Today Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard defeated Kevin Rudd in a caucus vote for the leadership by 71 to 31 votes in the 103 member caucus. Where the extra vote went who knows.
One thing that can be certain is that Julia Gillard’s career as Prime Minister is coming to an end. In her campaigning to stay PM she has in fact destroyed her long-term chances. The Australian public will not let her and her ministers brutal and grubby campaign tactics go unpunished.
Some commentators have been saying that Kevin Rudd was and is prepared to destroy the ALP to get what he wants which maybe true. But Julia Gillard is prepared to destroy anything and everything to get what she wants. Just have a look at the Australia Day riots.
It is the general opinion that Julia Gillard has until the end of the year to get the Labor Parties opinion poll numbers up otherwise it is highly likely she will be dumped or there will be another challenge.
The facts are the opinion poll numbers for Labor under her leadership will never go up enough to put labor in a winning position or even close to a winning position. She has burnt to many people and made to many bad decisions.
There are also to many land mines coming up in the next few months. For example the Craig Thomson affair, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and the UK Supreme Court judgement which is due very soon and the sexual and physical abuse at the defence force is starting to come back in the media spotlight (Click here to watch a story on the 7.30 report). They are just a few of the major problems that if the Government continues to play them the same way they have will drive Labor down in the polls again.
From my own personal viewpoint Julia Gillard has been a blessing in disguise. I think she has been fantastic and I could not have wished for a better PM as far as the KCA is concerned. The main focus of this site is judicial corruption and the hard part is to show the Australian public it exists which is the motivation for this site. It is about documenting that corruption.
But with the help of Julia Gillard, in one fell swoop, the Australian people can see the judicial corruption in all its glory. I am of course talking about the Craig Thomson fraud scandal and the Fair Work Australia cover-up. FWA is a court and has judges and commissioners and we have seen how they have spent over 3 years investigating Mr Thomson when the whole country knows he is guilty. He still to this day refuses to give a detailed account of what he did and didn’t do.
There was a time when the ruling party of the day could dump on the Australian public whatever garbage they wanted to as long as they had enough of the Australian media in their hip pocket. And Julia Gillard has certainly tried that which I detailed in a previous post “Has Julia Gillard blackmailed the Media to cover-up her corrupt past? The Fairfax Media and News Corp scandal.” (Click here to read)
But now with bloggers such as JoNova, Barnaby is Right and this site as well as many others and online forums such as OzPolitic.com and everyone on Twitter the political parties can no longer control as much media as they once could. So the likes of Gillard and Labor only need to upset a few and the backlash can be extremely costly and protracted which it will be while Gillard is PM.
Update: 27/2/12 4.50pm: Senator Mark Arbib has just resigned as a Senator and will finish parliament next Friday. He said it was to help the Labor party heal and for family reasons.
I did a bit of reading and came across this link on Andrew Bolt’s blog via Piers Akerman’s blog which someone mentioned in the comments below. Maybe helps explain why Mark Arbib resigned. “Link by link, the powerbrokers of the Right emerge” And it starts off “The sale of land for $1, mysterious donors, property developers bankrolling a company of an MP’s son, union officials getting mining deals – welcome to the NSW Right where connections are crucial.”
Seems like Mark Arbib has plenty of questions that he needs to answer. Well worth a read. (Click here to read)
Admin: I was planning on doing a different post, but obviously the leadership tussle has almost blacked out other stories. So I decided to do this to give the readers a chance to put their opinions on here. Give it a few days and everything will be back to normal. I will put a another Julian Assange post on hold for now and in the next post I will name and shame another Federal Court judge.
Categories: Australian Defence Force, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd
Would you kindly give us an update on how the Craig Thomson affair is travelling? I think this is the most likely avenue for a no confidence vote, I would guess Andrew Wilkie might support a vote of no confidence. Do you hold any hope for an early election, if so what avenue?
I will do in the future but not this week. But in saying that the well known union boy, Iain Ross, has just been appointed as the head of Fair Work Australia. I wrote about him in a previous post which is here: http://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2011/04/07/former-queensland-attorney-general-kerry-shine-busted-appointing-mates-as-judges/
Julia Gillard has not lost her form when it comes to dodgy judicial apppointments.
Much appreciated Shane. I just hope that if Craig Thomson were to bring down the Government, it might jar the public into understanding the corruption that has built up in our legal system.
One lucky Labor MP had a baby last week and that accounts for the missing number. She was lucky wasn’t she – not having to declare her hand for the liar or the psychopath
There was a great article by Piers Akerman this week talking about the corruption in the Labor/Unions party. Specifically The Heiner Affair, The Craig Thomsons Affair, Peter . . Slipper unexplained expenses issue, Australia Day Riot, FWA investigation. We can only hope for some serious investigations one day.
