You may recall the increasingly bizarre behaviour of Kevin Rudd in the final months of his prime ministership. In February 2010 I predicted his demise. Now I predict his restoration.
When Rudd won the Australian of the Year award in January 2010, his good mate, Wayne Swan said
Working closely with Kevin over the past year, I’ve seen just how much the jobs and livelihoods of ordinary Australians have motivated him throughout the global recession. This award is a worthy piece of recognition, although I think he’ll see the most important reward as having several hundred thousand more Australians in work and spared the hardships of unemployment. Knowing Kevin, it will just spur him on to work even harder building the future economy and serving the Australian people.
I now expect that Rudd will succeed in a challenge against Julia Gillard and return as Prime Minister.
I’m not alone in wondering what the people see in Kevin Rudd. I’ve come to the conclusion that the people want Kevin back because they reserve unto themselves the right to kick him out of office. The people were denied that opportunity in the 2010 election, but they will have the opportunity in the 2013 election.
In other words, the people are screwing with the minds of ALP pollies. They will exact their revenge on Rudd in 2013 but in the meantime they are putting irresistable pressure on Labor MPs to bring Kevin back as PM.
Then we will have:
Kevin Rudd. Wins the election on 24 November 2007. Sworn in as Prime Minister on 3 December 2007. Australian of the Year 23 January 2010. Knifed on 23 July 2010. Returns as Prime Minister 15 March 2013. Defeated by Tony Abbott 14 September 2013.
Dont bring Rudd back – he may save Swan’s seat.
Bill
14 Feb 13 at 5:36 pm
If rudd does return (like a monster in a horror movie) the election will not be held on September 14.
Rabz
14 Feb 13 at 5:38 pm
I agree with Rabz – the election will be the following month after Rudd takes the reins
Alby
14 Feb 13 at 5:39 pm
Can be no kevni back without W. Swan going. That makes a PM and a treasurer going – insane politics.
candy
14 Feb 13 at 5:42 pm
I’ve already written the Libs ads:
That’s just what his colleagues and a Godfather of his kid thinks.
Infidel Tiger
14 Feb 13 at 5:44 pm
Looks like the betting markets have discontinued the leader questions.
Sinclair Davidson
14 Feb 13 at 5:45 pm
Wow, are all these dates on the back of the Kevin Rudd tour T-shirt?
And Another Thing
14 Feb 13 at 5:45 pm
All the participants have been nobbled.
Infidel Tiger
14 Feb 13 at 5:46 pm
I agree. I dont see why he is so popular. He has the charisma of a wet sock and little personality. The Dudd has the same politics as Obama (spend OPM) but certainly he has none of Obamas “cool” or “hip” act.
Jock
14 Feb 13 at 5:47 pm
He wasn’t the real Australian of the Year. Just the NewsCorp Australian of the Year which is something quite different
Chris
14 Feb 13 at 5:48 pm
Rudd – Australian of the Year
Holy Crap – how did I miss that one…..have they no shame?
Dianne
14 Feb 13 at 5:48 pm
$2.20 on K Rudd to be Alp leader at election
$1.63 for the communist drone.
Infidel Tiger
14 Feb 13 at 5:48 pm
I don’t believe Kev will challenge.
Julia Gillard will either have to stand down and/or lose a no-confidence in caucus or perform very badly against a stalking horse challenge.
Grey
14 Feb 13 at 5:50 pm
G’Day Kev.
Pickles
14 Feb 13 at 5:52 pm
I’ll say it again. At the slightest whiff of a challange the TLS will be off to the GG. She will go to the next election as PM come hell or high water. She will not have done to her what she did to Rudd. The humiliation….
Sirocco
14 Feb 13 at 5:52 pm
I can’t see Labor turning back to Rudd.
But let’s say he does come back. How will that work? The first Rudd Government had Gillard, Swan and Tanner calling the shots with Rudd. I suspect Tanner was the brains and moderating influence of that group.
A new Rudd PMship would have who? Who will the factions thrust forward to work with Rudd? What would their mission be? Save the furniture or ensure Rudd lost badly?
Ok, it would only have to hold together long enough to go election but it would do so with zero credibility as a Government.
I just can’t see it happening.
Lloyd
14 Feb 13 at 5:54 pm
The “cool” or “hip” act is a black (negro) thing. Maybe Dudd needs some lessons.
