote.

The support for Mr Rudd carries weight because Mr Bowen serves in a senior role as a Cabinet minister.

Another Cabinet minister, Martin Ferguson, has declared he will support Mr Rudd.

"In my opinion, Kevin Rudd is best placed to take on Tony Abbott," Mr Ferguson said.

Manufacturing Minister Kim Carr, who was demoted by Ms Gillard in her December ministerial reshuffle, declared he would vote for Mr Rudd.

"I will be supporting him and I think he will do very, very well," Senator Carr told ABC Radio.

"I believe he is a changed man - we've all learnt from the unhappy events of the last while."

Senator Carr said Ms Gillard's backers were trying to "present a wall of hostility" towards Mr Rudd, but predicted more would come around to back the former leader.

Most others who have spoken out in support of Mr Rudd are backbenchers including Doug Cameron, Ed Husic, Janelle Saffin and Alan Griffin.

Mr Bowen said Mr Rudd's legacy must be respected and that he had a lot to offer the Labor party.

"Kevin Rudd led the Labor party to victory in 2007 in very difficult circumstances," Mr Bowen told ABC 24.

"He's a former party leader and he deserves to have his legacy respected and he deserves to be able to put his case for the future leadership of the Labor party with respect."

Mr Bowen said he'd served as a junior minister in Mr Rudd's ministry and didn't have trouble accessing the leader.

The comments go directly against critical statements made by Ms Gillard this morning, who described Mr Rudd's 2010 government as being "chaotic" and paralysed.

It comes after ministers including Wayne Swan, Stephen Conroy, Craig Emerson, Tony Burke, Nicola Roxon and Penny Wong have given strong public endorsements of Ms Gillard and hit out at Mr Rudd today.

Gillard says squabbling must end

In a press conference today, Ms Gillard said she could lead the Government to victory at the next election.

“I believe that we can win the next election and defeat Tony Abbott,” she said.

“I believe I can lead Labor to that victory, provided the Labor Party unites and we get on with the job.”

She said that if she lost the ballot she would go to the backbench and never again seek leadership.

The Prime Minister said the “squabbling” within the Labor Party couldn’t go on.

“We need a leadership ballot in order to settle this question once and for all,” she said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announces a leadership spill for 10am Monday. Picture: Kelly Barnes
Ms Gillard said she expected to have the support of the party.

“If, against my expectation, I do not receive the support of my colleagues, then I will go to the backbench and I will renounce any further ambition for the Labor leadership,” she said.

“This would be in the best interest of the Government and the nation.

“I anticipate that Mr Rudd will also be a candidate in this ballot.

“I ask him to give the same undertaking – that if he does not succeed in this ballot, that he will go to the backbench and renounce any further claims to the leadership and act in the best interests of the Australian Labor Party and of our nation.”

Ms Gillard said she had not been prepared to act against Mr Rudd before because she believed “the best” in other people.

But the PM conceded Mr Rudd had been disloyal for some time.

“There has been a long-running destabilisation campaign,” she said.

“I believe it is in the interests of the nation to have this resolved.”

Gillard sharpens criticism of Rudd

Ms Gillard said she had never undermined Mr Rudd when he was Prime Minister and had never been disloyal.

Instead, she said she went to “extraordinary lengths” to get the Rudd Government to function.

“It became clear to me, very shortly before I asked Kevin Rudd for a leadership ballot, that no matter what efforts I was prepared to put into it, it was not going to work, and that is why I asked him for a leadership ballot.”

She said stoicism, personal fortitude and a sense of calm were her best attributes in office.

Ms Gillard put forward her sales pitch by saying she would get the Budget back into surplus this year.

She said the key to the future was to “build the new economy we will need for the jobs tomorrow”.

“We have got more to do,” she said.

“Ultimately, under my leadership, I believe we have been securing the big reforms that will make us stronger and fairer.”

Ms Gillard listed reforms she was proud of, including putting a price on carbon, the mining tax, and the structural separation of Telstra to prepare for the national broadband network.

She said Mr Rudd had failed to secure those reforms while he was prime minister.

She said she had decided to contest the leadership in 2010 because the Rudd Government had become paralysed.

“Kevin Rudd, as prime minister, always had very difficult and very chaotic work patterns,” she said.

“In my view, Kevin Rudd is an excellent campaigner and he was an excellent campaigner in 2007, indeed a remarkable campaigner in 2007.

“But government requires different skills.

“Government requires consistency, purpose, method, discipline, inclusion, consultation.

“It requires you to lead a big team and to lead it well.

“Kevin Rudd, as prime minister, struggled to do that and by the days of 2010 that struggle had resulted in paralysis in the government.”

