>>The message is, Rudd spins, he cares about his career in politics, he doesn’t care about people, he doesn’t care about productivity, it is all words.<<

After seeing Rudd on the 7.30 Report last night, I reckon you are spot on, Bruce. The interview was spin from start to finish. And even Kerry couldn't put a dent in him.

It looks like the insulation program is not going to be the last of it. Now there's a mooted $41 million program to audit the initial problems, but without detail. How do we know it's going to be done any better than the original installation program?

Then there's the fake concern when he's doing his set-piece meetings with victims in front of the media. There he was last night taking down people's names in his notebook for the cameras. The integrity of Federal politics has never been so low. His fanaticism for being in the limelight is distorting the political fabric in ways which I think are becoming very dangerous.

The word ‘spin’ is just a euphemism for ‘lies’. Our politicians are inveterate liars; nobody believes a word they say, so the word ‘spin’ should be dropped for the more accurate and down to earth word ‘lies’.

Rudd, chief liar, appears to be the epitome of the ‘political class’ commented on by corruption-buster Tony Fitzgerald’s in “The Australian” yesterday, 25 February.

Fitzgerald was reported as hitting out “…at what he sees in Australia as an amoral political culture run by a governing class preoccupied with amassing power for itself.”

While this phenomenon is becoming more apparent in all political shades as politicians adopt dictatorial roles and ignore the voices of the people they were elected to serve, our best example of it is with our current Rudd socialist government. Rudd is all about power; in true socialist mode, he interferes in things best left to ministers and professional public servants; he pushes himself as a global ‘leader’ to the detriment of Australia (most recently seen in the ETS fiasco), and his socialist belief that governments can interfere in the market and control private business without any expertise has culminated in the appalling waste and tragic loss of life with the insulation botch up. Four deaths, 90 house fires and a government still with the gall to stonewall criticism about an incompetent Minister and a federal department not equipped for this wild foray into the business world.

Fitzgerald is fair, being reported as saying that ‘“…small groups control the Labor and Liberal parties "and indirectly the national destiny"’. We currently have a ‘group’ of one in Rudd. But, anyone who believes that the Opposition (the last leader was Rudd-like, and the new leader has the right personality) would be any different from Rudd Labor, is kidding himself.

We, as electors, have to start taking more notice of politics and the people claiming to want to ‘represent’ us. “…the general public is becoming increasingly cynical, apathetic and disengaged." (Fitzgerald). We are enabling these dangerous politicians

Very good article. Bruce is quite right. It's spin but educated, thoughtful, waffle. He has a knack of looking considered when in fact the thought bubble is empty. The 'bloke on bloke' stuff is a shocker. He is not a bloke who you'd have a beer with at the pub. He's an autocrat who takes the role of First Minister to heart - so much so that he has co-opted Peter Garrett's job and anyone else in the Ministry who has been naughty.

There will be much more Rudd-speak in the future as he and his minders know they have done not nearly enough in their first term.

I am so angry with all the lies, spin, and incompetence of the Rudd government that I turn off the radio or TV whenever Rudd or one of his minions starts talking. Their spin and talking points are always the same, "look how good we are and here is how bad the opposition is". And they manage to do it without ever once addressing the main question.

The federal gov't is following the lead of the NSW Labor gov't by promising everything, following it up with studies that indicate the promises need more studies or were not the ideal solution but then promising more. Then using the next election as a plebiscite to determine if they should be doing more of the same nothing

I too find Rudd a big disappointment and he certainly lives by spin.
Regarding the title of the article: This applies more to the previous government I believe. Rudd is just carrying on the tradition.
-Howard used racism, class, and fear campaigns whilst playing the public.
-Howard assisted his own family, both overtly and covertly.
-Howard introduced the terrorism laws that undermined our reputation and empowered the not-so-competent ASIO.
-Howard lied to us and took part in illegal (and unethical and stupid) wars.
-Howard increased government expenditure to the wealthy and reduced assistance to the needy. (Small government: Ha!)
-Howard allowed the financial sector to become a massive parasitical profiteering entity. Non-productive yet raking in Billions, we have followed the US into economic insanity.
-Howard sidelined science and boosted religion. Schools are now free to teach the non-existent "controversy" of evolution and allowed to abuse children with obscene radical teachings. This is a serious policy change yet was introduced with no public consultation.