Septimus
14 Feb 13 at 5:54 pm
They’d only do it if they thought they could save a few seats, which they might if they went to election straight away. I doubt they think that they actually have a chance of winning. Going early also splits the senate election to next year. Which will make things a bit trickier for Abbott.
Chris
14 Feb 13 at 5:58 pm
Good find IT – I couldn’t find the market before.
Sinclair Davidson
14 Feb 13 at 6:04 pm
It has been an historic government.
Worst in Australian history.
Worst prime minister ever.
Second worst prime minister ever.
Worst Deputy Prime Minister ever.
Worst Treasurer ever.
Worst Attorney-General ever.
Worst Defence Minister ever.
Worst Foreign Minister ever.
Worst immigration minister ever.
Worst Speaker ever.
Worst government leader in the Senate ever.
C.L.
14 Feb 13 at 6:06 pm
Nobody thinks the ALP will win the next election. But there are enough people in denial at the moment about the merits of this present Government. An about face on Rudd would surely rip all of that to shreds.
Lloyd
14 Feb 13 at 6:08 pm
I’m going out on a limb here, but if the AWU affair continues to fly, I think the faceless men will use it as an excuse to ‘politely’ get TLS to resign, even if it never gets near the point of civil or criminal prosecution. They know that TLS is electoral poison, but a direct challenge from Kevin and the resulting round of public backstabbing would not improve matters for them.
squawkbox
14 Feb 13 at 6:10 pm
I’m sure Kevni would like to hang out with the cool kids like he did before.
Especially now Lula isn’t around any more to steal the big dog’s attention!
Good times, good times.
Eddystone
14 Feb 13 at 6:16 pm
Yeah … No.
Yes.
Slight whiff.
Gillard calls election 6th April 2013.
The spite in this person knows no bounds. It’s all about Her.
She will not resign.
Rudiau
14 Feb 13 at 6:16 pm
I don’t agree that ‘people’ want Rudd back just so they can personally clobber him.
Rudd is a populist like no other. He is obsessed with being loved and this obsession informs everything he does.
And it works. The ordinary Joe who completely disconnects himself from politics, except for the few minutes it takes to vote, never thinks about politics.
Most informed people who know Rudd know he is one very strange little man. But that’s not the happy chappy we see on TV.
Joe sees Mr Happy, who does indeed have an air of competence when he’s allowed to rabbit on about being a “fiscal conservative”, for example.
Generally speaking the media class do their best to facilitate the fraud (remember how “surprised” they were when he got knifed? Baloney. They knew he was a disaster and that everyone who worked with him hated his guts; they just couldn’t be bothered doing their job, informing us and damaging their precious Labor Party).
Rudd is a much more dangerous adversary compared to Gillard, particularly seeing that Joe has reservations about Abbott.
I still think Abbott will win, but Rudd will save a lot of Labor MPs their seats, perks and privileges.
When they gather to vote, self interest will trump everything else and they’ll be more interested in saving their backsides than saving their government.
Ant
14 Feb 13 at 6:20 pm
Gawd! He sold himself the first time as a Howard lite–now he’s about to emulate Howard again and do a Lazarus turn. Spare us please!
Jazza
14 Feb 13 at 6:22 pm
If KRuddy gets enough panicked backbenchers over the line, how many Ministers need to resign?
Swan and Gillard – certainties
Roxon – gone already
Conroy and Burke – high probability
Shorten – should but probably wouldn’t
Crean – ?
H B Bear
14 Feb 13 at 6:32 pm
To Juliar, it’s all about the Lying Slapper.
Look, if Kruddles shags her up the date like she shagged him, then she’s completely shagged (lose) – and Kruddles can blame his defeat on her (lose) and still stay on to rebuild (lose) while her legacy’s that of a complete blithering cretin with the intellect of a scree talus (lose). Lose-lose-lose-lose for the crimson commie cow, yes?
Then she goes to gaol for fraud.
So if Kruddles wants to challenge to force her into this lose-lose-lose-lose, how’s the mendacious trollop respond? How can the husband-stealing cow re-punch Kevni‘s freckle? (only without lube this time) And what does it mean to the serial killer of ‘little brown people’ to do that?
