Labor is dead now, last chance extinguished. I wonder how the independents will take it?

Tony Abbott - 28th Prime Minister in waiting.

Gillard is dead now, she needed a resounding win against Rudd to restore confidence, Rudd will be Leader - if he wants it - by this time next week.

Smart play Rudd not to take the bait and challenge today!

Ruddies pulled out :(

-PB

"Fitzgibbon's first instinct in public life is panic" ... former ALP leader Mark Latham gave a broadside to senior Labor figures in an interview on Thursday. Photo: Jessica Hromas
This is an edited transcript of former ALP leader Mark Latham speaking to 2UE's Paul Murray on Thursday morning.
"We go through this every time about the inflated Rudd numbers. Kevin Rudd put his hand up for the Labor leadership six times, and in each case he has dramatically inflated his numbers in leaks to the media.
"You had silly Kieran Gilbert on Sky News today saying: 'Oh, will it be like last time, when Rudd had the numbers and then they fell apart when the ballot was held – his numbers dissipated.'
"Well, he didn't have the numbers in the first place; I mean, I just get amazed at the gullible nature of the media where, time after time after time after time, they buy the Rudd BS.

"He's always inflating his numbers. He's now got [Graham] Richardson, who, more than any other person, has wrecked the modern culture of the Labor Party. Why is Richardson supporting Rudd, and in there working on the numbers? Because Gillard won't listen to him, you see.
"Richardson is all about difference, unless he's the main numbers man and the one they listen to, he goes to do you in. He did Rudd in three years ago. He made out that he was a part of the coup against Kevin Rudd because Rudd wasn't listening to him. Now he wants to be a part of a coup against Gillard because she didn't listen to him.
"Why don't people listen to Graham Richardson? I'll give you one good reason – he's the man that walked up to Eddie Obeid once and said: 'Here, on this platter for you, I've got a seat in the NSW upper house on behalf of the Labor Party.'
"How can the man who put Eddie Obeid into the NSW Parliament be wandering around talking about political judgment, calling the Prime Minister an idiot? The biggest idiot in Labor politics today is the man who put Obeid in Parliament: Graham Fredrick Richardson.
"I've had a gutful of the bloke who was a paid lobbyist for Ron Medich, who got into scandals about Swiss bank accounts. How can you say you're a Labor man when you've set up Swiss bank accounts? Swiss bank accounts worked for Kerry Packer.
"It's shameful that this man has any reputation, the man who set up the wheeling and dealing, 'whatever it takes' culture in the modern Labor Party. He's the bloke who wrecked the place and he walks around like he's got clean hands like Mother Teresa, knows all the numbers. All he knows how to do is put people like Obeid in Parliament ... and it's a real achievement in public life for Richardson, but 20 years after he made that decision, it is contributing to the destruction of the federal Labor government. He should crawl under the rock from which he came.
"I know Joel Fitzgibbon well. Fitzgibbon's first instinct in public life is panic, and you saw that yesterday when he's wandering down the corridors saying, 'we've only got 31 per cent of the primary vote'. He's an amateur. He's a buffoon. He is not someone who – when I was running for leadership against Beazley – who we thought was good enough to come into our council of war.
"If Rudd is relying on Fitzgibbon, again, it just points to the fact that he's got the dregs of the labour movement with him. People like Richardson and Fitzgibbon. Fitzgibbon's second instinct in life is to blabber non-stop, on and off the record, to the media; he's addicted to the media as badly as Rudd ...
"They won't have a ballot in the caucus board ... I'll tell you what the ballot should be for. It should be for the position of chief government whip, because in the Westminster tradition, that position of chief government whip held by Joel Fitzgibbon only has one duty: to be loyal to the leader.
"And if you're a person of honour and you recognise that you can't discharge that duty any more, you have to resign from that position. Not take the extra taxpayers' money that comes with it.
"When you talk about Fitzgibbon, you're talking about someone who is not only the dregs of the labour movement, he's totally dishonourable.
"He's totally dishonourable, if he was a man of honour he wouldn't be walking around pocketing that extra money as the chief government whip. Because he's the chief government leaker, he's the chief government destabiliser, and it's shameful, shameful that he remains in that position today.
"They should have a ballot in the caucus – it should be for Fitzgibbon's position. He should be sacked. But more importantly, we should have high standards and people of honour in the labour movement. Fitzgibbon is very representative; no surprise he's now hanging out with Richardson, it's very representative of all the things that have gone wrong in the culture of the modern Labor Party.
"I'd say, don't listen to idiots like Richardson and Fitzgibbon, don't trust a word of people of dishonour who've shamed the labour movement consistently for a long, long while.
"Don't listen to a bloke like Richardson who put a bloke like Eddie Obeid into the NSW Parliament, we should be better than that, we should have a culture in the Labor Party that's not about wheeling and dealing and doing whatever it takes, its about public policy and a vision for the Australian people. It's about looking after the battlers, caring about poverty, caring about inequality.
"Let's not get sidetracked into the dregs of the labour movement – people like Fitzgibbon and Richardson – we should be better than that. And if we've got some good ideas for the Australian people, let's put them forward.
"We made a decision about the leader 12 months ago. The honourable Labor thing to do is abide by that, put forward our ideas for the Australian people – and if we lose on election day, far better, far better to die on our feet than to live on our knees.
"I find this so upsetting, the modern Labor Party lives on its knees when it associates with people like Richardson and Fitzgibbon's culture of wheeling and dealing, of panic. The number merchants who care nothing for the real issues that concern Labor supporters, they just concern themselves about being a big wheel in the system.
"This is not the Labor Party of Curtin, Chifley, Whitlam and Keating. It's the Labor Party of people who should be just kicked straight out the door and told, if they haven't got the honour to stand up for what's right, they've got no place in the modern Labor system.
"That's what I'd be saying to the colleagues. It's true – unless you deal with the bad people, you bring yourself down and if you live in a bad culture, that's never going to get better."


