This is what Nicola Roxon was saying about the Rudd era.
Roxon says on Valentine’s Day 2010, the then prime minister decided he wanted to take over the entire health system. He gave four days’ notice and had no legal advice or even a cabinet submission.
“On another occasion he suggested to us actually having a referendum about taking over the health system, having it at the same time as the 2010 election, knowing full well and agreeing that that referendum would be lost but thought it would be a good tool to be able to win the election,” Roxon told Sky News.
Hang on. Here is the Health Policy that Rudd took to the 2007 election.
if by the middle of 2009 the State and Territory have not begun implementing a national reform plan, a Rudd Labor Government will seek a mandate from the Australian people at the following election for the Commonwealth to assume full funding responsibility for the nation’s public hospitals.
The assumption of Commonwealth funding for all public hospitals would require a parallel reduction in Commonwealth outlays to the States and Territories at the point of transfer. There would therefore be no windfall gain of any description to the states and territories.
If necessary, Federal Labor will also consider the possibility of conducting a national plebiscite or referendum at the following federal election on the question of any proposed Commonwealth takeover.
Rudd didn’t suddenly decide to take over the system – he more or less always planned to do so. What surprises me is that there had been no planning to implement a policy that had been taken to the 2007 election. The lack of papers and legal advice doesn’t reflect on Rudd, it reflects on the lack of planning in Roxon’s department. Mind you, good on her for being incompetent, a federal take over was a terrible idea. Had she actually prepared to implement actual election policy, the idea may have come to a referendum.
Who’d have thunk it; a Labor Minister, obviously unable to recall macro elements of a significant policy presented to the electorate, rewriting history to suit a new purpose, being the evisceration of someone she supported and promoted into the Prime Ministership. Liars all.
Brett
25 Feb 12 at 9:26 am
So Roxon lets us know in her own words that she’s a liar and an idiot.
Gee, we never would have picked that up without her telling us.
Worst government since Federation.
Mk50 of Brisbane
25 Feb 12 at 9:32 am
Nice pick up, Sinc. Good to see someone’s awake.
Mother Hubbard's Dog
25 Feb 12 at 9:50 am
These buffoons should be endlessly doorstopped on this sort of thing.
I’d like to think there might be a media proprietor or two who are beginning to wonder why that isn’t happening.
lotocoti
25 Feb 12 at 9:54 am
This awful woman may yet end up shovelled onto the Federal or High Court bench for her efforts. The least she’ll get for being Attorney General is a Queens Counselette.
‘Twas such a fabulous idea thrusting wimmenses into political leadership jobs, because they were wimmenses and better at stuff. Gees it changed things for the better, eh?
Mick Gold Coast QLD
25 Feb 12 at 9:56 am
As noted in the OT, the ALP vote is steady or up in every poll taken since the Rudd resignation. That’s right their primary vote has improved and the coalition fallen in nearly every poll.
The public is rewarding this behaviour. Surely the ALP cant believe its luck. The public will deserve the government they will knowingly vote for – one of petty hatreds, lies, dysfunction and narcissism.
Abbott had better beware, unless this is some kind of aberration, then Abbott is finished. If he goes backwards in the polls after the ALP’s recent behaviour then even I will accept that he is unelectable.
John Comnenus
25 Feb 12 at 9:58 am
Well said, lotocoti.
One suspects most of these so-called journalists would have difficulty finding work anywhere else in the world. Poor research, inability to think on their feet, little knowledge of history, and blinkered by partisan loyalty or activism inevitably lead to their interviewees becoming mere props in the continuing narrative.
James of the Glen
25 Feb 12 at 10:17 am
Roxon, Rockson in her head. Regardless of Mondays outcome Gillard,Roxon,Swan,Crean,Smith and others have Shortenen the odds for SHORTEN
Ari
25 Feb 12 at 10:28 am
What the thing really tells us is that the ALP came up with a bunch of policy ideas that were uncosted, not thought through, and when they actually won the election, they had no idea on how to tackle them. Oh, they did the easy ones like an apology and signing the Kyoto agreement, and they put serious work into the new industrial relations policy that their union masters had paid good money for. But when that was done all that was left was a lot of hot air promises and no planning or background work. Things like the NBN, the State health takeover, the computers in schools -on and on it goes.
What is clear from this is that, most of the way through their first term they still hadn’t explored their fundamental election promises, and the minister for health had no idea what she was meant to be doing.
brc
25 Feb 12 at 10:29 am
Rudd always did nothing in a hurry.
Max Scream
25 Feb 12 at 10:43 am
Exactly:
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/rudd_insider_reports_from_the_heart_of_darkness/desc/P0/
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/staffers_desert_a_ship_that_may_be_sinking/desc/P0/
And she presumes to flay Rudd for management failures. For sheer gall, can anyone top Roxon?
Ivan Denisovich
25 Feb 12 at 11:32 am
Why plan for a takeover that Rudd had no intention of executing?
Max Scream
25 Feb 12 at 11:49 am
Then why did he propose it?
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s2013516.htm
David Elson
25 Feb 12 at 12:47 pm
He proposed it because it sounds dramatic, decisive and makes him seem in charge. It was also a bargaining position.
The reality is that he had no intention of implementing the policy and also no way of getting around opposition to it.
Max Scream
25 Feb 12 at 12:51 pm
Nurse Roxon is equally culpable for any errors in health and hospital policy. She was tramping around those public hospital wards with the Ruddster, both dressed in fetching blue scrubs.
Sure the whole thing was a complete schemozzle – badly thought out, incapable of execution. But she WAS the relevant minister. Suck it up, Princess, you are equally at fault.
Judith Sloan
25 Feb 12 at 1:33 pm
While that less than useful idiot Conroy will end up causing Australia more economic damage than any other individual once the final bill for the NBN is known, Roxon and Wong are probably the most morally superior, we-know-better-than-you Labor Ministers that personify everything that is wrong with the socialist left.
Roxon and Swan have damaged their extremely limited credibility more than anyone.
H B Bear
25 Feb 12 at 2:51 pm
All this love for Rudd seems grounded in a desire to have the weakest Labor candidate possible.
Max Scream
25 Feb 12 at 2:57 pm
Rudd spent so much time agonizing over health policy in the first half of 2010 that he completely neglected the Henry tax review, the need (from Labor’s perspective) for something to replace the CPRS and the the 2010 budget. For an insider’s perspective on the shambles, see http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin-20120224-1ttxx.html
Mother Hubbard's Dog
25 Feb 12 at 5:38 pm
Gillard is the weakest candidate possible.
It would be a violation of the laws of nature to have a weaker candidate. Max, you’re deluded. presumably you live in the alternate reality known as Canberra political circles.
daddy dave
25 Feb 12 at 7:17 pm
Never judge a leader by his or her opponents.
Max Scream
25 Feb 12 at 11:28 pm
Roxon reminds me of those mid level manager types you get at Telstra or Qantas… they arent qualified to do your job, but that doesnt stop them telling you how to do it…
This chick is a category 4 person.. hardworking enough to be able to really f*&ck things up.. but not smart enough to get herself out of the mess that she creates…
“wouldnt work for Kevin Rudd again” sweetheart, you wouldnt work with an iron lung!!!!!!!
Lats
27 Feb 12 at 12:30 am