So the real question is ‘what’s the Fatslag’s definition of a win?’
I think it’s negative. To the Lying Jubblebutt, screwing someone over is a win – it’s the attitude of a brainless union thug, but has not the Fat-arsed Slapper proven that she IS an incompetent, mendacious, apparently corrupt and not very smart union thug with the political judgement of an unwashed strap-on?
So the Red Barren’s best tactic here is to poison the well, isn’t it? Take it to an election where not only is Kruddles forced to abandon his challenge (win) but is also forced to support her (win), then loses his seat (win) and is unable to get on with rebuilding the ALP because he’s as acceptable in the party as an intelligent rational person is at a greenfilth political convention (win).
So this alters it to a win-win-win-win (for certain warped values of win, as described)
Then she goes to gaol for fraud.
King Kevni Kruddles probably knows this, so he has a fine line to tread. He really needs to humiliate and undermine the Lying Slapper but not enough to force a spill while ensuring his own seat and retaining enough power to take over the comrades after the life support system for a titanic arse ‘leads’ them to disaster.
It’s a really fine line and I just do not think KKK has the brains to do it. He’s stupid, as well as an arrogant tosser with nothing to be arrogant about and he believes his own bullsh*t. Therese’s always on top as he only knows how to f**k up, so I expect him to f**k this up too.
Outcome?
I think he’ll overplay his hand and Slaps will display her usual magnificent judgement, and they’ll ALL go down the dunny.
Election probably in May.
Stock the fridge and stockpile the popcorn. This is gonna be highly entertaining.
Mk50 of Brisbane
14 Feb 13 at 6:32 pm
OK, OK, thanks to everyone for the amusing descriptions of Gillard on this blog over the years. Hope I did not miss any!
Mk50 of Brisbane
14 Feb 13 at 6:34 pm
Samuel J
Hate to be picky but wasn’t it 23 June 2010 I know a month’s not a huge difference but I am sure Kevni would love to have been PM even a month longer
Tintarella di Luna
14 Feb 13 at 6:40 pm
I wish I could understand this.
Can you imagine the smug look on Rudd face when he makes his 2013 general election victory speech?
Grey
14 Feb 13 at 6:46 pm
On current polling Rudd is dead meat. He will have no option but to challenge in the hope of defying a 8+% swing by getting back PM status in his electorate.
The same goes for all the other marginal member facing oblivion. Gillard may be motivated by self interest but the self interest of an MP sitting on a 1% margin knows no bounds.
The self preservation society of Labor members at 8% or less would fill three or four Tarago’s.
Splatacrobat
14 Feb 13 at 6:50 pm
I see what you did there.
You should see what you did here.
Spilt beer is a waste.
Rudiau
14 Feb 13 at 6:51 pm
Grey, you have predicted that Gillard would be re-installed as Prime Minister, and that both Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull would be elected Prime Minister in 2016. I don’t think predictions are for you, I just don’t.
Fisky
14 Feb 13 at 6:52 pm
Rudd will not win any challenge that he may instigate. Nobody likes him and even if Gillard is a near certainty to lead them to defeat, working with a guy like Rudd is a nightmare. The challenge has to come from someone else.
Andrew
14 Feb 13 at 6:57 pm
Mk50 a tour de force thanks for the entertainment.
Tintarella di Luna
14 Feb 13 at 6:58 pm
I love the way Catallaxians keep putting words in my mouth. I have consistently said that the Coalition would not win an election until they signal in some form they will accept carbon pricing – a la Labor and the GST.
I have also said there were a number of ways this could come about including Abbott giving private undertakings that he wouldn’t try too hard to repeal it, but the easiest way to achieve this would be the Coalition not to win until 2016.
Please, Fisky, I know this is difficult for a proto-fascist like yourself, but do try and demolish my argument not some strawman you find convenient.
Grey
14 Feb 13 at 6:59 pm
Gheyboy:
Thanks for the public admission that you are as thick as a treacle and araldite smoothy: Gheyboy, that IS the story of your life.
As you define yourself as intellectually inferior I won’t bother to explain it for you.
After all, every one of the usual Cats easily has ample intellectual horsepower to fully understand at first glance such a simple (if pungent) comment.
You, not so much.
Mk50 of Brisbane
14 Feb 13 at 7:00 pm
Anyhoo, off to take the better half out to dinner.
