The Gillard Government may have taken on the pallor of a doomed patient waiting for risky, life-or-death surgery – yet the tests keep coming back saying the vital signs are good. 

The bitter mystery behind the tragi-farce of Labor's leadership soap opera is that if you were to strip away the power plays and personalities, the Australian public supports the Government's over-riding policy agenda.

It has become a truism that the 'government can't sell its message' – but as this week'sEssential Report shows, on the big initiatives rolling out in 2012 the Government is winning.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3842128.html?WT.svl=theDrum

Personally I don't trust Kevin... but that's me...

Kevin is one of the most disloyal member of the Labor Party...

He has been undermining the reasonable work that Gillard and her minority government has achieved for this country... Kevin has leaked cabinet discussions to journalists... He was unable to get any proper move on global warming, nor any policy on the mining rent, despite the rhetoric... He has been rude to far too many people, not just a air hostess or a Chinese interpreter...

Kevin has no hope of beating Tony Abbott at the next elections, Julia has a smidgin of a chance... Julia has more to offer to get there should the media, which has been working hard to destroy her, gives her the cudos she's deserved... Sure, all her policies are not savoury, such as the asylum seeker and the Palestinian/Israeli problem but Tony Abbot's views are far worse on all these and totally crook on all other areas of government, including industrial relations. Tony would destroy the NBN, would destroy the advances made on the global warming problem and would demolish any of the good work done by Labor on maintaining this country on an even keel in an extremely tough international landscape. Tony would smash the goods in the china shop and blame Labor for it...

Kevin would do nothing to inspire the independents and the Greens. He would precipitate the country into the hands of the Liberals (conservatives).

The battle between Kevin and Julia has really been A SECRET WAR OF RELIGION, for quite some time... It's the catholics in the labor party, the catholics in the Liberals (conservatives) ranks, the Anglicans in all parties and the free-masons who are pushing to get rid of a) a woman and b) an atheist... 

They and the media have been vicious... 

F... off Kevin.

YOU KNEW YOUR JOB WAS TO GET RID OF RATTUS. Job well done. Thank you... After that, you lost your way. I (and many other people I know) knew you would... 

Hi Gus,

I have to disagree categorically ....

In my view, Julia Gillard is the worst thing that's happened to the Australian Labor Party in living memory.

The sooner Gillard, Arbib, Shorten & the rest of the right-wing mafia who conspired to assassinate Rudd are shown the door, the sooner Labor can begin the process of reforming/rebuilding itself.

In the meantime, anyone who thinks that Gillard gas a beter chance of keeping the budgie smuggler out of the Lodge than Rudd is simply deluding themselves .... on this the polls have been unanimously & emphatically consistent since she stole the prime ministership.

Cheers,

JR

PS     I am glad that we've finally found something that we can disagree about!!

I have inside information that I cannot divulge. Rudd had to go. Julia has been vilified by the religious triumvirate with the help of the media, grinding and grinding away. I know Shorten and he is far more a decent bloke that Rudd ever was. Rudd had to go. Whether the Labor Party reinstate him or not, it's up to the cleaners...

Rudd should not be brought back like a "saviour"... He'll be like a soggy (choleric and foulmouthed behind closed doors) catholic soufflé...

And I like to be deluded about Julia!!!

The Labor Party has been distracted by too many religious nuts within, in the vein of B. A. Santamaria (including Rudd), who still try to impose highly religious conservative values into the party. On that level these members are rowing the same boat as Tony Abbott.

The independents, thank them, have seen the light on this subject and some have been prepared to place their political future prospects on the line... The only one who fled right was Bob Katter who is a friend of Kevin Rudd... Say no more... Say a lot more...

Note that on this subject I do not paraphrase a lot of the commentariatators, especially those who sit on the fence and have a bet each way in regard to Kev and Julia, mostly to protect their butts...

While Ms Gillard was measured in her five-paragraph statement, the developments unleashed a vitriolic response from her deputy Wayne Swan.

"The party has given Kevin Rudd all the opportunities in the world and he wasted them with his dysfunctional decision-making and his deeply demeaning attitude towards other people, including our caucus colleagues," he said in a statement.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-22/gillard-to-call-leadership-spill/3846118?WT.svl=news1

Swan gets it 100 per cent right... Swan knows the price of smelly fish... Rudd should butt out, but his ego may be bigger than his brains...

