Gillard’s leadership intact, but her wrecked party is not
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A very tough Julia Gillard came through today’s spill with her leadership intact. But what’s the damage done to the ALP, and how on earth can the party come back from this to win the election?
There are probably very few people left who still doubt Julia Gillard’s toughness. Today, she was required to yet again demonstrate it, on a day in which she delivered a heartfelt and deeply moving apology for forced adoptions, faced a defection from one of her strongest supporters (and the man who first awarded her a shadow ministry), and walked into question time knowing her leadership would be on the line a couple of hours later.
But she has emerged unbloodied and certainly unbowed after her chief rival Kevin Rudd declined to bring it on. Time and again the media and her critics have thrown deadlines, challenges and demands at her and she has kept her head and her job as prime minister.
Labor’s problems, however, remain. Its vote remains at a level likely to see it wrecked at the forthcoming election. It remains divided between a hard core of Rudd supporters, a broader group of Gillard supporters and a group of undecideds deeply worried about their fate at the polls.
“The result was a non-spill, and two former leaders now sitting on the backbench, and the impression of a party focused only on itself.”
And most of all, the party now looks even more shambolic after Simon Crean sought to resolve the leadership dilemma by abandoning the Prime Minister, calling for a spill and urging Rudd to stand with himself as deputy leader. Rudd declined to do so. The result was a non-spill, and two former leaders now sitting on the backbench, and the impression of a party focused only on itself.
The adamantine Gillard may have survived more than comfortably, and declared that the leadership has now been resolved (again), but that is unlikely to quiet the leadership speculation from the press, which has relentlessly focused on the leadership and the party’s polling regardless of the fact that the Rudd camp has never had the numbers since Rudd so decisively lost the previous leadership ballot in February last year.
The ultimate beneficiaries, thus, are Tony Abbott and the media, who will continue to have a divided and weakened Labor to run against and speculate about. It is unlikely to prove the circuit-breaker that Crean was desperate to create with his intervention.
MPs now take a long break between now and the budget in May, which is intended to shape Labor’s election strategy (in contrast to usual election-year budgets) by identifying structural savings that will pay for the NDIS — which passed into law this week, if anyone was paying attention — and the Gonski school funding reforms. Likely, it will be again turned into a “crucial test for Gillard” by the media and internal critics.
And you can go a join the rest of the gormless, witless, gutless and testes free trash up your own fundamental orifice.
She has been forensically examined like no other human in history, and the pathetic trash that call for this examination are incapable of comprehending the obvious.
She is 52% of the current Australian population and nearly 60% of those eligible to vote. Something the gutless wonders who cannot handle a woman in power fail every time to realise.
Old white men lost it for the nutbags in America and, thankfully, because of the same nutbags in the press and opposition here, they will lose it here too. They lost it again today.
So we have a government that has kept Australia with one of the most stable and healthy economies in the world, a media that has convinced the constituency to believe that Australia has an unstable government who has wrecked our economy and destroyed our quality of life, an opposition party that has been historically accepted as being economically safer but with a leadership that seems to have no economic clue on how to lead Australia into the futre… The result is a deeply unpopular government leading a nation that is in rude health when compared to most of the western world, and a government that has decided to follow the media lead and tear itself apart.
Oh Democracy!
(or is that Tabloid Democracy?)
Today has not shown anyone up in a positive light, but it would be nice to know that if we are to be afflicted with the LNP, we know what they are supposed to be putting forward as policies. If they have any …
At least the current Government is letting that sort of policy show, even if it gets messed up in the process.
How about you start looking at the oppposition parties and their leaders in the same forensic manner that the ALP and PM Gillard has been scrutinised?
While the media runs the Labor party, who’s running the country?
Gillards unanimous win (again) is far more conclusive than Abbotts one vote win.
Kevin Tyerman - well said. Low inflation, low unemployment, low interest rates, low debt to GDP ratio and multi-buillions dollars investment.
The Libs and their right wing media supporters would have us believe we are worse off than Greece etc
When are you mob going to grow a pair and examine the hollow t&rd that is the loto?
There was the government, chewing its own arm off in parliament, and he could not get enough for a game of cards let alone change of government.
If he was forced to explain what he was doing beating women 20 years ago and to defend his “leadership” like she has been, he would be lucky to get a job at all. All he knows is being a parasite.
Well for all the inane, foolish rantings of what passes for “the media” in this fortunate country of ours…..
….I thought Boadicea looked pretty darn good today.
The media were feral and hysterical as usual.
(A hung Parliament obviously offers far too rich a menu for their limited gaze and pathetically short attention span.)
Tony Abbott can feel deeply relieved, that his appalling performance at the apology to the mothers and children who suffered from forced adoptions, was ignored in all the “leadership” fuss.
Meanwhile, I suspect that the “average punter” might look at the scoreboard and see Julia 3 Kevin 0
Roll on to the budget and we’ll see what Sept 14 brings.