TTFN!
Mk50 of Brisbane
14 Feb 13 at 7:03 pm
You haven’t been consistent on anything. You have been all over the place predicting overlapping Prime Ministerships without apparently remembering what you had previously predicted. I’m still waiting for you to predict the glorious triumph of the late John Button in 2016.
Fisky
14 Feb 13 at 7:03 pm
Yes she may. However it wouldn’t stop the Liars Party from throwing her fat dishonest arse out the door either.
Jc
14 Feb 13 at 7:04 pm
They seem very quiet in the Labor headquarters, mcternan must be planning something underhand.
candy
14 Feb 13 at 7:06 pm
Essential poll from last April. More ALP supporters want Gillard than Rudd 40:33.
More LNP voters want Rudd than Gillard 32:4.
More ALP voters want Turnbull than Abbott 37:11.
More LNP voters want Abbott than Turnbull 39:26.
In short, Aussies like a good joke especially about the other guy, and Julia should beware April Fools Day.
Bruce
14 Feb 13 at 7:06 pm
Fisky, simply because you have no sense of humor, that does not mean left-wingers are similarly afflicted. Please believe me when I say Prime Minister Turnbull will make Abbott ambassador to Kazakhstan, that is not a serious prediction.
However, the one prediction I will make is carbon pricing is here to stay. Further, I speculate the easiest way to do this is for the Coalition to lose in 2013. The exact mechanism is this is not something I have firm opinions on. I also think it is possible that if Abbott gave hints he would not try too hard to repeal carbon pricing he might be able to win in 2013.
I have said this so many times and in some many variations, I am mystified you have not managed to get a grasp of this fairly simple proposition yet.
Grey
14 Feb 13 at 7:10 pm
Except the election will be moved forward ( MOVING FORWARD – where have we heard that before??).
Labor will have to use the momentum of his return ( he’s much more poular than the PM) to bolt to a quick election and save a few more seats.
At any rate, if he is returned what’s the bet that Julia decides to resign from Parliament immediately probably with Wayne in tow?
Or Oakdoor and Windsock spit the dummy and support a no confidence motion?
Either way, they won’t have the numbers…….
Jim from Brisbane
14 Feb 13 at 7:11 pm
Not at all, Grey, we don’t take you seriously in the slightest, even when you think you are being profound.
Fisky
14 Feb 13 at 7:13 pm
The Chairman of Commezebank told you this over drinks no doubt?
Jc
14 Feb 13 at 7:15 pm
Excellent, now we move onto the next step. Try and get my unprofound predictions correct next time you wish to bring them up rather than just make up any old thing.
Grey
14 Feb 13 at 7:20 pm
Ant – I’ve always maintained that if rudd did reappear as PM, what’s noted above would be why.
Pure self interest. The slapper promises oblivion, rudd promises some increasingly nervous parasites an ongoing snout in the trough.
Rabz
14 Feb 13 at 7:26 pm
Come on Mk50, tell us what you really think of the slapper.
johninoxley
14 Feb 13 at 7:33 pm
Grey – Are you saying Abbott would look better in a mankini than in budgies?
OTOH Turnbull in a mankini would be disturbing.
Bruce
14 Feb 13 at 7:33 pm
You’ve been reading old Alfonso…..your’s is a very late call, but your heart’s in the right place.
Alfonso
14 Feb 13 at 7:36 pm
I think it’s more likely that Labor will throw up a compromise candidate. Someone like Crean, perhaps.
Lloyd
14 Feb 13 at 7:43 pm
Maybe they just want to keep people talking about the leadership to distract attention from the fact they they were both equally disastrous as PMs, the whole party is stuffed in terms of ideas and policies and nothing is going to improve any time soon.
Rafe
14 Feb 13 at 7:43 pm
As was mentioned above we have a Swan in the coal mine to keep an eye on…
Swan seems to have been copping a bit of criticism at last, if he goes its a week, tops before a spill is on.
I though it might have been on already after the first 2 mouth breathers “retired”…
So whos got the dirt on Keviniruff?
thefrollickingmole
14 Feb 13 at 7:50 pm
Which one?
jupes
14 Feb 13 at 7:52 pm
The LNP. See IT’s comment above.
jupes
14 Feb 13 at 7:55 pm
Not Crean, Shorten and Crean don’t like each other
Andrew
14 Feb 13 at 8:00 pm
“So whos got the dirt on …. the Libs?”
