Kevin Rudd stands down. Julia Gillard steps up to the plate.

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**Emperors Faithful**

Well...that happened. *shrug*

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Hang on. He hasn't stepped down. It's a contested leasership. Fecking Channel 7. Must watch ABC.

**Cheese Elemental**

I'm watching it right now, man! They're having a 'leadership spill' tomorrow morning. Must keep track of that.

**WARBOSS TZOO**

Well, this will be interesting.

**Cheese Elemental**

They just said on Lateline that the numbers are with Julia Gillard. I thought that might be a possibility if Kevid Rudd's leadership fell apart, but I didn't think it could happen this soon.

Apparently, Gillard is a left-wing politician. The Labor party seemed to be somewhat right-leaning (as far as I can tell, although I'm still trying to get my head around politics), so we haven't had a real left-wing government in quite some time.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
By the way, EF, you might want to change the thread title a bit. Foreign users might not know who these people are.

**Waaagh_Gonads**

Man I hope Rudd wins tomorrow.

That will ensure a landslide coalition victory and the end of these clowns in government.

I personally think he will loose tomorrow though.
If they keep him he is even more of a lame duck.

**Shaman**

I got polled on this by phone today.

Whos better gillard or Rudd. Plus other stuff.

**SagesStone**

Wait what?
So once again we're in a lose lose situation, like when we tried to mediate the damage to the country by not electing Abbott.

All she seems to do is get her picture taken and promote plans that won't really work unless she, or someone who wants the plan to go through, stays in power for what? 10-13 years.

I very well may start drawing on my vote so as to vote, but have it invalidated. So I can not vote but at the same time avoid the fine that goes with it.

**radical bob**

n0t_u:

forgive my unfamiliarity with Australian voting procedures, but am I to understand from your post that it is a legal requirement to vote? under penalty of fines?

interesting, if true...

**SagesStone**

Yep it's mandatory to vote. I think the fine is somewhere around $50-100ish.

**WARBOSS TZOO**

n0t_u wrote:All she seems to do is get her picture taken and promote plans that won't really work unless she, or someone who wants the plan to go through, stays in power for what? 10-13 years.

Job security, I guess?

radical bob wrote:n0t_u:

forgive my unfamiliarity with Australian voting procedures, but am I to understand from your post that it is a legal requirement to vote? under penalty of fines?

interesting, if true...

Correct. But they haven't caught me yet.

**Shaman**

You don't have to vote you just have to get you name ticked off.. Then in the both tick all the boxes.

**Emperors Faithful**

Cheese Elemental wrote:
By the way, EF, you might want to change the thread title a bit. Foreign users might not know who these people are.

*shrug* They won't know who they are anyway, and they care even less I reckon.

**Cheese Elemental**

Kevin Rudd has decided not to stand in this morning's ALP leadership ballot, relinquishing the Prime Ministership and handing power to his deputy Julia Gillard in a bloodless Parliament House coup.

Mr Rudd had called for a leadership ballot to be held at 9:00am AEST today but has decided not to contest the ballot after it became clear he would be soundly defeated.

Ms Gillard now has the task of leading a party traumatised and divided by the recent dramatic events to the federal election which could be held in a matter of weeks.

Treasurer Wayne Swan now steps up as Deputy Prime Minister. He was also elected unopposed.

Mr Rudd's sudden and spectacular downfall makes him the first Labor prime minister to be dumped from office before completing a first term.

The situation came to a head last night after senior factional powerbrokers from the right told Ms Gillard she had enough support to take the leadership.

The powerful Australian Workers Union and Health Services Union also quickly swung their support behind Ms Gillard as Mr Rudd's support base collapsed.

After hours of crisis meetings last night Mr Rudd emerged just after 10:00pm AEST to announce that Ms Gillard had challenged him to a ballot and that he would also stand.

For months Ms Gillard had said that she was not interested in challenging Mr Rudd but as events charged ahead last night it appeared she was left with no choice but to throw her hat in the ring.

As the numbers were crunched it became clearer that Ms Gillard was going to prevail, with supporters on both sides agreeing that she would win.

Mr Rudd's fall from the top has been swift, as his popularity among voters fell from stratospheric highs to disastrous lows in just a few months.

Voters lost faith in Mr Rudd after a series of bungles and backflips, including the shelving of the emissions trading scheme.