Rudd 'encouraged' by support

The leadership spill comes after Mr Rudd yesterday quit as Foreign Affairs Minister and declared open war on her just 20 months after she ruthlessly toppled him as PM.

Speaking from the US, Mr Rudd said he was the one who could “save” Australia from an Abbott Coalition government.

“Overnight I have had many conversations with caucus colleagues,” he said.

“I have many more calls still to make but their overall argument to me is that they regard me as the best prospect to lead the Australian Labor Party successfully to the next election, to save the Labor Party at the next election, and to save the country from the ravages of an Abbott government."

He said he had been “encouraged” by the amount of positive support.

“They (colleagues) regarded me as the best prospect to lead the Australian Labor Party successfully to the next election,” he said.

Mr Rudd is rushing back to Australia from Washington - where he dramatically resigned at 1.20am US time - to test whether he has the numbers to seek his revenge.

Mr Rudd said he would declare his future when he returned to Australia, but believed Ms Gillard could not win the next election.

He said Labor was doomed if Ms Gillard stayed on as Prime Minister .

“I do not believe, fundamentally, that Prime Minister Gillard can lead the Australian Labor Party to success at the next election,” he said.

"That is a deep belief and I believe also a view shared right across the Australian community."

We edit 20 months into 3.5 minutes. The key moments that led to Kevin Rudd's historic challenge of Prime Minister Gillard

Mr Rudd said only a “mug” would believe the circulated lists of which MPs supported Ms Gillard and himself.

“There is a huge doctrine of enlightened self interest at work when people put out one list or another in terms of how many numbers people have,” he said.

“What I can say to you in complete candour, and I’ve got to say with a degree of contentment, happiness and surprise is the level of support that is coming in and not just from the parliamentary party but I thank also the extraordinary expressions of support from the Australian community.”



He said the future of Labor was about “people’s power”, not the power of the factions, as he encouraged the Australian public to let their thoughts be heard.

“The people of Australia have a view on the future leadership of the country,” Mr Rudd said.

“I would urge each and every one of them to make that view known across the country.

“Pick up the phone, talk to people, talk to MPs, talk to media outlets, express your view.

“Ours is a democracy in the open spaces, not behind closed doors and not governed by faceless men.”

Rudd talks up own achievements

Mr Rudd used his press conference to attack government policy in his first direct sales pitch to colleagues.

He pushed his economic credentials and said he had the experience to navigate a turbulent 2012.

He said there were policy challenges ahead and said he would be able to assist businesses to cope with transitions.

He said that the green car fund dumped by the Government should have been kept.

“I do not support the decision taken by the Government to axe the support given to the car industry,” he said.

“I do not share the view that manufacturing is somehow old-fashioned.”

Mr Rudd said he had been shocked and disappointed by the intensity of personal attacks on him overnight.

“Whatever our differences in politics, I do not believe that these sort of vicious personal attacks have a place in national political life,” he said.

A “fabric of decency” should be a part of principled political parties, he said.


Mr Rudd said the question of leadership was not about personality.

“It’s about trust, it’s also about policy and it’s about vision,” he said.

He said he his achievements as prime minister were “formidable”.

“Simply, Australia got through the global financial crisis without going into recession and without generating mass unemployment – a single achievement among all the major developed economies.”

Experience, competence and discipline were now needed to overcome the current global economic turmoil, he said.

Who has the numbers?

Labor strategist and Rudd-backer Bruce Hawker believes Caucus votes are evenly stacked for Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd.

“I think they’re reasonably evenly poised but I think its being spun that’s she’s a got a huge majority. The problem here of course is that until a declaration is made a lot of ministers are very reluctant to say very much because they’re serving in the government. So you have a rather artificial exercise going on,” Mr Hawker told Channel Ten this morning.

He said Mr Rudd had no choice but to announce his resignation in Washington after Ms Gillard had multiple opportunities to rebuke senior ministers’ remarks against him.

In his resignation letter, Mr Rudd said the fresh attacks were “the final wave in a crescendo of attacks on my position by members of your government over many months”.

Labor's bitter divisions were put on show following Mr Rudd's resignation as Foreign Minister with a host of Gillard backers launching a series of scathing attacks on Mr Rudd.

"For too long, Kevin Rudd has been putting his own self-interest ahead of the interests of the broader labour movement and the country as a whole, and that needs to stop," Mr Swan said.

He said Ms Gillard had the numbers to win a ballot.

"She is tough, determined, forward-looking and has a good Labor heart. She has a consultative, respectful relationship with caucus while Kevin Rudd demeaned them. She's cleaned up a lot of the mess he left her and has established a good, Labor agenda.