Obviously Their ABC has….they will emerge essentially intact, no more than cosmetically altered.
Do they have a picture of Menzies doing nasty things to a goat?
Alfonso
14 Feb 13 at 8:02 pm
The Liberals need to get to work on those ads now. I can see a real corker opening with Krudd swearing at the camera, and then following up with the public denunciations of his leadership by Conroy, Swan, Crean, et al. In fact, the Liberals don’t even need to make the ad. Any old amateur could cut the stuff on Youtube.
Fisky
14 Feb 13 at 8:03 pm
Mk 50, you missed the Huncharse of Notre whatever it was.
Mother Hubbard's Dog
14 Feb 13 at 8:05 pm
Crean has nothing to lose by putting his hat in the ring, he probably has only one or two elections left in him. Shorten will want to have someone else lose so he can make a run 2016 or even 2019.
Stranger things have happened.
Lloyd
14 Feb 13 at 8:05 pm
Rudd – PM
Shorten – Treasurer
Doug Cameron – Minister of the Environment
Joel Fitzgibbon – Minister for Communications
Ed Husic – Minister of Schools
Grey
14 Feb 13 at 8:06 pm
Grey is as bankrupt as the Steves, no, even more so. More of a Xevram? But he just keeps going like the toy bunny with an energiser up the clacker. Sad really.
blogstrop
14 Feb 13 at 8:15 pm
I doubt you’d find one kiddy in Griffith who hasn’t had his photo taken with ol’ cherub cheeks.
In the electorate, Kevni will rock up to anything and everything including, some say, to the opening of a franger packet.
If he does do this thing, he’ll keep his seat. If he doesn’t, I reckon Bill Glasson might just see him off the manor.
lotocoti
14 Feb 13 at 8:23 pm
I’m intrigued though. Why do you think that supporting an increasingly discredited concept like climate change would benefit the Coalition? I mean , they are trying to present themselves as the adults in the room, not the gullible fools..
That chalice has long turned green…
Driftforge
14 Feb 13 at 8:24 pm
The GST wasn’t electorally popular either. Do you really think John Howard won in 1998 on the strength of the appeal of his bushy eyebrows?
The fact that Tony Abbott is having to flee the ferocious Lisa Wilkinson ought to be a clue as to how this year is going to pan out.
It is possible to buck the trend – Keating managed it in 1993. And Abbott is in a strong position at the moment in the polls.
Grey
14 Feb 13 at 8:36 pm
Having John Howard and his team’s steady hand on the tiller of government and everybody relaxed and comfortable was one thing – and, I hasten to add, a very good thing, but this is Entertainment.
Is the present government a long-running soap opera or an episode of St Trinian’s? Will the wronged ex-PM be back? Can Julia hold off his challenge? Can she get to the GG first?
Watch for the next riveting episode of Clueless Dills.
And Another Thing
14 Feb 13 at 8:37 pm
There are two explanations here:
1. Gillard has imploded due to her own incompetence
2. Abbott’s campaign of “relentless negativity” has finally borne fruit – he’s on his way to destroying another Labor PM. The media luvvies who have accused him over the last few months of using this tactic should be hiding in dark caves right now.
No one has blamed the abbottabbottabbott tonight, so let me be the first.
boy on a bike
14 Feb 13 at 8:48 pm
TLS would kill to take a signature policy to the election as feasible and as unpopular as the GST.
Steve of Ferny Hills
14 Feb 13 at 8:49 pm
Even if he is in a strong position in the polls, why spend that capital on proving his own inconsistency and gullibility?
Driftforge
14 Feb 13 at 8:50 pm
I’m with the people who think that KRudd won’t challenge. The only reason I think that he would, was if he thought he could win the next election.
I don’t think he’d take over just to lose, even if it was to lose less spectacularly than Julia will. Kevin wants to be Prime Minister, not Opposition Leader.
Loyalty to the Labor brand aside, his colleagues have all trashed him. Why would he try to save their seats, vindictive as we know he is? I think he’ll savour sitting on the backbenches and watching Gillard get stomped. I already sense he’s supremely satisfied with how her government has bombed.