Last night he vowed to fight to remain in office saying the Australian people had elected him, not the Party's factional leaders.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/24/2935500.htm

**Waaagh_Gonads**

I'm so glad the little power hungry freak is gone, although it will be much harder for the coalition to win now.

BUT:
This allows Labor to dump the Mining Tax which has been a PR nightmare.

Also of note the NSW labor right faction who orchestrated the dumping of Rudd are the same clowns who advised him to drop the ETS, which made people turn against him.

From most popular Australian PM since polling began (it is thought Menzies was more popular) to dumped in 3 months. First primeminister who led a party from opposition to govt to not lead the govt to an election.

**Emperors Faithful**

Very strange. I wonder if Julia Gillard can manage to step up to the plate, and whether or not this means any serious policy changes.

**sebster**

I for one welcome our new ginger overlord.

I was surprised Labor did this so close to election, but once the spill was called there was never going to be any result but a Gillard win. It's good that we've don't have to decide between Rudd and Abbott, I'll be interested to see how Gillard does in the short time before election.

I wonder how she's going to reshape policy in the short time before election. It'll be an interesting indicator how much of what happened was Kevin policy and how much was Labor policy.

EDIT - Did anyone hear Kevin cry in his news conference this morning? Bless his cotton socks.

**Cheese Elemental**

sebster wrote:
Did anyone hear Kevin cry in his news conference this morning? Bless his cotton socks.

Well he's just been booted out of office and replaced by his deputy. That'd be a pretty stressful experience, don't you think?

sebster wrote:I for one welcome our new ginger overlord.

Better dead than red!

**Waaagh_Gonads**

Most of what he said is a barefaced lie.

The transcript (the brackets are me)

Says worked to make Australia fairer, and proud he got rid of WorkChoices. (said noone would be worse off- thousands of kids laid off after school work as you must work minimum 3 hours per shift)

Proud to have got us through the financial crisis, and to have built infrastructure and the computers in schools. (Wasted 5.2 billion of 16 billion for the school hall program, killed 4 people, burnt down over 150 houses and hundreds of millions wasted for the insulation program, 2/3 of computers still not in schools)

Proud of trades training centres (way behind in delivery) and of all the school libraries (way overpriced, and no funding to fill them with shelves, books or staff).

Proud of national curriculum and more uni places. Proud he reformed the health system so that the Federal Government is “the dominant funder”. (6 months later than he said he'd do it, WA isn't signed up and will add another layer of beuracracy all so 20% of funding was switched from states to federal)

Proud of more cancer services. Breaks down. Says was stunned that some areas people were three times more likely to die through lack of services. (Agree)

Proud of the fact ("and some people have probably not heard of this one") National Organ Transplant Authority. Breaks down again. (agree) (As someone who borrowed someone’s aortic valve, he’s happy.)

Transplants. Breaks down again. (Unsure)

Improved the age pension. (Yes)

Proud he introduced paid parental leave. (yes) Proud of what he’s done on homeless and are on track to halve it. (Homelessness has in fact increased.)

Proud of more social housing. Can’t stand it when go to some places and there’s no rooms. (Many people annoyed prices in neighborhoods going down due to housing commision being jammed everywhere)

Proud to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and boosted the renewable energy target (just targets, not performance) and is proud to have tried three times to get an emissions trading scheme. Says that must be part of our future. (Why not add yet another tax to fix a problem that isn't caused by humans?)

Proud of the Murray Darling deal (hasn't done anything as it has started raining again). Proud we’re now a part of the G20 (which we were already) and that its so active. (he was supposed to fly out tomorrow to G20 summit!)

Proud to be closeing the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians (is acctually worsening for health outcomes) and proud of more scholarships for Aboriginal children. (Agreed.)

Proud to have said sorry to the “stolen generations” (which no one can find, find me 5 people stolen from their parents purely for their aboriginality and you'll get $100,000, theres a competition. After 4 years they are up to 3 people in 90 years of records). Breaks down again. Therese, he says, reminded him that was a big day. Breaks down again.

**Emperors Faithful**

Waaagh_Gonads isn't buying it.

Julia Gillard came across as a strong speaker, did you catch the crack that the guy made about joining the AFL sports team?

**sebster**

Cheese Elemental wrote:
sebster wrote:
Did anyone hear Kevin cry in his news conference this morning? Bless his cotton socks.

Well he's just been booted out of office and replaced by his deputy. That'd be a pretty stressful experience, don't you think?