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/hes-always-inflating-his-numbers-latham-unleashes-extraordinary-diatribe-on-rudd-fitzgibbon-and-richardson-20130321-2gik7.html#ixzz2OAXz2tgy

Crean not too happy with Rudd.

Body count: Rudd supporters quit their posts
Date
March 21, 2013 - 9:04PM
643 reading
Kevin Rudd supporters have begun quitting government leadership posts in the wake of today's aborted leadership spill.

Four MPs, including Joel Fitzgibbon, have followed the departure of cabinet Minister Simon Crean, who was sacked for his role in bringing on today's leadership spill, which was ultimately not contested.

Key Rudd supporter Fitzgibbon, has said he will step down as the government's chief whip at the next Labor caucus meeting.

Two other government whips, Ed Husic and Janelle Saffin, resigned this evening.

Advertisement
The Parliamentary Secretary for the Pacific Islands, Richard Mearles, also announced his resignation. "In the circumstances of today's events I believed this to be the appropriate course," he said.

"I'm surprised Kevin Rudd didn't stand," the former Minister for Arts and Regional Development, Simon Crean, told the ABC's 7.30 Program. "He has only got one obligation now and that is to back off".



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/body-count-rudd-supporters-quit-their-posts-20130321-2giy3.html#ixzz2OAgsgjOW

Let me just say a few things guys.

When I say to my Parliamentary colleagues and to the people at large across Australia that I would not challenge for the Labor leadership - I believe in honouring my word.

Others treat such commitments lightly. I do not.

I’ve been very plain about that for a long period of time.
Secondly, I said that the only circumstances under which I would consider a return to the leadership would be if there was an overwhelming majority of the Parliamentary Party requesting such a return – drafting me to return. And the position was vacant.

I am here to inform you that those circumstances do not exist. And therefore in the absence of any such draft, notwithstanding what Simon Crean had to say this morning, I will be adhering absolutely to the commitments I gave to the Australian people and to my Parliamentary colleagues.

This is a difficult day for the Australian Labor Party – a difficult day for the Australia Government but I take my word seriously. I’ve given that word, I gave it solemnly in that room after the last ballot and I will adhere to that word today.

I therefore suggest to all and sundry across the Party and the Government that we unite in ensuring Tony Abbott does not simply treat the Lodge as if it’s his own personal property. We’re a Government with a proud record in health and education and the economy a record upon which we should robustly stand.

But I am not prepared to dishonour my word which I gave solemnly. I will therefore adhere to that word as I have said before.

And excuse me I am going to Caucus.

Ruddies pulled out :(

-PB

He didn't pull out, he honoured his commitment to not challenge.

I'd say good on him, but that's horse shit. He knows the whole party is condemned to failure in this election, so he sits by and lets it happen, Gillard steps down and he takes back leadership of the party without having to look like a conniving arsehole and stab anyone in the back, he waits for Abbott to put his foot in his mouth (which he inevitably will), calls for a vote of no-confidence and becomes PM again in the ensuing election.