The absence of one vote was due to the fact that a female ALP MP had just given birth recently and was absent from the ballot.
I heard several times on ABC24 that Kevin Rudd had thirty-one supporters; no, he had thirty supporters—assuming that Mr. Rudd voted for himself—because both Rudd and Gillard, mirabile dictu, were allowed to vote for themselves.
Commentators are suggesting that his win will enhance Gillard’s stature as a leader. I guess initially and superficially it will and there would be a probable”sugar-hit” in support for both her and the ALP- but, give it six months with more boats,more contrived Machiavellian shenanigans from the PM’s department, more own goals by Labor and the full effect of Gillard’s CO2 Tax lie and lets see the results then. Couple this with consistent leaking of Gillard’s underhandedness from a certain K Rudd taking pot shots from the backbench and theres a recipe for a long period of further instability for Labor- and they can’t touch him because its all about the numbers and his vote is critical for Labor’s survival. He’ll be sitting up there like the proverbial angel on Gillard’s shoulder keeping her “honest” which will be no mean feat given Gillard’s history.
I guess the first leaks will be how Gillard managed to “con” so many caucus members to vote for her- what inducements, what skeletons were rattled- God only knows and he (Rudd) will not stop reminding the public of this.
If I hear another Laborite or their apologists in the ABC saying that all Labor needs to do to claw back voter support is to better “sell” their programs, I’ll scream.
A lemon is still a lemon no matter how you dress it up and sweeten it to look like a plum.
Bedsides, if it was purely a matter of just “selling” Labor’s achievements, why did it’s best salesman just get defeated 31 to 71 in the caucus ballot. WTF?
Hey Two Bobs Worth – I noticed the same. But it wasn’t just the ABC, David Spears and Keiran Gilbert on Sky are willing it as well. Anything but a balanced account of affairs. Interesting though – in my travels around this great land – it’s very obvious that people can see straight through the bulldust. Even my wife, who gernally keeps her own council on matters political, and is a very passive person, almost TKO’d our TV a number of times over the past week. My office manager, who has probably voted labor all her life, claims she will never do so again.
Too many angry people out there for Labor to get traction again.
Shane, this Iain Ross appointment is a bit of a worry. Only just a tinge of experience in his area of appointment as well. I wonder how many ‘more deserving’ applicants missed out? I can see where you are coming from on all these appointments. It definitely needs to change.
‘Already there is a massive shortage at all Austrlian Blood Banks. This situation is notexpected to
change for several years’
I wonder if it has started yet.
Come on you boys in NSW factions and Unions show Australia how tough you are.
To Julia and Tim : enjoy the brief extension to your tenure , which is now under constant
revue and probable termination by DEC 2012
People. This is a dog and pony show. It’s all planned like a movie. The parliament is hung. Rudd could have gone to Gillard and say “if you contest the ballot I will bring down the government” end of story but he didn’t. It’s all a show for us sheeple. They are all simply following a script written for the. Any person that becomes a politician is blackmailable, able to be controlled by the handlers otherwise they would not be elected. This has always been the case.
The whole affair has been the most unedifying spectacle I have ever seen in all my seventy plus years. I can remember Mr. Chifley as a Labor PM, and he was respected even by Liberal voters. He was known to be honest in his dealing with his own people and respectful of the voters – what a pity this rabble can’t learn from people like him. This Country deserves better than the rabble presently in Canberra and we should be going to an election NOW!
Hey, don’t forget us up here in good old parochial Queensland. We are going to the polls next. At a date decided by our fearless disaster manager Nanna Blight. First she single-handed managed the TV coverage of our floods last year. She started a fund to try to compensate people affected and under-insured, as was her government. Took a year but she finally disbursed the funds according to her own guidelines. Then when the public saw that a large part of the Flood was man-made by her own officers stepping outside their field of expertise and trying to stockpile resaleable water where it shoudn’t have been. She cobbled up enquiries and set the date for reporting for the same time as the coming election (a year away) thus giving time to fine tune the date before or after the election according to what it could reasonably get away with in the report. The main enquiry was headed by her hand-picked Magistrate, ably assisted by two dubious “experts” of no real standing in the world of Dam Construction and Management.
What went wrong was the enquiry prepared a draft report well ahead of schedule (last august) that completely missed several key and obvious issues. When our Nanna got round to reading it and everyone else in Qld had become aware of the sleight of hand afoot, the enqiry was recalled and told what else to find with a time deadline immediately before the election so “the public could be aware” before voting.
