If a picture paints a thousand words..

I wish I was like that bloke on TV from "Lie to me". You know the bloke who intently surveys body language to work out what someone is thinking.

I wish I had that talent looking at this classic photo of current prime minister Julia Gillard and former prime minister and now foreign minister Kevin Rudd.

I call it a "classic" photo because it has everything. It could not have been more classic if it were staged.

The white washed "corridor of power". The cold white lights. The cell like look. The two protagonists. The "Fly on the wall", looking on but pretending he is not.

The juxtaposition.

The prime minister has the look of superiority, but more one derived from position rather then inherent power. The foreign minister a look of "if you weren't the boss..."

Everything; arrogance, petulance, tongue biting, pursed lips, fighter's stance.

If this image does not portend a right royal stoush ahead between these two then nothing does.


Picture Courtesy: Daily Telegraph Sydney

Why did I do That?: Tony Abbott Carbon Tax Plebiscite

Tony Does it Again!

Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott can't take a trick!


He thought he was on a winner with his proposed plebiscite on "Carbon Tax". But he needed the support of both cross bench senators, Nick Xenophon and Steve Fielding. But Senator Fielding has come out and put a kibosh on this lame and "shoot from the hip"idea.

Calling the plebiscite, which would have cost $80 million, a "glorified opinion poll", Senator Fielding said:



"What we've got here is a political stunt which will waste taxpayers' money and achieve nothing."

And rightly so. The country can give it's verdict at the next Federal Election.

With all the woes the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and government are going through at the moment all poor old Tony had to do was sit back and smile. But alas, that's  our Tony.






Fielding kills Abbott's carbon plebiscite - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian ex-PM denies planning leadership bid

You know when there is going to be a leadership bid when everyone says there isn't going to be a leadership bid.

Opinion polls have Rudd as a much preferred prime minister than Ms Gillard but Kevin Rudd must have stepped on a lot of toes in the Australian Labor party. There is not a lot of love oozing from his fellow Labor politicians.

But one wonders if Rudd really wants to get the PMs job back, at least at the moment. He would appear to be on a hiding to nothing, given Labor's polling, of winning the next election. As well, we have the Asylum seeker issue, Carbon Tax and live cattle exports issues. One would think it is time to remain warming the bench till the tryline turns around. But stranger things have happened in politics. Funnily enough Rudd is the type to relish these challenges.

Rudd appears to be a man who holds a very quiet but very deep hurt over his axing so quickly after bringing Labor to power in 2007. He won't forgive and he certainly won't forget.

But, to his credit, and despite all the criticism about his tripping around the world, he has achieved quite a lot in his role of Foreign Minister. His various speeches around the world particularly his moving ANZAC Day address have, in my book at least, marked him as a man of consequence on the world stage. Just look how many Twitter followers he has!

 For all his schoolboy looks and squeaky clean, butter would not melt in his mouth facade,  Rudd is a fighter.

 He grew up tough and he really has an affinity with the grass roots of Labor's heartland. He may be up against it on many fronts but he is certainly not one to give in without a fight at a time and a place of his choosing.


Australian ex-PM denies planning leadership bid - Channel NewsAsia

Australia's Rudd: Set on being "best" Foreign Minister

The English Telegraph ran the following story today about Kevin Rudd denying aspirations to regain his prime ministerial position. I for one would much prefer to see him back in that position instead of Ms Julia Gillard




"Labor Party figures are reportedly furious that Mr Rudd, who was brutally ousted by his then deputy Miss Gillard in a party-room coup, is giving a series of interviews ahead of the one year anniversary of his dumping.


But asked whether he was plotting a comeback, Mr Rudd, now Australia's foreign minister, said: "I am set on being the best Foreign Minister I can be. But nice try."


Miss Gillard led a party-room coup which removed Rudd in June 2010, and shortly afterwards called national elections in which Labor lost its clear majority and resulted in a hung parliament.

After narrowly scraping back into power by securing the support of several independents and a Greens MP after 17 days of negotiations, Miss Gillard named Mr Rudd as her foreign minister.


Miss Gillard said on Saturday she felt "very secure" in her position, but the nation's first woman prime minister has experienced an unprecedented slump in the polls while Mr Rudd remains popular with the public."

Australia: prime minister Julia Gillard feeling the heat.

A  Herald /Nielsen telephone poll conducted June 14-16 has very few positives in it for prime minister Julia Gillard in particular and the Labor government generally.


The results show a 3% drop in the two party preferred figure to 41% as compared to the Coalition's figure of 59%.


Of particular concern for the PM are the Carbon Tax and  Asylum seekers issues. 


The carbon tax result is self evident but the report does not indicate whether dissatisfaction with Asylum seekers issues is general or more particular only concerning the recent choice of Malaysia as a destination for detention processing . It is my feeling that it is more about destination rather than general policy of housing asylum seekers offshore.


Whatever the issues of contention are among the electorate one can not help but feel that this is a backlash of sorts not against Labor party policies but Julia Gillard herself.


The Australian public has not warmed to Julia Gillard. She really did not even have a honeymoon period.


I have considered this long and hard. As our first female prime minister one would have thought she would have had been cut some slack but no. The manner of her gaining the top position, I believe, does not sit well with a majority of Australians.


Firstly, Australian's do not feel they "elected" her. Despite the fact that only her electorate actually elected her to parliament and it was the Labor  Party who elected her to the top job, Australian's feel they elected a Labor party headed by Kevin Rudd. If anyone was going to get rid of Kevin Rudd it should be them not backroom boys of the Australian Labor Party.


Secondly, the ousting of Kevin Rudd was seen, I believe by many, as being "UnAustralian", to coin that oft used but  ambiguous term. Australian's don't stab their mates in the back. Kevin Rudd may have been getting up the nose of some in the country but that's not how you handle getting rid of him.


Apart from that there are other reasons I feel for the lack of connectivity between Ms Gillard and the people.


Is the fact she is a woman an issue with her acceptance? I feel it is. I would describe mainstream Australia as leaning more to being matriarchal rather then patriarchal so one would think that having a woman leader would not be an issue. But whilst I have this view generally for day to day Australian life I don't think it  holds true in the case of national leadership. 


A degree of sexism it could be said  exists but it is coming from both men and women. Australian's, I quite frankly think, don't see the country being led by a woman.


Then  her lack of connectivity is to a degree a result of her heritage. She is not the fair dinkum, knock about, knock you down then shake your hand, Aussie type that we have been use to in our political history. 


She is not the hard living Bob Hawke calling people "mongrels". She is not the Mao like figure of a Menzies or the say it as you see it Gough Whitlam standing on the steps saying "God save the Queen....", the Billy Hughes' the Jack Langs the Jo's.


The culture has not had enough generations to embed itself. In other words she does not come across as "Australian" enough. 


It is blatantly apparent that Ms Gillard is on a losing streak from which she is very unlikely to recover from and the Australian Labor Party is on a loser, not as a person, but as a leader and a winner at the next election..

Few positives for Gillard in horror poll