Marky
14 Feb 13 at 9:17 pm
“Kevin wants to be Prime Minister, not Opposition Leader.”
That’s true, Marky, I agree with all you are saying, but i don’t think kevni is particulalry vndictive. After all, he was dumped in the most spectacular fashion in politics ever just for losing some popularity in a poll, given no chance to fix things.
– we would all feel the same as him.
candy
14 Feb 13 at 9:22 pm
My lefty friends reckon is economicall/business-wise, vewy vewy astute.
Louis Hissink
14 Feb 13 at 9:24 pm
The gst was a sensible policy that most serious people thought was a good idea.
The carbon tax is a moronic policy with no redeeming features at all.
Just because they are both taxes doesn’t make them somehow equivalent.
The closest equivalent to the carbon tax is the mrrt. Both are pointless, both scare away investment, both are electoral losers, and both have failed and will fail to meet their targets.
brc
14 Feb 13 at 9:46 pm
I think it is far more likely the factions will put up an “Anyone But Rudd” candidate who will broker a deal with Gillard.
Stand down now and they guarantee Rudd doesn’t get it. And they can make her Minister for Womens Affairs so she can still screech “sexism” 24-7……
MDMConnell
14 Feb 13 at 10:13 pm
Rudd can not win challenging Gillard so you are right. They won’t work with someone like him. If the big factional heads won’t work with him, none of the others who are the sheep will put him in, other than his own ~30 followers.
Andrew
14 Feb 13 at 10:29 pm
Rudd is a populist like no other. He is obsessed with being loved and this obsession informs everything he does.
And it works. The ordinary Joe who completely disconnects himself from politics, except for the few minutes it takes to vote, never thinks about politics.
Most informed people who know Rudd know he is one very strange little man. But that’s not the happy chappy we see on TV.
Joe sees Mr Happy, who does indeed have an air of competence when he’s allowed to rabbit on about being a “fiscal conservative”, for example.
Generally speaking the media class do their best to facilitate the fraud (remember how “surprised” they were when he got knifed? Baloney. They knew he was a disaster and that everyone who worked with him hated his guts; they just couldn’t be bothered doing their job, informing us and damaging their precious Labor Party).
Rudd is a much more dangerous adversary compared to Gillard, particularly seeing that Joe has reservations about Abbott.
I still think Abbott will win, but Rudd will save a lot of Labor MPs their seats, perks and privileges.
When they gather to vote, self interest will trump everything else and they’ll be more interested in saving their backsides than saving their government.
Ant
14 Feb 13 at 6:20 pm
quoted in full because it deserved to be.
Only yesterday I was having a conversation with a senior APS employee, who said the APS as a whole loathed the man, and not because he made them work! In fact the loathing was based on personal abuse, vindictiveness and unilateral and illogical decision making, and it always being someone else’s’ fault. In their opinion the only people to loathe him more than the APS was the federal ALP caucus.
In other words, the same modus operandi that earned him the nickname Dr Death in the QPS. If the leopard doesn’t change his spots over 20 years, he never will.
And yet to the general public he comes across as a vaguely bumbly, kindly uncle who speaks big words and thus must be smart.
But I doubt he will get another go at PM. First sniff he has a chance, and Gillard is off to Shortern’s Mother in Law. She will not risk a chance of him being the one to improve the position of the ALP.
entropy
14 Feb 13 at 10:40 pm
“They seem very quiet in the Labor headquarters, mcternan must be planning something underhand.”
Agreed, Candy. It’s like the brief hiatus before the great misogyny speech. I reckon they’ll go back to Abbott and his supposed woman disconnect. Stand by.
daggers
14 Feb 13 at 10:49 pm
Five moronic things about the carbon (dioxide) tax:
A tax based on the hubristic notions that Australia can lead the rest of the world to cut carbon dioxide emissions by using a tax.
A tax set at $23/tonne when the international price (read European) was substantially less and is now well below $10/tonne and which was originally intended to remain at it government mandated high until 2015.
A tax that will affect every aspect of Australian life and affect our international competitiveness which was introduced without consultation, without a mandated (having been specifically ruled out by the selected PM prior to the last election and whose design is largely the product of the economically illiterate Labor Left and the Greens.
A tax whose proceeds have been spent in advance of its collection thereby virtually guaranteeing year on year deficits.