The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has torn Kevin Rudd in half.
In a statement released at 8.30pm, Mr Swan says Mr Rudd lacks Labor values, has been undermining the government, treats people like dirt and was behind the leaks that destroyed the party’s 2010 campaign.

‘‘For the sake of the labour movement, the Government and the Australians which it represents, we have refrained from criticism to date,’’ he said.

‘‘However for too long, Kevin Rudd has been putting his own self-interest ahead of the interests of the broader labour movement and the country as a whole, and that needs to stop.
‘‘
The Party has given Kevin Rudd all the opportunities in the world and he wasted them with his dysfunctional decision making and his deeply demeaning attitude towards other people including our caucus colleagues.  He sought to tear down the 2010 campaign, deliberately risking an Abbott Prime Ministership, and now he undermines the Government at every turn.’’

Mr Swan says Mr Rudd was the party’s biggest beneficiary and it now its greatest critic ‘‘but never a loyal or selfless example of its values and objectives’’.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/labor-colleagues-sick-of-rudd-swan-20120222-1to9i.html#ixzz1n6fdOTat

Please note that there are no "faceless' men in the Labor Party. We all know who they are and PLEASE thank them for having done what they did — rolling Rudd back then in 2010. Even before that event, Rudd was undermining the Labor party, despite jovial public rhetoric. Julia has at all time been very restrained and generous towards Kevin. But boy, he has this ugly temper as one has seen on that video.

His "resignation" speech was yet another fudge, blaming others for his own demise...

Hi Gus,

I'm not sure what to make of your "inside information" .... nothing, I suppose, given that I'm not privy to it ... sounds almost as valuable as hearsay?

My thinking on all of this is relatively simple:

*   I don't want Abbott as Prime Minister;

*   Gillard can't beat Abbott in an election .... now or ever;

*   Rudd can inspire the majority of Australians & keep Abbott from becoming Prime Minister;

*   the members of labor caucus are concerned about a number of things, depending on who they are:

     *   if they are lowly backbenchers, they are concerned about being re-elected & therefore must consider Rudd as their best bet;

     *   if they are part of Julia's "push" (including the organisers/machine men like Arbib, Shorten) then they are concerned more about retaining their current positions/privileges & will

          therefore denigrate Rudd at every opportunity & oppose his return as leader (as their positions/privileges would almost certainly disappear along with Julia), even if it heightens the risk

          of Labor losing the next election.

*   if I was Kevin, I would not stand against Julia next Monday .... let her stand & be re-elected unapposed & let's see how long caucus will wait before deciding to dump her, in the face of

     Abbott's certain victory at the next election .... ultimately caucus members will act in their own personal interests before they'll act in Labor's & they'll act in Labor's interests before they

     act in the country's .... eventually caucus will be confronted by a choice between Swan, Combet, Shorten, Crean or Rudd & the Australian people will only place Rudd ahead of Abbott.

Goodby Julia.

Cheers,

John.  

Either way, Tony is hell-bent on destroying the good that has been done so far... We'd go backwards 55 years in one stupid motion, agreed... At least, even if Julia is not liked by the media, the Australian public and the religious nuts (this is where I get lots of info from the rabid catholics who have no other agenda than to get rid "of the atheist"), till the next election in 2013, she can push on with "her agenda" regardless... Rudd is likely to cave in to silliness with pomposity, the independents are likely to withdraw support and an election would have to be called sooner — in which Rudd might get a better result than Julia but will be rooted anyway... and sooner would be too bad, before consolidation of all the "good work"...

And by the way in regard to the Gonsky report (and the gay marriage issue), Julia has to negotiate the very strong religious weight in the Labor Party (same within the Libs) who woud see a rise of public school funding as an attack on their own privileges, and an "attack on the (religious) family" by allowing gays to marry... 

I agree Rudd should let the ball go the keeper... and not contest anything... But HE WOULD NEED TO SHUT UP and go to the back bench QUIETLY... 

Goodbye Julia?... Rudd will appear like a soufflé, the media will expose far more of his stupid antics and within two months, we'll be back to square one, minus eight...

Swan is not a dummy and he knows the crap coming from Rudd won't help one iota in the medium and long term...

It's okay to disagree on this one...