- with Phillip Hudson, Anna Caldwell, Steven Scott

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/kevin-rudd-resigns-as-foreign-minister-condemns-julia-gillards-silence/story-fn7x8me2-1226278811641

was reffering to the media cycle that the ALP adhere to strictly, especially the NSWALP

Woeful choice between two evils

by: Terry McCrann From: Herald Sun February 23, 2012 12:00AM

ONE way or another the choice will now have to be made. Between Australia's worst-ever prime minister and our second-worst.

But whichever one emerges in the job next week, he or she will still be presiding over a disastrously inept Government in an utterly dysfunctional Parliament.

This isn't going to be a vote to get rid of the job-destroying Bob Brown as de facto deputy prime minister - someone would say he effectively holds an even higher office.

Or of the independents propping up this carcass of an administration.

It is a decision not-very-pure and exactly simple to determine who gets to continue in the big office if only temporarily and who gets consigned immediately to the scrapheap of history.

With the other to follow at the election.

This should be a decision about the future of this country.

It's not even that in the - very - small world of Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.

There's not a slither of difference between them on policy.

They jointly gave us all the disastrous policies - from the waste of pink batts and school halls, to restarting the boats, and the two big ones.

First, the $50 billion waste of the National Broadband Network.

Second, the carbon tax, which is going to decimate what's left of manufacturing that manages to survive the high value of the Aussie dollar.

Plus making you pay more for electricity and just about everything else as the tax is passed through into prices.

Thank goodness for China.

But for the resources boom, the devastating cost of all those Rudd and Gillard failures would have already made us look like a Down Under version of Greece.

Thank goodness, that is also, for what was bequeathed by the Howard-Costello government.

A Budget in surplus and NO GOVERNMENT DEBT!

That enabled Rudd in particular to embark on that crazy debt-fuelled spending binge.

A binge, which he - and too many others - think "saved Australia", but has left us with a debt headache and precious little to show for it.

There's nothing to suggest that either camp has a clue about the challenges - and potentially worse - posed by the turbulent world out there.

Despite the very clear signals coming from all those job cuts - from manufacturing companies like Holden, retailers and even the big, seemingly highly profitable banks.

This Government continues to doze in the lazy assumption that China will keep pouring money into Australia; and that as a consequence, so will global investors.

We don't need an election to decide between the worst and second-worst prime minister.

We need a REAL election to sweep both of them from office and to get a real government that can actually start to build a sustainable future.

And of course, to limit the damage that both the Rudd and Gillard governments have already done; and hopefully to ditch the most destructive policies, and especially the carbon tax.

There actually seems a chance of that thanks to what Rudd has now set in train.

If Gillard is still Prime Minister after next week, it'll be a case of the turkeys voting for Christmas.

That would guarantee Labor lost at the next election.

And perhaps an early Christmas, if Rudd resigned and left the Parliament.

If Rudd lost only narrowly, and stayed, the whole disastrous circus would lurch on.

And if Rudd won, it would be back to the chaos of 2009 - multiplied by all the hate and dysfunction around the cabinet table. With the added chance of one or more of the independents triggering an election.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/gillard-v-rudd-battlelines-drawn-in-labor-leadership-showdown/story-e6frfhqf-1226279394623

Oh? Okie. What is this media cycle the ALP adhere to strictly, btw?

Now, now, don't cop out. Explain what you speak of.

can't help but think that lots of this is staged as a part of the ALP's media cycle.....

You make the comment below, which for many reasons is the most ridiculous and political ignorant comment i've heard for some time from anyone above primary school age.



I ask you to explain it and you avoid an explanation by telling me to google it. Fella, i'll find nothing about any leadership challenge as part of any so called media cycle because it doesn't exist.

"Hey, you lot, it's time for the part of our errr, ummm, well, you know, the media cycle that includes a suicidal leadership battle that will divide the party, do untold long term damage and make it obvious to all that we a disorganised rabble placing factional and/ or personal interest above that of the governance of the country."

"It will also give the opposition all the fuel it wants in painting us as incompetent fools, not deserving of governance plus the likelihood the independents allowing us to govern in a minority government to withdraw the support they gave the Prime Minister, which will force the Governor General to either hand over the government to the opposition or allow them to call an immediate election in which we will be absolutely decimated and forced into opposition for the foreseeable future."

"Come on, you lot, hop to it, we've got lots of work to do as part of our media cycle."

And what would a typical 'Bat' answer be to the above"

Errr, derrr, ummm, well, arrrr, you'd expect that from the labor party, woodn't ya, eh, cuz, they're stupid enough not to know the difference."

Ignorance and stubbornness combined. What a recipe for anti education.