Pamplona Olé! ….. by the way, what happens to those bulls…?
Your above article says, “… but that is unlikely to quiet the leadership speculation from the press, which has relentlessly focused on the leadership”. “The press”? Crikey, that’s YOU isn’t it? Now that the media (that’s also you isn’t it?)has forced another challenge would there be any chance of you actually DOING something? Isn’t there a fire engine for you to chase? If not perhaps you could just invent one. After months of, if not inventing then certainly provoking political leadership challenges, a fire engine should be a piece of cake shouldn’t it?
DrMick, I think today’s events amply demonstrated that one does not need to possess a pair of male gonads to demonstrate courage or, as we used to say politely in Austrlia, intestinal fortitude. Keep your crass americanisms about “growing a pair” to yourself.
your analysis relies on rudd’s ambition, even though he constantly denies any intent to challenge. what if he’s sincere? i know, it sounds naive, but he could be , and crean’s gambit as you call it, could be simply a successful attempt to diffuse the issue. he called a spill. nobody challenged. end of media story perhaps, although the print media at least will not buy that. strange to call a spill to ostensibly promote rudd and not bother to inform him. doesn’t make any sense really. maybe you’ve got it wrong.m.
Simon Crean as Gillard’s catspaw?
I know, I know, it’s too absurd to be true.
I believe the score is Gillard 1 MSM 0
They cannot credibly report leadersh*t for the next 6 - 9 weeks, surely?
3 Whips whipped with #WhippedCrean
I (probably naively) still think that Labor can win at the next election, and today’s fracas is as good a place as any to start - but it needs a Labor front bench hell bent on tearing the LNP a new one on every point. Economy, health, education, infrastructure, media, the works. This needs evangelical zeal. They need to be exposed as the economically illiterate, barely self aware puppets of the various interest groups they represent.
Sadly, it won’t happen. NSW Labor and the various other factions within the party have put paid to any “intestinal fortitude” that might have been possessed by the Parliamentary Labour party.
As an aside - the general tenor of many of the posts here is that of pointing the finger at the media (Crikey included) and deservedly so. Although BK is probably one of the more even-handed journos I read, the feeding frenzy mentality of the press and other hacks in regard to this drawn out, tedious spectacle is breathtaking! This too, is likely to be ever thus, as how the feck is one able to bring to account someone who always has the last word?
As DrK said of Golda Meier, Julia Gillard is the best man in the Parliament.
She continues to win the confidence of her Party, the government she LEADS is governing and the country is the envy of the western world.
The common might say the Power Fox is back but that would be lese majeste, all hail the return of la Reine Ranga.
The lady’s not for turning. It worked for that one, too.
OMG! She is good! Now lets see the gormless worms turn. Time to develop a spine boys and girls of the ALP and get in the trenches with PM Gillard! I would follow her through a wall!
Reading through the above comments (especially the last one), I have come to the conclusion that you are all living in a parallel universe! It matters not a jot that the caucus supports our current PM. They don’t need to “grow a pair”. Rather, they all need to grow a brain!! Like lemmings to the cliff edge, they seem not to care about the disaster that awaits them on September 14th.
Elections are all about the NUMBERS, in voting terms, and she doesn’t have, and never will have the right set. The facts are that somewhere around 70% of electors have said, on every occasion they have been polled, that they will not vote Labor with Gillard at the helm. By contrast, some 60%+ would vote Labor if Kevin Rudd was leader.
Apparently this mob of gutless wonders in caucus don’t care that they have just handed the rAbbott a landslide victory. The rest of us can just suffer the consequences of their failure to act today.
I hope they all go down in a screaming heap as payback for their total failure to understand what they have done. I am very, very angry with the Labor party tonight.
Achmed,
Abbott was elected leader unopposed in the last Liberal leadership spill.
David - he was elected by a “majority” of one vote - peter Slippers
David he was opposed by Hockey and Turnbull and got over the line with Slippers vote.
Something I know Slipper now regrets.
Growing a pair is a maturation thing not an american thing. Today demonstrated a lot more than those who had a pair and those that didn’t; in the press & on both sides of parliament we saw gutlessness on display and no one in the press will call it for what it was and what it is; their beat up.
This whole farce has been cooked up by lazy, scoop-obsessed journalists mesmerized by opinion polls, and their puffed up self-importance as opinion-makers. How the 24/7 media cycle responds to the ‘gotcha’ issues of the day has become a key determinant of who leads this country. The poor bloody politicians are running around in ever-diminishing circles trying to keep up. Politics for grown-ups doesn’t sell. I have unsubscribed from Fairfax papers, have thought News Ltd is only good for wrapping rubbish for a long time, and I’m seriously contemplating dumping you lot. A pox on all your houses.
Didn’t Hawke survive a leadership challenge about 10 days before he was rolled? In all this talk, the fact remains that 27 opinion polls in a row show the the PM remains un-electable and Government is headed for cataclysmic defeat.