I agree Rudd is carrying a dangerous attitude and appears to be of the "ruling class". The sheer incompetence, coupled with the lack of any real ethical compass is dismaying.
However to this little black duck, the previous generation was much more radical and dangerous, and they have radically changed Australian society. No longer progressive, no longer transparent, no longer balanced, no longer professional nor aspirational. The very cultural factors that gave us success are being eroded and replaced by radical conservatism.
Australia is joining the US and Britain in the decline of the West. I chose to see this as the composting process in which the next civilisation can grow amongst the decay of the prior. Most likely it will be Asian as they treat engineers and scientists (and education generally) with respect and foster industry instead of banking. Amazing how little time it took for the US to be decimated by the Neo-cons, alas I see they have established themselves here on both sides of politics.

Tremendous article, Bruce - and I can see you are deadly serious here. If only our esteemed former Foreign Affairs colleague could recognise the integrity of this advice and take it to heart - because who wants the other lot back, especially with Abbott in charge?

Your suggestion about ASIO opening offices in every country town is on the money. There is no doubt that desperate people in the countryside are being radicalised as a result of ineffective and insincere government responses to the escalating climate change crisis. What Martin Ferguson might call Eco-terrorism (but he would probably call it something else, like interfering with coal power installations of national security importance) cannot be far away, unless the Rudd government comes up with real decarbonisation policies soon.

Unless some people have someone shouting at them they're incapable of picking up the message.

As a carer and as a parent of school children I can report Rudd has more than delivered. In fact he has delivered in all areas EXCEPT where he has been stopped by a conservative Senate: e.g. Fuelwatch: BLOCKED, Grocerywatch: BLOCKED, CPRS: BLOCKED, Private Health Rebate Reform: BLOCKED, and on and on.

And he has done this while keeping Australia free of most of the Global Financial Crisis downside. We are the envy of the world. Is that just spin?

So Bruce have a look and a listen. Unless of course you are ideologically brainwashed like most of the posts and posters above.

LRAM,

You don't work for a political staffer by any chance, do you?

Like, what else could possess you to be so sure?

RobP is right about the 7:30 Report - a masterclass in avoidance of the question. Full transcript at http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2830544.htm , but below is the section where O'Brien 8 times tried to get Rudd to say what had gone wrong. I've cut out the waffle and reduced each of Rudd's statements as close to substance as he ever gets. O'Brien must have felt like he was trying to herd cats.

[begin]

KO’B: Where exactly did the Department [of Environment] go wrong, in your view?
KR: Minister Garrett established standards for the industry, on training, on OH&S, and on quality.
KO’B: Now, I'm going to have to stop you there because...
KR: They are the standards.
KO’B: Yes, we’ve heard that. What went wrong?
KR: The shonks were not picked up by the compliance mechanisms.
KO’B: So...
KR: That's the problem.
KO’B: What went wrong that the department's compliance mechanisms did not work?
KR: There’s evidence of the system not having worked as it needed to.
KO’B: Yes.
KR: As I've said before.
KO’B: But what went wrong, where did it go wrong?
KR: Compliance means that you have a compliance system within it which provides quality control and assessment ...
KO’B: Yes, I understand what compliance is, I'm saying what went wrong with the compliance system? How did it fail?
KR: Well, it failed because it didn't pick up a pattern of badly done installation. That is what went wrong. The Minister had established a series of risk management strategies ...
KO’B: Okay, but it failed.
KR: This has produced real problems. We will fix it.
KO’B: What I'm getting to, really, is: Who will take responsibility? Who will take real responsibility for this failure?
KR: The compliance systems have not worked and the Department of the Environment is responsible.
KO’B: So is your Department incompetent?
KR: Let me just answer the other part of your question and your premise, which I dispute ...

[end]

And on and on it went. Which interviewer wouldn't get tired and eventually give up?

No, I don't RobP.

Didn't think you or any of your type could answer the points I made.

Following up on my previous post:

Reading it like that, in my radically shortened version, it looks and sounds ludicrous – as it should. But if you check out the original full text, you find that most of Rudd’s so-called “answers” were swimming in a miasma of superfluous verbiage, which served to disguise the vapidity of the waffle.