Don't for a moment think that Rudd is going to let this go. He's far too clever for that.

Does anybody else feel like that yesterdays events were a bit rehearsed and organized? Labor had a big leadership monkey to get off it's back leading up to this election. A few back room deals with K.Rudd and S.Crean, in theory this could have all been planned.

He didn't pull out, he honoured his commitment to not challenge.

I'd say good on him, but that's horse shit. He knows the whole party is condemned to failure in this election, so he sits by and lets it happen, Gillard steps down and he takes back leadership of the party without having to look like a conniving arsehole and stab anyone in the back, he waits for Abbott to put his foot in his mouth (which he inevitably will), calls for a vote of no-confidence and becomes PM again in the ensuing election.

Don't for a moment think that Rudd is going to let this go. He's far too clever for that.

Video


THE Government is facing further chronic instability after highly respected Resources Minister Martin Ferguson joined an anti-Gillard rump on the back bench.

Mr Ferguson, a supporter of the Kevin Rudd challenge which didn't happen Thursday afternoon, quit his job with criticisms of the Prime Minister's leadership.

He attacked the changes to the mining tax, claiming he had received assurances the original - which he helped negotiate - would not be altered. Mr Fetguson revealed he had considered resigning from the Gillard ministry back then.

He also blasted the "class warfare" approach of the Gillard government.

Human Services Minister Kim Carr - demoted in February last year for supporting Mr Rudd - joined him in the expanding group of former ministers.

Senator Kim Carr departed saying Mr Rudd had been the "best opportunity" for a Labor victory at the September 14 election, a clear stab at Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

"You don't have to be a scholar to work out we have a great challenge ahead," said Senator Carr.

The list of Kevin Rudd backers who have left senior offices also includes former Tertiary Education Minister Chris Bowen and foreign affairs parliamentary secretary Richard Marles (who resigned), former Regional Development Minister Simon Crean (who was sacked) and Mr Rudd.

Government Whip Joel Fitzgibbon and his junior Whips have also quit or are expected to quit.

Their departures from the Gillard inner group underline that Kevin Rudd's ambitions were not the major problem for the government but a symptom of that problem. There remains significant discontent with the government's course.

Martin Ferguson was considered by the resources industry a sympathetic and knowledgeable minister. He was able to smooth over some of the battles between the Government and the miners.

One senior lobbyist for the industry, on hearing of his resignation, was seen by news.com.au telling industry clients on a mobile phone, "We're f---ed."

news.com.au can reveal that on Tuesday night Mr Ferguson went to the office of Mr Crean -- a fellow former president of the ACTU -- and discussed the leadership.

Kevin Rudd spent an hour with Mr Crean the same night.

On Thursday Mr Crean triggered the leadership ballot which, to the surprise of many of his supporters, Kevin Rudd refused to contest.

He today attacked Mr Rudd for not fulfilling his "obligation" to stand.

Prime Minister Gillard survived Thursday with her authority reinforced when there was no rival for her job, but today faces the need for an extensive ministerial reshuffle after desertions and sackings among her minister.

Kevin Rudd today said he would never be Prime Minister and said Ms Gillard would lead the party into the September 14 election.

He also explained why - after almost a week of agitation by his supporters - he did not stand against Ms Gillard: He did not have the numbers.



Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national-news/martin-ferguson-resignation-a-big-blow/story-fncynjr2-1226603643337#ixzz2OFuS6Arx

Ferguson: no more class war, reckless spending or politics of hate
11 Comments | Permalink Andrew Bolt Blog
Andrew Bolt
MARCH
22
2013
(7:16pm)

Now ex-Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, who was one of the few adults in the Labor Ministry, quits with some excellent advice - advice that would appeal to many conservatives horrified by Julia Gillard’s divisive leadership and reckless spending:

Life is about embracing people you don’t always agree with, arguing the issues out and respecting their views…

I simply ask that as a result of the events of the last couple of days that my party in making a fresh start reclaims the legacy of the Hawke and Keating governments of being a reforming government, a government that governs for all Australians…

I also hope that the party finally learns from some of the mistakes that we incurred during the debate over the mining tax in 2010. You don’t have to agree but you need to consult, argue it out and work out a balance in society. That’s what I learned as a young trade union official – what is the compromise, how do you maintain the capacity of that employed to keep employing people and creating wealth? ...