The magistrate in charge possibly could see the writing on the wall for her own career as a professional inquisitor and worked diligently opening old sores and extending trading hours to do so, always with the promise of coming in with the final report on schedule and prior to the election. It became public knowledge that her two assistants were up to no good, several Govt engineers acted outside their brief, some were even spirited away under guard “for safety reasons”, and the dam was in fact incorrectly managed on verbal orders before and during the floods. So Nanna decided that the final findings would be withheld from the voters so her election could go ahead on time.
These most recent shennanigans took place while Big Kev took on Julia centre stage and claimed support for Qld state candidate opposing the LNP Claytons leader to take the flood issue off page one. Thus successfully pushing the dam enquiry to obscurity. There is talk of a class action against the government but that probably won’t nail the the real offenders.
My problem with Nana arises from her promotion of Paul Lucas to Deputy premier AFTER he had presided over a financial disaster with the unbelievably poorly managed Queensland Health pay system, the true cost of which is still adding up two years on. Maybe its the Brigalow factor, where Ministerial responsibility no longer matters now the State is a corporation.
Yes Paul,
Lucas is a blustering political bully with a lawyer background. He has not shone in any of the several Ministerial portfolios he has held. As with Canberra, the ALP is desperately short of experienced talented MPs from whom to select good ministers. Those that make the coterie of party line followers usually end up with multiple portfolios that inevitably they can’t handle. Lucas was Minister for Roads, Qld has worst roads in Oz, Minister for Health, vide his Payroll affair, Minister for Local Government, just filled the chair and dropped it quickly, and so on it goes. At least someone has got to him and advised that his time in govt is up. Poor old Arbib also held multiple portfolios. Look at garreet, they can’t sack him and can’t find something he is good at, just shuffle him around. Just confirmation of what happens when a govt has so little to chose from. At least I suppose those called to multiple portfolios get multiple allowances as compensation.
The 103rd vote was one member who is on maternity leave so couldn’t make the vote
When we heard Arbib say that he was resigning to be with children and spouse, our immediate thought was the Gillard govt. are embarrassed having a minister from the Faction who organised Rudds demise, so he was given the option of “resigning” in a noble way “for the good of the party etc”. Then through Piers column we read of the apartments at Maroubra, which Arbib sold for $900K plus to buy a house in Coogee for about $1.6m with over $1m to renovate! This govt. and the ministers are so corrupt that we need a FULL INVESTIGATION, and not by FWA!
Look at Arbib, listen to him…he drips sleaze.
SHANE THANKS A MILLION FOR ALL YOUR POSTS
THE RUDD FAMILY IS WORTH MILLIONS,SO WHY NOT TELL THE PARTY TO GO TO HELL.
I HOPE HE HAS SOMETHING EVIL PLANNED FOR ANOTHER TIME.
ARBIB HAS JOINED THE CONGA LINE OF THE SHADY ALP FAMILY.
IT MAKES ME SICK READING ABOUT THESE A L P CROOKS.
How much longer can Craig Thompson hang on. Illegal use of a work Credit Card
is not complicated to prove.
How would you feel with such a CROOK in your team.
He is a loser
At last the Julia & Kevin affair and divorce has put in evidence to the public how ferocious the internal political wars can be. The Liberals use the same tactics any way. The Green and the Independents are getting what they want from Julia and Julia “creates” nothing. That will teach us one big lesson NEVER vote for woman, first they need more maintenance than men do and they always WANT to get what they WANT. I have never seen a woman said SORRY I WAS WRONG ..NEVER and I am 75 years old.
Peter, it’s because they are too busy trying to prove equality to men. Even I know they are built differently and work differently but their activist promoters have fooled the political parties into taking up their case. Fortunately ALP have never made women in leadership roles work well, witness from Kirner, to now. I’m watching Nanna Blight turn feral here in Qld and go for Newman’s private throat. Probably shoot herself in a foot too. But I’m only 70 and not yet as wise as you.
Blaming women for what? I was trying to point out that politicians in their scramble for “popularity” fall about giving them but a token go. See how the ALP have done it to avoid their manly MPs leading them to electoral defeat once that inevitability is foreseen. I for one was not denying men in politics are just as fallible but I would claim they are cleverer at using women in politics when it suits them than the opther way round.
