Oh come on! Politics is politics in Australia, China, or Bongo–Congo and the politicians running any country understand only too well what happened, knowing full well that it is an occupational hazard and could happen to them only too easily. Probably a fair bit of schadenfreunde going around.

This is more of the "what will people think of us" syndrome.

Similar to the "we have to have a carbon tax because that will show the world we're serious", and the same people firmly believe that those waiting with bated breath to see what Australia does, will immediately follow suit - such is their respect for things Australia does.

Hey they probably have special departments watching us and studying what we do, since we're so important and such world leaders and so wonderful and really nice people and so intelligent .. but mostly they think we're blithering fools.

No one cares what we do, they are amused occasionally about the self inflated egos down here, but otherwise are focused on their own affairs - not what a bunch of nobodies in Australia does.

Jeez, get over yourselves already!

Some observations on the article and comments to date.

*Kevin Rudd should not have a diplomatic role. Even if it is offered, he should not accept.

*He should have let Gillard stew in her own juice and taken some pleasure at the disaster that would have followed without coming to her aid in the last two weeks. He doesn't need the job.

*The trio of Shorten, Arbib and Gillard are still blaming the status of Rudd for the failures everywhere whereas it was their actions against which the people reacted. Rudd would have won again.

*The blowback against Gillard was real. The Queensland result and without Green preferences a large number of the Labor Ministers would have failed this time around.

*Certainly Rudd made mistakes. Now that the blood on the scaffold has dried; he didn't consult; he didn't believe in party consensus being autocratic; he was somewhat hypocritical in being a Sunday Christien and yet be unchristian in his daily language (by all accounts); he had too big a program, unachievable by any standard. Someone should have told him, forcefully. He was also conscious of the devious factions, who have had him in their sights for possibly two years and finally got him, notwithstanding Gillard as an extremely leftwing usurper accepting rightwing support. Hypocritical.
We are faced with mediocrity, everywhere.

*People in other countries do not really give a damn what happened out here, a country of 22 million. They just consider us to be somewhat stupid.

*The assassination was inept and showed the seriously compromised Ms Gillard for what she is, which will last for her lifetime in politics, however long or short that is..

*If Labor makes a majority this time in 2010, and the coalition changes from a feckless leader to someone with capability and credibility, Labor will not make it again for six years thanks to Arbib, Shorten, Gillard and the realisation that these kind of people make up the bulk of the Labor Party.

The ALP need to find a biographer for Kevvy.

Is Blanche free ... yet?

Kieth, WE don't know that Kevin didn't consult, you have to remember that he has been the first Quieenslander to hold that position - at least for a long time, and we don't really know what he was trying to get done. He embarked on projects to create employment, but do we know what else he might have been trying to do, I suspect that Wayne Swan would have been against him if he was trying to change the tax to give the workers and small business a bit of a boost. Remember that the treasurers over the last 40 years have been reducing the top tax and this has resulted in the obscene incomes taken by many of the CEO's and others, which has increased the costs of the goods and services and made life that much harder for these people. Ask around for the industries where your Father, Mother, Uncles and Aunties, all their friends used to work, the politicies that you rave about, have put the system into place - over the last 40 years, to destroy them. Where are your children and grandchildren going to work to be able to buy and keep a home, and raise a family - the prospects now are bad, aren't they.

While I agree with most of this article, the idea that the way Rudd was dumped would offend our Asian audience is laughable!

It would hit home with them actually, for in our region, apart from NZ - the only other European nation, the political processes are backwards.

Does the racist Mahatir Mohammed ring any bells for the writer? And in particular, how he nullified his opponents?

Sodomy charges. Says it all really. Their whole system is screwed.