Rudd for the chop, Gillard to take the reins
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- Date published:
1:13 am, June 24th, 2010 - 16 comments
Categories: australian politics -
Tags: alp, julia gillard, kevin rudd, tony abbott
The Australian Labor Party caucus is meeting this morning for a leadership vote. PM Kevin Rudd has lost the support of the powerful Australian Workers’ Union and an array of the ALP’s factions to Julia Gillard. It’s been a dramatic fall for Rudd, who was so incredibly popular for his first two year’s as PM (if it can happen there…).*
Gillard will make a stark contrast to the strange conservative leader of the Liberals, Tony Abbott, but has a lot of work to do to win Labor a second term.
*(ever seen Rove’s ‘Kevin Rudd PM‘? Hilarious)
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Australian politics, especially on the Labor side, is very different from N.Z. As you pointed out Rudd’s big issue is that he has lost the support of key factions in the party which is vital to have if you want to lead Labor over there.
There is nothing comparable to that in the NZ context and National doesn’t have a ready made leader in waiting anyway.
The Labor caucus meets at 11 our time, result about half an hour later. This Liberal ad is getting a lot of the credit for destabilising Rudd this week:
NZ Labour could learn from its Australian counterpart. As the song says “You gotta know when to fold ’em…”
What National could learn from Labor is not to believe that the golden weather will last forever.
Any comments on Bomber Bradbury’s claim that Rudd has been pushed out by the power of corporate mining interests?
http://www.tumeke.blogspot.com/
I’m wondering, because I had Gillard down as someone who is very pro-unions and for supporting the working classes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly many ‘working class’ people are not enamoured with the proposed mining tax. This might have something to do with the number of people employed in the mining industry coupled with the fact that many of them have their compulsory pension funds heavily weighted in mining stocks.
family in Oz tell me Gillard is more like Thatcher 2.0
What I find most interesting is that the Labour Party in Australia seems be a “mainstream” party comprising the Left and the Right together. And what I find even more puzzling is that the union factions are Right.
Oh well, politics has never been my forte 🙂
Left and Right are relative terms. When they say the Right faction it doesn’t mean they’re Tories. And I don’t think the unions are of the Right faction.
It’s a complex set up, dream. There are 3 factions; hard left, left, and right. There are many unions in Oz and they are spread between the factions. The NSW right is the traditional kingmaker and has the more conservative blue collar unions behind it. Rudd is unusual in that he did not come directly from one faction, but cobbled together a majority in his favour. Now, only the hard left still publicly supports him.
The right has always preferred Gillard, but till yesterday, stayed neutral. The left, which from memory, is backed by the Nurses and other public sector unions, have been iffy about Gillard, but seem now to think Rudd is an electoral liability.
So, can you please briefly define the Left and Right in Labour politics in Australia? (Pardon my ignorance, but the Standard is a good place to learn some politics)
Rudd’s stepped down. without a vote?
Yeah. Word is that the numbers were clear; a credible leak said they were 64-70 for Gillard, which I think is artificially balanced to save some face for Rudd since everyone who seemed to know was calling it by a much broader margin.
L
Yep, obviously didn’t have the numbers. Cushy job in Washington or Beijing coming up for him, I guess.
I too would like more clarification. I grew up in Australia, but am not up with the play since the rise of corporatism and the Howard years. For example, by “right” do they mean blue-collar/non-liberal, or pro-corporate? Alternatively, do they mean pro-industry and anti-financial sector, or some other configuration? It does not seem plausible for a union to be overtly anti-worker, but I am aware that there are other issues at play as well, such as immigration and refugees, as well as mining taxes, conservation, etc.