"Rudd had signed the Kyoto Protocol..."

Why did he bother? Nothing more than a symbolic gesture, which made no difference to the environment.

"abolished the unpopular Workchoices"

Which has smashed productivity in this country, and brought back the bad old days of unions vs employers, when every monkey with half a brain out there knows that the adversarial system is no longer needed, and has resulted in unintended consequences for retail employers, and students who wish to work, among others. That's ok though, because at least it got rid of an evil Howard policy, right?

"apologised to the Indigenous Australians"

OK, fair call there, but why not simply listen to elders of those communities and take the required action? Oops, nope, it's far better to come up with your own worn out socialist agenda, which is utterly the opposite of what they want, and go with that. But at least they should feel better about the fact they got a sorry. Sheesh.

"and successfully led Australia through the global financial crisis."

Sorry that is an outright lie. Nothing but political spin, straight out of the Labor party play book. There is only one group who can claim to have acheived what you so blindly attribute to Rudd, and that's the Chinese.
Maybe switch degrees from "Arts", to economics then come back and comment on that one.
Also, reading some literature other than Green Left Weekly might give you a more balanced view of the way the world works.

In short, Hawke was one of their best. Rudd was a grandiose little man, wanna be dictator, full of BS and hubris. No comparison whatsoever.
But, if that's your opinion, fine. You would need to come up with some real achievements though.

Thanks for narrating the events leading to the toppling of two Prime Ministers as result of their party factional discord.

But, isn’t factional ‘power play’ what happens in any political party and in any organization run by personnel unencumbered and uncontrolled?

We elect to office people on the strength of their sole word of honor. Once in office they proceed free from control.

We know nothing of their qualifications and do not seek references from their previous employers.

And what if their honor or their capability is inexistent?

Until the people of this country succeed in defining the word ‘Politician’ we will not be able to understand what we mean when we say ‘Democracy’.

Sir, Welcome to On Line Opinion with the hope that you will join in this vital search

shhhhhhhh,

don't mention the carbon tax.

the GAYLP has not represented "the workers" since Chifly was PM. They replaced Krudd with a closet communist from the Loony Left faction & look what that did for them. Now they are about to do the same in SA. they ahve learned nothing & never will. Left wing politics is an exercise in self delusion & self oppression.

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for Labor.They have betrayed their own constituency.Keating was a disaster and Hawke very average.There is no Jack Lang in their ranks and self interest consumes their party.The rot is well and truely set in.

Perhaps Bob Katter can begin the revolution.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12432#215104

Arjay, spot on mate, i want to see a large protest group first which hopefully can encourage some of the existing minor parties to merge as Bob Katter has already done with one of the QLD state independents.

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/KevNSW believe it or not these guys are not too bad, a good mix of moderate, cynical refugees from both sides of politics.

In Australia, it is certain that the Commonwealth has the power over the states regarding the use of wealth. What restrictions the Commonwealth makes, affects the ability of the way the states can work, so the states cannot operate efficiently if the Commonwealth has not put the right tax or any other controls in order. Quite bluntly, the top personal tax had already been shown to have to be at about 65% and it follows that to get the required 30% of GDP, it needs a zero tax on about $30,000. Unfortunately not one of the treasurers since Harold Holt has had the intelligence or integrity to take on this decision and even though Harold was a Liberal, not even any liberal party treasurers have even attempted to test his tax system,or improve on it, they would sooner see the industries be destroyed along with the farms etc and the wage earners getting kicked out of their homes because they could only get two or three days work a week and couldn’t pay their mortgage on the house. Unfortunately for the US, the same requirements exist there; I understand that George Bush reduced the top personal tax from about 70% to the 35% when he was the President, and this has been the downfall of the country. Quite bluntly the top personal tax has to be approximately 65% and there needs to be zero tax on about $30,000, but not one person has “lowered” his perspective to do such a horrible thing, just think what his associates would think of him, allowing lowly workers to obtain any income without having to pay tax. The Liberal Party has been as bad as the Labor Party since 1970, niether has been worth the trouble of walking down the street to vote for them. I know there are fanatics in both parties who believe "their party" would deliver a successful government - hahaha

"When Labor culled their best: from Hawke to Rudd"

Why cull their "best" - because Labor represents dysfunctional politics and thus behaves in a dysfunctional manner...

and lets face it, if a fornicating adulterer and an obsessive narcissist are "their best"....

it explains why every time they get into power they and the not so "best" run the economy into the ground

Then we have to vote in a Liberal government to rebuild a tax-paying, wealth economy.

Bring on the Next Election