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Rudd vs. Gillard

Rii

Rii

Rear Admiral
Gillard!

The grounds have been swept, the weapons polished in their racks, and the challenge set for 9:00am tomorrow morning. And the question hangs in the air: is Australia about to have its first female Prime Minister?


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Pictured: Carefree days.

Kevin Rudd's leadership was hanging by a thread last night after his support base vanished following a push to oust him led by Right factional operators in Victoria and South Australia.

He announced late tonight he would put his leadership to the vote in caucus tomorrow at 9am. He said the vote came after a request from his deputy, Julia Gillard.

Ms Gillard has growing support among the caucus of 115 MPs and senators and an increasing number of factions.

[....]

She met with Mr Rudd last night but her office said it was just a routine scheduled meeting, the third between the pair yesterday. But the meeting was joined by senior ministers, including Anthony Albanese, Wayne Swan and Lindsay Tanner.

It was understood Ms Gillard was reluctant to have a messy challenge and it is understood there were efforts being made to push Mr Rudd to stand down.
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I bet Kevin is wishing he didn't make such a song and dance about casting aside the factional warlords, since they're now camping outside the party room with baseball bats.

My bet's on Julia. But I'm not exactly unbiased - I love that woman!


Edited to add: Gillard is the top trending topic, worldwide, on Twitter at the moment.
 
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I'm very , very angry about this. It is exactly this same crap that has completely white-anted the NSW Govt. Mealy-mouthed backbenchers worried about their pensions. Pricks. This will completely undermine the election (or at least a good chance that will happen) and l;eave the country open rto the predations of the Mad Monk. Imagine for a moment if HE gets in!

So very angry about petty backstabbing, ego and backbench whining.

Bloody, bloody politics!
 
The Sydney Morning Herald clearly flies a jib that is the same colour as the jib that I would fly. If I owned a yacht:

KEVIN RUDD will fight to the death after refusing to step aside last night and instead accepting a leadership challenge by his deputy, Julia Gillard
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"I will totally fuck up your shit."

Gecko of Gorn said:
I hadn't noticed until now just how dainty and small our PM's hands were.
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That's it; he's gotta go. :lol:
 
Or in the tradition of Brown and Martin, she'll bully out the PM, take over for a bit and then crash and burn spectacularly, taking the party with her.
 
The Punch has a good write up of the situation:

Forgive the analogy but this is the first time I’ve covered an Australian leadership spill from South Africa while holding a vuvuzela. But if Julia Gillard succeeds in her 11th-hour leadership coup it wll be the most inspired last-minute substitution since Timmy Cahill came on in Kaiserslauten against Japan in the 2006 World Cup. Let’s watch those two goals again. Ahhhh.

There’s a consensus in politics that last-minute leadership changes reek of desperation. But this one confirms the cold reality that Labor probably cannot win under Kevin Rudd. It’s likely that the party has research which is deeper and richer than any of the published polls showing the situation is even bleaker than that - that Labor definitely cannot win under Kevin Rudd. This would explain the speed with which so many members of Caucus in key factions such as the NSW Right and Victorian Right have swung behind Gillard to form what looks like a mortal anti-Rudd bloc.

The two areas of greatest weakness for Kevin Rudd are the Julia Gillard’s two greatest strengths. They are communication and policy implementation - kind of crucial in politics, needless to say.

[....]

Gillard has been one of the few ministers who has consistently delivered on policy. She has had her problems with the Building the Education Revolution school spending program but she has admitted those problems. And most voters are balanced enough to realise that they have only affected a minority of the projects. Her biggest success was to stare down the teaching unions to implement the MySchool website. Where Rudd’s record is one of abandonment and vacillation, not just on the ETS but on asylum-seekers, the 2020 Summit, childcare and so on, Gillard’s is one of delivery. [....] The public and the media feels a degree of warmth towards her which Rudd does not enjoy.
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Just occurred to me that it'd be awesome if we wound up with Julia Gillard as PM and Penny Wong as Deputy. Not merely for the 'double female' angle, but because both were born outside Australia: Gillard from Wales and Wong from Malaysia. :lol:

CorporalClegg said:
Is it just me, or is she kinda hot?
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I've always had a thing for short-haired redheads. *bites lip*
 
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I am starting to reach the stage where I don't really give a shit about Australian politics. Can't stand the Liberals and am starting to dislike Labor nearly as much. I actually voted Green in the state election because of the lack of anyone better to vote for.
 
Miss Chicken said:
I am starting to reach the stage where I don't really give a shit about Australian politics. Can't stand the Liberals and am starting to dislike Labor nearly as much. I actually voted Green in the state election because of the lack of anyone better to vote for.
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I'm a Green voter too so I've no real horse in this race. I'm just in it for the theatrics. I've nothing against Rudd per se, but a Gillard takeover makes for a more engaging narrative. :lol:
 
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Prime Minister Julia Gillard



The Chaser as always, was there:

It is now expected that Julia Gillard will become Australia's first ranga Prime Minister.

[....]

Despite the apparent inevitability of defeat tomorrow, in the press conference when he announced the challenge Mr Rudd decided to take a strong stand on principle, saying he would contest the ballot. Rudd is expected to back down from that principle tomorrow.

Rudd told that reporters that him remaining Prime Minister is in the national interest. The nation, by contrast, has expressed substantially more interest in Julia Gillard.

In what may prove to be his last press conference as Labor leader, Mr Rudd said he was proud of his achievements as Prime Minister, and would be stressing them to his colleagues as soon as he receives a detailed report telling him what they were.

[....]

If she becomes PM, Julia Gillard is expected to do a clearout of Rudd's office, sacking dozens of his personal staff a few weeks before they would have resigned anyway. Many Rudd advisers are already planning new lives. "Now I can go back and finish Year 12," said his soon-to-be-ex-Chief-of-Staff Alistair Jordan.
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I don't normally like the Chaser (too cruel sometimes) but that's some funny shit.

As for PM Gillard, I will vote Labor, but only because the alternate, PM Mad Monk, is unthinkable.
 
Wow. I had no idea Rudd was in such hot water.

I hope she does well. We had a female Prime Minister for years and did very well.
 
Candlelight said:
Wow. I had no idea Rudd was in such hot water.
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I don't think he did either. This happened fast.

I suspect Gillard will move to call an election at the earliest possible date; whilst she's still enjoying her honeymoon and to head off any backlash from the public regarding her means of ascension.
 
^ I don't think most Australians would have any idea what would happen over night and this morning would happen today.
 
Candlelight said:
Wow. I had no idea Rudd was in such hot water.

I hope she does well. We had a female Prime Minister for years and did very well.
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Yes but ours is better looking :)

Rii said:
Candlelight said:
Wow. I had no idea Rudd was in such hot water.
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I don't think he did either. This happened fast.

I suspect Gillard will move to call an election at the earliest possible date; whilst she's still enjoying her honeymoon and to head off any backlash from the public regarding her means of ascension.
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Looking at the way Labor was slipping in the polls it was only a matter of time before Rudd was dumped and I think that it's probably a good move.

Not sure Gillard will go to an early election. She's got to sell her self as P.M to the electorate first. I think the Federal Parliament is about to rise (if it hasn't already for the winter recess) which will give her a couple of months to shape things before the next sitting.

Wouldn't surprise me if Rudd announces his retiremet at the next election.
 
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