A tax which will ultimately transform into an emissions trading scheme.
In contrast, the GST
Eliminated a raft of inefficient wholesale sales taxes.
Is levied largely at the “non essentials”
Is collected before its proceeds are distributed to the States for the delivery of State services.
Is set at a predetermined rate which cannot be changed except by the agreement of every State Premier thereby ensuring that tinkering with the tax results in appropriate accountability to the people
Received a popular mandate, having been presented as the defining issue of the 1996 general election
Is largely working as intended with relatively few perverse outcomes.
The two taxes couldn’t be further apart in terms of scope, philosophical and ethical foundation or application.
Lloyd
14 Feb 13 at 10:57 pm
Gillard has already been doing that. Every time Gillard talks about superannuation, she mentions women.
Andrew
14 Feb 13 at 11:01 pm
The shrillness of Combet, the Conroy of No Consequence and the Marginal Mr Bradbury, along with the inumerate Treasurer, tells me that the moves are afoot and there a a few skid marks on the red underpants.
And it won’t be just TLS who will be going.
All of the Kevvy bashers from last February will have to go too.
It will be like Jonestown cordial all over again.
Leigh Lowe
14 Feb 13 at 11:03 pm
Regarding who leads the ALP at the next election, well it’s a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich
Colmac
14 Feb 13 at 11:07 pm
Lloyd , two corrections : 1, 1998 election, it was specifically ruled out in 96.
2, it is on most things and should actually be on everything for simplicity.
The worst thing about the gst was the deplorable premiers who didn’t remove stamp duty as required in the deal. Another regressive tax.
brc
15 Feb 13 at 12:05 am
Brc I stand corrected on the election date.
Most of the Premiers who reneged on stamp duty were Labor.
Lloyd
15 Feb 13 at 12:20 am
Ok lets take a breath and think whats the worst possible thing to happen to the ALP..
3 years more government/minority government under Rudd? More time to hide bodies/shred aperwork/retire people.
Or 3 years of Abbot, a royal commision into union rorts and arseholery with 1/2 the bodies still sitting in parliment or freshly retired?
IF Labour think Rudd has a ghost of a chance of salvaging a win Gillard will be axed instantly.. Numbers cant be showing him firm enough yet.
thefrolickingmole
15 Feb 13 at 12:34 am
Rudd was Australian of the year? I must have repressed that memory.
What. A. Fucking. Farce.
Abu Chowdah
15 Feb 13 at 2:23 am
“KEVIN Rudd was left out of a key event marking the fifth anniversary of his historic apology to the Stolen Generations and the annual Closing the Gap report that he initiated.
The Australian can reveal that Mr Rudd did not receive an invitation to a Reconciliation Australia dinner attended by Julia Gillard and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin on the eve of the Closing the Gap statement last week.
Mr Rudd also believes he was not invited to attend a special concert at Parliament House in Canberra on the night of the fifth anniversary of the apology, although the Healing Foundation, which organised the concert, said Mr Rudd was one of many MPs from both sides of politics who were invited.
Mr Rudd attended the event after his office saw a public notice about it.”
Well, I bet that went down well in the Rudd household! Do they actually want him to challenge Gillard cos it sure is one hell of a way to stir him up! he will be seething…LOL
Winnedge
15 Feb 13 at 2:49 am
Ever since Grey appeared, I don’t think I’ve seen Hammygar at all.
Their phraseology and their sycophantic intellectual fellation of the Labor Party and those leading it are suspiciously similar.
As for Rudd returning as PM – I have said time and time again that if they bring him back, they lose whatever protection Gillard’s gender gives them from Abbott. Abbott would love nothing more than to finish the job he started in 2010, and most Australians who genuinely love their country would love to see Rudd’s psychological equilibrium disintegrate as he makes the concession speech. Will he cry and fall to pieces, or will he explode in a Downfall-level tsunami of rage against his nation?
perturbed
15 Feb 13 at 6:39 am
Simon Benson this morning:
Trapped in burning circus tent
Between the devil and the deep blue
seaelectoral map.Bruce
15 Feb 13 at 9:04 am
I dunno, perturbed… They’re all just mouthpieces of the hive mind, anyway.
Marky
15 Feb 13 at 8:54 pm