A great victory?
@ Damien - Absolutely correct. If the current situation continues, the Labor party will be destroyed. The “grown-ups” are all missing!
I blame Gillard and the gutless wonders she leads. This morning’s news seems to be that she is vindictive as well. What does she think getting rid of all the Rudd supporters from the ministry will achieve? Worse polls, that’s what!
I believe the Australian press, by and large, is not looking quite high enough up the conspiracy tree.
Could it be that this whole thing was concocted to neutralise one of Abbott’s main weapons against Labor? The fact that the “leadership challenge” only had one contender pretty much puts pay to Gillard being undermined as leader between here and September - at least by the Libs.
Had Rudd put his hand up, and lost (or won) the problem of an apparent “party in disarray” remains. So, like Hawke, Rudd just scratched his ear.
I reckon the whole thing was a put up job. Call a challenge, have Rudd not turn up, problem solved. (The 2014 Academy Award for Script writing goes to…….)
Now Abbott will be forced to take on POLICIES and not the Party or personalities.
The truth is the sad fact that Australia is far too good for the politicians we have. This applies to any side of politics, Federal or State. We are not the only democracy facing this problem. Politics is no longer Glamour Profession and the standard has been steadily falling for decades. Young lawyers are tending to stay in law – perish the thought.
If you think back on the elections that have been held in Australia over the past few decades the incumbents have lost elections, rather than the opposition at the time, winning. There is a significant difference.
All political parties have their arguments and internal disputes. The difference between the Labs and the Libs is that the Libs are good at keeping their dirty washing behind closed doors.
Throw in Rupert, and like-minded people, and things get very distorted.
Labor, Liberal, Greens. I doubt we could get a decent government if we could chose one Australian government from all the Federal (and State) pollies.
Julia Gillard isn’t tough. She is courageous.
This whole Labor response is insane. The issue is the unpopularity of the Prime Minister. The consequence is a pending election loss. Rather than just giving up how about doing something about it. Doing something is not about blaming the press or Tony Abbott or Rudd or Crean or assigning anyone who questions the direction of the party to the back bench. Doing something is about generating hope for the future. Without hope there is nothing. A minister with his head between his tails headed for the backbench is a sure sign of hopelessness. Where are the brains that came up with Kevin07 - it did not have to deliver anything except hope - and hope wins elections - that is what I am talking about.
” Blood will get blood” Macbeth
Kind of amusing to hear senior (and presumably well-paid)journos solemnly telling us that this was kevin Rudd’s 3rd challenge to Julia Gillard. Really? 3? The first time he was challenged. The second time Julia brought a vote on when it suited her. Third time? You’d hardly consider Simon Crean’s call for a spill to be “supporting” Kevin Rudd. He urged Rudd to stand but I suspect with the view that he lose.
The MSM coverage of the events has been hysterical as usual.
DRMICK: Well said.
Once upon a time Australians admired an underdog. Because Julia Gillard is a female underdog she is condemned, vilified and rubbished by A) The Murdoch press B) The gutless old men of her own Party.
I have to include the following quote by Mungo MacCallum….
“A newcomer took his place in the House and looked across the chamber. ‘There they are,’ he breathed. ‘The enemy.’ An old hand sitting nearby smiled sardonically: ‘No son, that’s the opposition. The enemy are the ones sitting all around you.’
THE BOSTON TERRIER: Ummm, no,I don’t think politicians in Oz go that deeply into philosophy. Don’t know.
Sadly Venise, you are correct.
CML. Please do not support the non labor voters skewing the poll! that was never a question that has any relevance, nor is “would I vote LNP if Turnbull were leader?”
I vote for policy and a party, and a local member as does every Australian in this democracy. This shift to USA/Presidential direct vote,Personality politics is directly related to the MSM/ABC Commentariate (opinionists by definition “not reporters”) not backed by facts and definitely not without fear or favour. Secondly internal labour party polling has a huge preference for PM Gillard.
The directed hate and white-anting is coming from the old guard of Richardson and Co because she won’t “obey” them ie. install an Eddie Obeid? corrupt policy? The poisoner of democracy has form. The ALP has to reform and I see this as an opportunity for the principled in the ALP to stand firm against the blackmail from within the ALP and without LNP/MSM/ABC,
No, I do not believe that this ALP PM Gillard Government has been perfect, but factual record of the progress that ALP have made is there for all to read. This is not a personality/beauty contest. Record of policy direction and effectiveness is a Fact. Richardson should have been deleted from the ALP ten years ago. He is stooge used by the MSM to denigrate and demean the ALP and democracy.His commentary is directly used to aid and abet the undermining the Democracy, decency, humanity, egalitarianism, and supports trial by media, undermining the Rule of Law.
GF50: I hate to suggest this but, surely the electorate votes for the candidates/party they think will do the least harm?