Yeah, getting sacked would suck. Getting sacked in front of the nation would suck more. Getting sacked then going home and having to pack up your things because the person who got you sacked is moving in would suck even more. Getting sacked from not just any old job, but the job you've dedicated your professional career towards would be about as sucky as it gets.

Better dead than red!

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Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Proud to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and boosted the renewable energy target (just targets, not performance) and is proud to have tried three times to get an emissions trading scheme. Says that must be part of our future. (Why not add yet another tax to fix a problem that isn't caused by humans?)

Oh for feth's sake.

Proud to have said sorry to the “stolen generations” (which no one can find, find me 5 people stolen from their parents purely for their aboriginality and you'll get $100,000, theres a competition.

It remains an unavoidable fact that children neglected or raised in poverty with aboriginal parents were treated very differently to white kids in similar circumstances, and this different treatment was often extremely negative to the children. If I were you I'd go with the 'yes he said sorry but what's actually changed?' - it's a much more solid argument.

**Waaagh_Gonads**

Sebster- Victoria set up a tribunal to give money to the stolen generations.

After 3 years they were unable to find a single successful applicant so in order to offload the cash to justify themselves (rather than just wrapping themselves up and saving the Victorian taxpayers money) they started giving money to any aboriginal who had spent a period of time seperated from their family whilst they were still under the age of 18.
This included Juvenille detention for crimes, and students at boarding school.

Has saying sorry really changed anything?
Apart from making lefties feel all fuzzy and warm I'd say no.
The activists still moan and groan and there have been almost no improvement in outcomes, outside of the NT intervention which was started by Howard (and is set to be expanded to whites as well in the NT, being the provision of dole and benefits in a voucher scheme)

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Als this is all of his own making.

He was 2 days from the parliament winter break where they would not be able to topple him, and he sent his chief of staff out to count numbers.
This is NEVER done in Australian politics. You always send out one of your own supporter from the caucus.
It made Julia ropeable that he didn't trust her, and made alot of swinging members move against hime.

He is a total political clown...

**sebster**

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Sebster- Victoria set up a tribunal to give money to the stolen generations.

After 3 years they were unable to find a single successful applicant so in order to offload the cash to justify themselves (rather than just wrapping themselves up and saving the Victorian taxpayers money) they started giving money to any aboriginal who had spent a period of time seperated from their family whilst they were still under the age of 18.
This included Juvenille detention for crimes, and students at boarding school.

Huh. Someone actually straight up claiming there were no stolen children. That’s a thing.

Has saying sorry really changed anything?
Apart from making lefties feel all fuzzy and warm I'd say no.

Exactly.

Als this is all of his own making.

He was 2 days from the parliament winter break where they would not be able to topple him, and he sent his chief of staff out to count numbers.
This is NEVER done in Australian politics. You always send out one of your own supporter from the caucus.
It made Julia ropeable that he didn't trust her, and made alot of swinging members move against hime.

He is a total political clown...

He never had strong support or a base behind him in his own party, and he looked to dominate colleagues rather than bring them on-side. When the source of his legitimacy, his strong polling figures, took a dive he was always going to be on shakey ground. I’m surprised they pulled the trigger before election, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense.

**Waaagh_Gonads**

I 100% agree with your last point Sebster.

Also news just in... The finance minister Lindsay Tanner is stepping down as well!
He says he told Mr Rudd several weeks ago.

That virtually assures his seat of Melbourne falling to the Greens.
Now the inner citty dwelling tree huggers can feel all nice and warm by ensuring that there vote truely is wasted by voting in some enviromental nutjob who'll want all the power stations shut down so we can sit in the dark when the wind stops blowing.

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This truely is fascinating stuff going on, and for the first time we can sit and watch most of it almost live to live in our living rooms.

**sebster**

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:I 100% agree with your last point Sebster.

Also news just in... The finance minister Lindsay Tanner is stepping down as well!
He says he told Mr Rudd several weeks ago.

That virtually assures his seat of Melbourne falling to the Greens.
Now the inner citty dwelling tree huggers can feel all nice and warm by ensuring that there vote truely is wasted by voting in some enviromental nutjob who'll want all the power stations shut down so we can sit in the dark when the wind stops blowing.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
This truely is fascinating stuff going on, and for the first time we can sit and watch most of it almost live to live in our living rooms.

Tanner pretty came out of left field didn’t it? I liked him.