Watching the interview live, by the time you’ve danced around three or four of Rudd’s verbal gavottes, your head is swimming and you feel like you’re wading through treacle.

As a result you miss the kernel of his non-argument, hidden away in the middle. Here it comes in its original form: “Well, it failed because it didn't pick up a pattern of, shall I say, wrong installation, or badly done installation, by a certain number of firms. That is what went wrong.”

Incorrect, Kevin. It didn’t fail BECAUSE it didn’t pick up a pattern. It failed, and AS A RESULT didn’t pick up a pattern. The CAUSE of its failure, and the nature of that failure, and the people responsible for that failure, are still unknown to us. Rudd has disingenuously confused cause and effect.

And, just as he did when he disingenuously conflated people smugglers and the much more sinister people traffickers, as if this notorious micromanager didn’t know the critical difference, he has befuddled even the most experienced and persistent members of the press gallery into letting him get away with it.

Finding the nub of Kevin Rudd’s deflectionary rhetoric is like trying to find a tiny white hair in a tub of fairy floss. He does it all the time, and the ONLY way to find it is to go to the transcript – which, for a live interviewer, is hours too late. By the time you expose the trick, the trickster is long gone.

Sigh. And we thought John Howard was a waffler.

Slobodon,

Are you sure that's not John Clarke and Bryan Dawe?

Maybe Yes Minister?

Nice one Bruce .. for once I agree with you.

I do need to comment on this one though "The kowtowing to vested interests, failure to wrest control, plan and implement proper water planning on a national scale has seen communities and agricultural enterprises collapse." Absolutely agree, it's a fundamental plank of civilisation.

We NEED DAMS, whatever the green/eco lobby thinks, and I agree with you that it is the DUTY of government to supply me with as much water as I need, regardless of other factors, particularly putting green preferences ahead of people's welfare. I cannot believe people allow the ALP in State and Federal arenas to get away with that.

I agree with you on the need to watch the suburbs as well Bruce, the stupid green tendencies of local councils, planning organizations, water authorities etc are pitting people against each other in the suburbs and cities as well as country.

We need governments who will make hard choices for the people and not for their own self election or more glorious goals of UN membership.

Being in government used to be seen as an opportunity to do some good for the country, not vested interest groups and your mates.

When we vote the ALP out, it wil be for a very long time!

LRAM Grocerywatch went ahead, was a useless exercise which cost us $20M and was canceled, just as Choice organisation was about to make it more functional (it was no longer newsworthy, thus of no importance to PM Rudd) - it didn't have to go to parliamentary approval, same as fuelwatch - useless political fluff.

You must be one of the few happy with the current government, everyone else (Canberra Press Gallery excluded of course) seems to be waking up to their incompetence. Thank goodness someone is happy with them.

LRAM,

If you're saying things are better for you, well, fair enough. I think I'm seeing what Bruce is seeing which is the lowering of trust and standards in the political domain. Of course, one man's meat is another's poison, so there will always be others like yourself that will see things the exact opposite way.

Slobodan,

>>Rudd has disingenuously confused cause and effect.<<

You're right, there's still something hidden away from view that he dare not expose. I think Rudd's is a false-bottom-in-the-suitcase type argument. Spend a lot of time on peripheral issues, tire out the interviewers and lead them away from the defenceless cubs secreted in the lair.

Hou...q,

>>Are you sure that's not John Clarke and Bryan Dawe?

Maybe Yes Minister?<<

Nah, Hollowmen. There's a reason it's on TV now.

Bruce 56.5 to 43.5: loss of trust? Spin? Get real!

Kevin Rudd is a Con Man of the finest order , no Conscience no Ethics and no Heart .

He has so disappointed the people of Australia that the People are temporally Paralyzed .

The bitterness in many peoples hearts from both sides of politics are hurting such is their distress .

The ALP should kick Rudd out of Office , we need a Human as our Leader not a Babbling Automaton .

LRAM
I just shows the arrogance of the labor party and unions

Quote
Didn't think you or any of your type could answer the points I made
End Quote

So we have an incompetent government and out of iterest I am a independent.

How do you like the tax dollars to be spent.
properly or just good money after bad.