Edited by skeptic: 24/2/2012 09:28:01 AM

Give this man a payrise! His insights are amazing.

an example is on tonites news, why should high income earners pay more for private health insurance????? why penalise the people who achieve at a higher level..?? so there is no incentive to get off your arse and work hard.typical socialist view, sorry same with taxes.....the more you earn the higher % tax you pay, so where is the reward or incentive???

let's flog the cash cow until it's dead, and when it's dead let's all wonder where and why our prosperity has gone.....


labor are doing an excellent job....job losses in car industry, job losses in the banking industry, job losses in the steel and smelting industry, seems like all the favours for the unions is amounting to alot of pain out there....

Voters give Kevin Rudd nod in Labor circus

by: Nima Green and Nathan Mawby From: Herald Sun February 24, 2012

VOTERS in three Labor seats in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia have overwhelmingly backed Kevin Rudd over Julia Gillard for the party leadership.

In the marginal Victorian Labor seat of La Trobe, a straw poll of 103 people - the same as the number of Labor members who will decide who should lead their party in a caucus vote on Monday morning - has found most are behind Mr Rudd.

Those backing Mr Rudd numbered 66, while only 37 said Ms Gillard should continue to head the party.

In similar polls in the NSW electorate of Banks and the SA seat of Hindmarsh, the numbers in favour of Mr Rudd were as convincing.

Of a total of 309 voters across the three electorates, 213 said Mr Rudd should regain the party's top job while 96 believed Ms Gillard should lead.

But the Victorian support was only grudgingly given, with most people in the street so disgusted with the "circus of political infighting" in Labor's ranks that they thought neither was a particularly good candidate.

Ms Gillard's time as Prime Minister is over as far as Victorians are concerned, with the La Trobe straw poll revealing just 20 of 103 voters thought she should remain as Australia's PM, behind Mr Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

Berwick farmer Jeff Habson, 50, said the Government had lost touch with the voters.

"The whole thing is disgusting. The politicians are only interested in their careers and they don't care about the people who have voted them in," he said.

"The whole political system is a farce."

Others slammed Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd for acting like children.

"I think it's all a bit primary school really, the way they behave towards each other," Belgrave woman Sonia Van Heel said.

Many more described the nation's politicians as out of touch, selfish and only interested in their jobs and political careers.

Berwick man Lance Beckwith, 72, described the PM as "the worst I have ever seen".

In a heraldsun.com.au poll, which had more than 63,000 votes last night, 83 per cent want a federal election called now.

mawbyn@hwt.com.au

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/voters-give-rudd-nod-in-labor-circus/story-fn7x8me2-1226279991246

Um...dude. Have you heard of our record high $ ????
Our current unemployment rate is about as low as it's ever been in at least 35 years. Sounds like good news to me.

Champion declares support for Rudd, resigns as caucus official

by: Lanai Vasek From: The Australian February 24, 2012

SOUTH Australian MP Nick Champion has declared his support for Kevin Rudd and resigned as a caucus official, saying he was persuaded by a note left by one of his constituents at his electorate office.

As both the Rudd and Gillard camps scramble to sure up support in preparation for a leadership showdown on Monday, Mr Champion said he had decided to back Kevin Rudd if he stands as a contender in a spill because he believed the former prime minister was best placed to lead the nation.

"I think Julia Gillard is a very good person, a great legislator, but I do think Kevin Rudd is best placed to win the confidence of the people," Mr Champion told ABC News 24.

"One of the things that bolstered this decision it was a difficult decision to make was when I got to my office this morning, I got there early, and someone had put a receipt on my window and attached it there with chewing gum and it says 'put Kevin Rudd back as PM, people voted for him'. I think that's a pretty strong message to send the caucus a message."

...Mr Champion said the Labor party needed to decide if it was choosing a leader for itself or for the nation.

"People choosing a leader for the country will choose Kevin Rudd," he said.

Mr Champion said he would resign his post as a caucus official and secretary of the federal parliamentary Labor party.

"I have found the tactics used to blackguard Kevin Rudd and his government to be unacceptable and counterproductive to those that employ them," Mr Champion said in his resignation letter.

"These tactics will ultimately damage the whole party and its record in government and I cannot abide them."

Mr Champion's display of support for Mr Rudd came as former Labor MP Maxine McKew, who was elected in 2007 under Kevin Rudd but lost her seat in 2010 also urged a return to the former prime minister.

"Kevin Rudd is best placed to beat Tony Abbott," Ms McKew told ABC Radio.

She said each member in the 103-strong caucus should reflect on the strong swing for the Labor party delivered by Mr Rudd at the 2007 election.

"He delivered a 23-seat majority and I think that should be noted," she said.

"His appeal is broad and the breadth of his victory in 2007 shouldn't be overlooked."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/champion-declares-support-for-rudd-resigns-as-caucus-official/story-fnccyr6m-1226280439265

no labors platform is take it from the people who make it and give to the pricks who cant make it,