And I think we can both agree that the growing support for the Greens is a bad, bad thing. Whether anyone agrees with their politics or not, they’re absolute deadwood in parliament. They negotiate on nothing and achieve nothing as a result. They could have gotten ETS through if they’d been willing to negotiate on their pie in the sky position.

**Waaagh_Gonads**

Again agree 100%.

Independents can be swayed with negotiations on their pet projects (I'm talking senate here), like Xenaphon getting a heap of cash for SA when the national water negotiations were on.

But the greens are just plain nuts and refuse to vote on anything.

the reason the ETS failed is not the coalition didn't want it. It was because the greens refused to vote for it, even though it did what they wanted. But yet again it just wasn't far enough.

I forsee a blow to the Greens when Bob Brown goes, and they'll struggle to recover, he is the Greens.

People vote for them as a protest vs the 2 main parties. But all they do is give their vote to a party that will never be in power to do anything good for the country.

**H.B.M.C.**

Well... I hope the election is called soon so we can get this over and get the coalition back in power. Enough of this spin-tastic spend-frenzy morons ruining the country. The only real successful things the Labour party have done are all symbollic. They've done very little of worth, and most of their major initiatives have either failed, collapsed, or they've gone back on. So much of what's happening is of their own design and the Australian public would be downright foolish to assume that Gillard had nothing to do with the mistakes. They weren't called the 'Gang of 4' for the fun of it - Tanner, Swan, Russ and Gillard were the ones who created this mess. Her in charge may be a new coat of paint, but it's the same colour paint...

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:The transcript (the brackets are me)

I read those very same bracketed comments on... wait... Gonands - are you Andrew Bolt?

**Waaagh_Gonads**

I am Andrew's sense of regret at how lame the labor party is and how the people of Oz keep voting these clowns in.
I changed alot of the brackets, just agree with almost everything he said.

Good to find someone else reading the most read conservative (note, not right wing) blog in Oz.
I started reading it at the start of climategate now Dakka and it are the only 2 websites I check every day.

Also Swan is a weasel of the highest order.
he was in the thick of it when Beazley was pushed, now the beady eyed, thin lipped nob struts around like the lord of all next to Julia.
He is a weak, weak little man.

And by little I mean he is tiny, I've met him a couple of times. He's somewhere aroud 5 foot 6 or 7 inches.

**Shaman**

So I read this thread and find out Gillards in.

Since Waaagh seems to have his finger on the pulse can you tell me:

Who will drop the internet filter?

Will anyone lessen taxes on tobacco and alcohol (or even reign them in a bit!)

Said person/party would get my vote.

I am REALLY not politically minded. In my ignorance I usually vote for the person I feel comes across better as a leader (lol Kevin) and whether or not I can stand them (Abbott I'm looking at you, you carsalesman). Sometimes I even vote for the greens cause I don't like either of the two.. (they never get in though)

So recommendation?

**H.B.M.C.**

Shaman wrote:So I read this thread and find out Gillards in.

Since Waaagh seems to have his finger on the pulse can you tell me:

Who will drop the internet filter?

Will anyone lessen taxes on tobacco and alcohol (or even reign them in a bit!)

Said person/party would get my vote.

I am REALLY not politically minded. In my ignorance I usually vote for the person I feel comes across better as a leader (lol Kevin) and whether or not I can stand them (Abbott I'm looking at you, you carsalesman). Sometimes I even vote for the greens cause I don't like either of the two.. (they never get in though)

So recommendation?

Internet filter is already dropped. Another back flip (though a good one...).

Tobacco is a 'social evil', and it's hard to generate sympathy for smokers or cigarette companies, making higher tobacco taxes a 'win/win' free money situation.

A vote for Greens is a proxy vote for Labour (Labour are left wing, Greens are just more left-wing - same thing in the end, you just have to tilt your head a bit more).

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Waaagh_Gonads wrote:I started reading it at the start of climategate now Dakka and it are the only 2 websites I check every day.

A few months back he ripped into the history of Labour since they came to power, examining every single policy and decision, and how they'd fallen flat on their asses. I wish I could find that. It was a good read.

**Shaman**

Oh so they dropped the Internet filter.. Thats good.

I'm well aware that tobacco = cigarette = smoke = fire = SATAN

I just was pissed at the bigger jump. Plus all the alcohol tax, alcho pops etc.

Vote goes to the Ranga.