Dear o dear what a joke, this bloke did this on the Drum the other day and from the looks of it the usual right wing idiots followed him over.
The article like most of the responses is crap, and a large pile of it as well,some of you people will be lost when Abbott goes down at the next election,but then maybe you can move to a real right wing country like the US, and spend your time kissing Murdocks bum,just the usual stupidity from the usual RWDBs

Anyone else find Rudd so hollow and disingeuous when he speaks that they just walk away or turn him off?

Rudd is almost certainly on prescription pschoactive drugs.Not surprising really,it must be a real bummer to wake up in the morning and realize that the only vision you have is for a "Big Australia".

Rudd is a bureacrat through and through, a master of the meaningless phrase and dishonest in avoidance of difficult questions.

I wish politicians were more risk taking in terms of trusting in the public's capability and need for plain and honest speaking.

Pelican

your right, but they are there to bow and do as their masters tell them in the party structure.

They treat us as gullible and have a worth of $2,10 at election time.

It really is up to the people to make the change and if they are too lazy to check the information then they must also take the blame.

We could apply this same observation to Barack Obama.Brand Obama has us to believe in some idealistic rubbish about freedom and integrity,while the pragmatic Obama does the exact opposite.

Kevin Rudd,Obama,Gordon Brown like the rest of the Western leaders are subserviant to to an oligarcical system that is far removed from true democracy.

So i take it Bruce when you were a diplomat you always spoke your mind and aways acted on principle not according to what the demands of the situation were. And you never resorted to spinning anything did you?
Now that you are free of those constraints you feel liberated to pass judgement on those who are still constrained.
Rudd may be long winded and he may indeed be disingenous (there is a long tradition of that in politics). But he is doing no more than his predecessor nor of any of the recent PMs.
What annoys me about this kind of polemic is the hypocrisy of people who used to live by exactly the same kinds of rules now coming out and pontificating from a perspective of the moral high ground and sitting in judgement of those who were your peers not so long ago.
It is hypocrisy and double standards of the worst kind.

Well tapp it looks as if we are getting some of what we hoped.

Mr Rudd is changing his tack if ABC Insiders is indicative. A greater willingness now to accept responsibility for the mistakes thus far but couched in a spirt of "getting on with the job" of fixing those mistakes and deliver on promises.

Governments really need to think carefully about cash handouts even if they are well intentioned. It is almost impossible to oversight these programs without very careful guidelines and adequate checks and balances in the system. Those things take time to get right.

The Rudd government has put too many demands on public servants in this respect and failed to take advice on risks. Not only that but the budget cuts have had effect on staffing levels to be able to do their work with due diligence and care.

It is ironic that governments spend big to boost certain sectors but to pay for it have to make cuts to other areas and public programs/services which also means job losses and a disgruntled public who don't feel they get what they pay for.

I don't think I've read such arrant nonsense in my life....this bloke was a diplomat!

The Rudd government is just a bad government.

Macca I am not naive enough to know it is spin, but at least Rudd has stopped with the initial denial nonsense.

This approach is a litmus test and they have nothing to lose.

Oh god, the old Beattie cr4p. "I have failed, but now you have to let me fix it" bit, on the news tonight.

Well, if you look at what the polls are saying about Bligh, you wouldn't want to be putting too much faith in that one, it's worn out from over use.

I suppose Ruddy thinks he can do it better, he certainly thinks he's better than any one else, prettier too. I've got news for you mate, we don't think you can do anything better, or even well.

Really is starting to sound like desperation time to me.

Harry Evans, the recently retired Clerk to the Senate said it in the Australian in 1997...

"Australian two party system: "In any event...the real need for reform is not so much in the institutions of government as in the political parties. They have become narrowly based, factionalised, undemocratic oligarchies, apt to be controlled by too few people, closed to public view but open to manipulation and outright corruption. Reforming them would make the institutions of government work better without changing those institutions, but without reforming them the institutions cannot work very much better than they do at present."

Unless there is a public mood to discipline the party political system in western democracies, we, and more to the point our children, are doomed...

sapperk9

I disagree with the former clerk. i think what he said may apply to Labor, a party full of functionaries, but the Liberals have people from a broad range of backgrounds. In 1997 Australia had just come out of 13 years of Labor government. It's not really a surprise.