Definitely you sound uneducated .. if you only knew what I know! .. but that belongs to your own world remain in it! … but I am not a feminist I leave that to you and Julia .. good bye
You are entitled to your opinion and in hindsight I read the comments and replied to fast. Peter’s second comment I have deleted as it went over the top of what is acceptable. Unfortunately when I read them fast I bundled your comment in with his two comments and replied. Sorry
Peter your comment has nothing to do with the post so I have deleted it. It undermines the site if people just go anywhere on the site and start writing whatever they want when it has no relevance to the posts content.
No Sorry pls. That is an insincere political term. Keep up the good work.
Suggest another clear case of political interference in things judicial is Bligh’s handling of the Wivenhoe Dam inquiry and its disappearance off the page now Julia’s life crisis is past. A public, Majisterial inquiry that, on Bligh’s direction, will now have secret findings.
After following the Kevin Julia saga I noticed what was Kevin’s basic mistake and how he was set up. Julia as a female smart lawyer set him up – The woman that never answers the question that she already replied! – First she ask 3 of her heavy way supporters in her cabinet to denigrate Kevin in public.The ruthless Simon diffuse via radio what he thinks about Kevin .. Kevin reacts offended and resign immediately because Julia does not deny it! ..Big mistake he should have remain Foreign Minister and wait another 12 months! Julia shot cut him and calls for a Caucus ballot when he still on his way back to Sydney, he has no time to get much in motion … Julia win but the damage is now irreversible, her feminist destructive ego has faltered, she will NEVER admit any thing wrong and a particular mistake it is always in the vague. Now she is in the irreversible political decline, the Abyss is a very dark place. Will she care? ..she is ONLY after the perks after the facts! … she will retire with her supper, pension and so many perks that we pensioners can only dream of! … Now who is going to be our next childless unmarried feminist female PM? .. not on my dead body!
Peter Hartcher has a piece sighting a busy Paul Howes working the votes before the selection of Gillard. Talk about people eating their own garbage before working for Rudd blah, blah, blah. The usual fare dished by union heavies.
Why the hell was Howes allowed anywhere near members before the vote? Why wasn’t this vote a secret ballot?
Round two to faceless foes by: Hartcher
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/round-two-to-faceless-foes-20120302-1u8br.html#ixzz1o0YisSWH
…Howes talked to many other Labor MPs and senators as they prepared to cast their votes in the leadership ballot, urging them to back Julia Gillard against Rudd. To some who planned to vote for Rudd, Howes wanted them to understand that they were supporting a lost cause.
‘There are at least 53 caucus members who would rather eat their own shit than work under Kevin Rudd again,” he told them, citing the figure that represents a caucus majority, plus one…
Also Shane, how do you see the appointment of Carr effecting the popularity of the ALP? Are we looking at the next Labor PM? I think we might be.
Carr ran NSW into the ground before he jumped ship. He will never be PM. Athough he is better than Gillard and Rudd. I think everyone knows that Federal Labor are a lost cause.
Bob Carr was not put back into politics for no reason . Now we are hearing >>>
(There has been speculation recently about the possible retirement of Schools Minister Peter Garrett, which would create a vacancy in his eastern Sydney seat of Kingsford-Smith.) Remember this is Bob Carr’s area .
Labor has been trying to get Bob Carr into Federal Politics well before he resigned as Premier of NSW .
Bob Carr was recently questioned about running as PM , which he has ruled out ……… can you really believe that ? because I dont . Bob Carr is in Federal politics for a purpose . The rest of the States do not know much about Bob Carr’s history and perhaps the ALP is banking on that .
Just leave them go. They are like a chook with one foot nailed down. If they think they can wring some electoral benefit out of Carr in the Reps leave them to it. You’d think ALP would still have Carr’s file from his Premiership days and be able to make better choices. Losing Garret won’t harm them either. All makes coalition job that much easier but we must suffer their wacky socialism to the end.
Watching the ALP in Canberra is like watching a snake die. It’ll keep convulsing until sunset but it’s dead anyway.
My theory is that Carr had the job (foriegn Minister) before krudd ever left the US. Julia ran around the caucus telling the story of what will happen assuming she wins. Senator Mark was tapped on the shoulder and told that if julia wins that he will be required to resign for family reasons thus making the seat available for carr.
If you recall Arbib resigned within about one hour after the vote, all to cosy and quite typical of a Gillard linching, gillard would have thought she was killing 3 birds with the one stone.
I think that Arbib quit because there is a mess to come out on a development dodgy caper with Union cronies, National Bank in up to their neck in the deal. Arbib allegedly got some beachfront real estate for his efforts. I see that Shane has added a link on this matter above. No-one resigns for family reasons.
Everything that Labor does is Corrupt ! Corruption seems to be running in their blood !