There is an opportunity for a fresh start. The only way we will regain our electoral momentum is not to just focus on class war rhetoric, with a focus on prosperity, investment, jobs and training for Australians…

The mining dispute, we created our own mess because of a failure to consult. We then saw from Treasury the marketing advertising campaign focused on class war and in my opinion once that started we lost our capacity to get an earlier and better outcome from those negotiations…

... the debacle in my opinion over communications policies reinforces why we have to have another look at our Cabinet policies, processes. The same way in which I think we’ve got the process on the mining dispute wrong…

A modern Labor Party and I might say, a modern trade union movement should appeal to all Australians....

Life’s about a bit of give and take. I don’t think we have had a big enough commitment collectively to try and work out what’s possible in the given circumstances. I actually handled the social justice package right through the accord, led those discussions on behalf of Bill and everything we did, we also had to help find the savings, the means testing, the targeting, the family payments, the additional family payments, the access to childcare etcetera, we were part of making the hard decisions. I don’t think that is what’s occurring at the moment. It’s all ask, and no give and take.

... After the election of Latham, I largely stood back from a lot of the internal affairs of the Labor Party which is the right thing because I was most disappointed with my party on that occasion. Not reflecting on Mark or trying to reopen wounds, we should have been more mature at the time. There was a ballot based on hatred and we paid the price as a party.


I’ve long wished for a Labor Party led by the likes of Ferguson.


:*


   php/heraldsun/comments/ferguson_no_more_class_war_reckless_spending_or_politics_of_hate/

[
More ministers abandon Prime Minister Julia Gillard's sinking ship
Simon Benson and Gemma Jones The Daily Telegraph March 23, 2013 12:00AM
I
THE Gillard government lurched from chaos to crisis yesterday as three more ministers fell on their swords in the wake of the botched attempt to roll the Prime Minister.

Cabinet ministers Chris Bowen and Martin Ferguson and senior minister Kim Carr resigned as the executive of the government collapsed around Julia Gillard.

Cabinet minister Mark Butler, another Rudd supporter, was last night refusing to budge but sources close to the Prime Minister warned he could be dumped if he didn't.

As the fallout from Thursday's failed coup continued to rain down on the Labor Party, Kevin Rudd declared he would never seek the leadership.

But, with Julia Gillard today attending a wedding of one of her staffers in Byron Bay, a new threat to her leadership emerged.

Labor independent Craig Thomson said he would be meeting with fellow cross-benchers over the coming weeks to decide the fate of the government.

IT was like watching Homeland's Sgt Nicholas Brody trying to detonate his suicide vest inside a bunker on the Ten TV series Homeland.
A motion of no confidence in the government will be put to the parliament by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott when parliament returns for the May Budget.

"We will see where the dust settles before I make further comment," Mr Thomson said.

It is understood independents Andrew Wilkie and Tony Windsor have suggested privately they would have no problem going to an early election. Neither, however, would want to be responsible for triggering it.

Mr Wilkie, Mr Windsor, and NSW independent Rob Oakeshott have said they would support debate on the motion but have not committed to how they would vote on the motion itself, with the exception of Mr Windsor, who said he would not support bringing down a government.

With Ms Gillard urged to quickly reshuffle her front bench, minister after minister who had pledged support for Kevin Rudd to return to the leadership announced their resignations.


The political death toll of Thursday's failed coup has claimed five members of Ms Gillard's executive, including three cabinet ministers, a senior minister, a parliamentary secretary and also the three government whips.

Yesterday the opposition also called for Foreign Minister Bob Carr's head, for his reported support for Mr Rudd, despite his absence from parliament.

Mr Bowen, Mr Carr and Mr Ferguson said Mr Rudd had come very close to the 51 votes required. Mr Bowen, the member for the southwest Sydney seat of McMahon, who Mr Rudd yesterday labelled a future prime minister, said: "I didn't think I could sustainably serve in the cabinet."

Describing Simon Crean's actions as a "spontaneous combustion" Mr Rudd claimed his camp had been caught off guard. He conceded he had failed to get the numbers to convince him to run: "I asked them , 'What are the prospects of us obtaining a significant majority'. Their collective response was zero."



http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/more-ministers-abandon-prime-minister-julia-gillards-ship/story-e6freuy9-1226603823984

The only thing here that I question is will Gillard step down? I simply cannot see her doing it.

who cares

JULIA Gillard's personal standing has crashed to a 19-month low and Tony Abbott is clearly back in front as the nation's preferred prime minister after Labor's "appalling" two weeks of political and policy failure.

Labor's primary vote has slumped five points to a disastrous 30 per cent after a fortnight ending with an aborted leadership spill and mass cabinet resignations, with one in two voters now siding with the Coalition.

The collapse in the Labor vote has completely wiped out the party's recovery in the second half of last year, which was built on the back of the carbon tax compensation, and has entrenched the prospect of a landslide vote against the ALP in the election scheduled for September 14. After taking into account preference flows, federal Labor's support is eight percentage points below its level at the 2010 election, at 42 per cent - a swing that if replicated in September would remove about 30 Labor MPs and could even put Kevin Rudd's Queensland seat of Griffith at risk.


The Prime Minister said yesterday she was appalled at Labor's "self-indulgence" during last week's leadership bid, which was brought on after the party's proposed media laws collapsed. She declared she wanted to show "self-belief" and that Labor's "eyes" would be on the "Australian people". But the latest Newspoll survey, taken exclusively for The Australian on the weekend, shows voter satisfaction with Ms Gillard down six percentage points to 26 per cent in the past two weeks.

Dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister rose eight points to 65 per cent, her worst personal ratings since September 2011 when she hit a record low satisfaction level of 23 per cent. There is now more than twice the number of voters dissatisfied with the way Ms Gillard is doing her job as Prime Minister than satisfied after a steady 12-point fall in satisfaction since January and a sharper rise of 16 points in dissatisfaction during the same period.

On the question of who would make the better prime minister, Ms Gillard's support dropped seven percentage points to 35 per cent, its lowest since October 2011, while Mr Abbott's support jumped five points to 43 per cent, his highest since September 2011.

It is the second time in three Newspoll surveys since February that Mr Abbott has enjoyed a clear lead over Ms Gillard as preferred prime minister. The Liberal leader's personal support has also hit its highest level since September 2011, rising three points in the past two weeks to 39 per cent as dissatisfaction fell five percentage points to 50 per cent.

Mr Abbott's voter satisfaction has steadily risen 11 points since December, while dissatisfaction has fallen 13 points since September last year, when it reached a record high 63 per cent.

The government's primary vote of 30 per cent - just one point above the range that some Labor MPs said would trigger a leadership spill - is the lowest since July last year and erases the recovery that began with the payment of billions of dollars in compensation to low-income households for carbon tax price rises.

The Coalition's primary vote during the past two weeks of Labor infighting and policy failure over media laws rose six percentage points to 50 per cent, the highest since April last year. Greens' support was virtually unchanged on 10 per cent, with the same percentage supporting independents and "others".

Based on preference flows at the 2010 election, the Coalition's two-party-preferred vote rose six points to a 12-month high of 58 per cent while Labor's fell to 42 per cent. At the 2010 election, when Labor lost majority government, the ALP's support was 50.1 per cent to the Coalition's 49.9 per cent.

If there were a uniform national swing of 8.1 per cent against Labor, at least five ministers would lose their seats - Wayne Swan, new Resources Minister Gary Gray, School Education Minister Peter Garrett, Trade Minister Craig Emerson and Defence Minister Stephen Smith. The newly appointed Parliamentary Secretary for the Arts, Michael Danby, would also lose his Melbourne seat.

The NSW Right, including the former tertiary education minister Chris Bowen, would be cleared out. Newly promoted cabinet member Jason Clare would survive, as would Left leader Anthony Albanese. Kevin Rudd could be in danger but the two ministers who left cabinet last week - Simon Crean and Martin Ferguson - would retain their seats.

Anticipating an immediate slump in the polls after the damaging internal brawl last week, Ms Gillard said the government had to "get up every day determined to win the only political contest in Australian life that matters, and that is the contest between the government and the opposition come 14 September".

"That contest is about whether or not on 15 September I will lead a majority Labor government or Mr Abbott will lead a Liberal government focused on taking money out of the hands of Australian families, cutting jobs and cutting services," she said.

Mr Abbott said it had obviously been "a bad week for the government and frankly a bad week for Australia last week when you had two of the most respected people in the Labor Party . . . say that what our country needs right now is consultation, due process and above all else, a Labor government in the tradition of the Hawke-Keating government".

"I humbly request the government to learn the lessons of last week, to . . . try to put behind it the dissension, the bitterness and above all else the division of the last few months and years," he said.

What's the lowest ever approval poll?