< Rudd crashing not crashing through >

Well Jo and Scott, I just hope to goodness you are right!

73-29, well done Labor Caucus.

I now hope that the public can realise why Rudd had to go. Was never up to it.

...Today; (If Rudd fails in his leadership challenge), will simply represent “but another day” in the continuum of the days of the Gillard "Annus Horribilis", the one more day Labor dismisses and ignores the will of its faithful followers, out there in the Greater land of the "Antipodeans"!

With the media cries of 'Live coverage from 5:30 AM' this leadership saga can now be accurately seen for what it really is: a sporting contest on the scale of the Melbourne Cup and the AFL Grand Final.
Politics as a blood sport. So not edifying!
I started to wonder what governments around the world might be thinking of us, but quickly decided not to go there.

29 to 73, he's gone and good riddance.

There is no comparison to Whitlam at all.

Rudd was a well known liability in Qld and should never have been encouraged to take the leadership.

The ALP have no people able to lead their party to beat Abbott, so it seems.

Which speaks volumes for the ALP, since Abbott is hardly a serious contender for running our nation.

Gillard might like to stop treating us all as if she were an infant school teacher and see if she can plumb her depths to look for any sign of humanity within.

So far, she appears as a total fraud, which is why she is so unpopular with the public.

It is her fault, and Swan's and the rest of the Rudd Cabinet, that the public had to suffer Rudd's manic behaviour.

But such horrors as the Malaysia Solution, Gillard's own Final Solution to appease the silliets of punters had nothing to do with Rudd.

Her own judgement and solutions to problems are not much chop.

premature with anouncing vote, actually 71-31.

True, does it make any difference though?

He's a goner, a dead parrot, a piece of history, a dead duck, a fizzer, past tense, 'dead buried and cremated' in the words of the World's Biggest Dunce.

If K Rudd had said something like this I reckon a few more Labor MPs - those with a bit of red blood in them - would have added to his 31 vote total in today's ballot:

"I want to get the hell in there again. The quicker I clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Libs and clean out their nest, too. Before that Goddamned woman gets all of the credit."
(apologies to General George S. Patton, Jr)

Rudd’s been absolutely trounced!!

Ahh, that has really brightened my day ( :>)

What a crazy thing to do – to give up one of the country’s most esteemed jobs as foreign affairs minister, with all its lerks and perks, without being pretty well assured that he was going to win back the prime ministership!

So he’s gone. Yarrhoo!

It is ironic that Julia Gillard was instrumental in getting Kevin Rudd to shelve the emissions trading scheme (which turned out to be his best prime ministerial decision), promised that her government would not introduce a carbon tax, but then did a complete backflip to introduce the world's highest carbon tax, given that there was no empirical scientific evidence nor economic or international reasons to justify such a tax.

It is ironic that Julia Gillard introduced the Fair Work ( an ironic misnomer) Act that, by allowing the imposition of high labour costs and reducing labour productivity, reversed the economy-enhancing labour deregulation measures implemented by the Hawke-Keating Labor governments. Julia even failed to give the appearance of fairness, by allowing the appointment of ex-union officials to 11 of the top 14 Fair Work Act administrative positions.

It is ironic that Julia Gillard claims that she is serious about assisting Australian manufacturing, but then imposes the carbon tax and implements a Fair Work Act that will disadvantage -- not assist -- all Australian industry.

It is ironic that Julia Gillard, contrary to what applies in other developed economies, has renationalised the telecommunications industry that the Hawke-Keating Labor governments had transformed and made more efficient by opening to competition.

Is the Gillard 'brand' of Labor the Labor brand to which the authors aspire? If so, it is in the national interest that the next general election be brought on as soon as possible

18 months, and there will be an election. In the meantime maybe we can see some policies from the noalition, that stack up of course. Until then no one knows what they are voting for.
A political leader position is not a popularity position, you vote for a party.

Just a thought.

Can Ms Gillard form a stable government between here and the next scheduled election? If I were Tony Abbott (which thank the lord I'm not, sir), and if I wanted to grab the Prime Minister spot before my own party lynches me for being a dick, I'd do everything I could to bring the election date forward.

Given a fairly disenchanted Labor back bench,one that is now populated by a bunch of relatively senior, and disgruntled, members, it wouldn't take much to topple the whole thing.

Fact is, Abbott will become increasingly dispensable, the closer an election gets...

Drover's dog, anyone?

In the meantime, I expect there is a seat already warm for Rudd at Macquarie Bank. He must be worth at least as much as the half bar they slung Bob Carr's way, surely?

After all, that payment for his "part-time consultancy" couldn't possibly have been for services previously rendered by His Bobness, could it.

Oh god, isn't that typical?

Labor count 102 bits of paper, & first get 73-29, then count them again & get 71-31. You would have thought they would have enough fingers & toes with the lot of them. I wonder what the correct count actually was.

No wonder they can't handle the budget.

Lets not worry hasbeen old boy, who cares what the figures are. The leader of the party is a minor part.
It's up to Tony to explain what he is doing there, and what is his worth to Australia.

Jo Coghlan,Want to start up a New Libertariarn Party to repalace Labor? No corporate donations and a new constitution that says,only our Govt should have the power to create new money that represents our productivity.

Iceland is doing it as does Iran.It will mean no more Govt debt.Prior 1913 the USA used to do it.

Whilst Rudd failed to win today by a hefty margin, politically speaking re-electing Julia Gillard was a naive and dumb decision.

Julia Gillard in a speech said...."The CHOICE that the nation faces and that her parliamentary colleages face on Monday..."

See the 1.20 mark at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/feb/24/kevin-rudd-julia-gillard-australia-video

How did the Australian people...(the Nation)....make a choice? Has she seen her polling? From that polling alone the majority of the Nation doesn't want her!

By using those words she has proven we have no choice! But worse rubbed our faces in it! We are a minimalist democracy where the only time politicians really listen is at election time.

In a much larger way however, the elected members of the ALP actually let down Australia.

Julia Gillard will cause the ALP to lose in a landslide at the next Federal election. I doubt she can rejuvenate her party's performance and they will be decimated.

By re-electing Gillard they not only have failed the Australian population now, but will cause Australia to have one of the weakest oppositions on record when they lose power.

The Westminster system needs both a strong Government and a strong opposition.

Whilst many people don't like Rudd, he at least offered a stronger opposition after the next election.

So in effect the Einsteins of the Labor political machine have done similar to what the Democrats did. They have let Australia down again.

Gillard is a failure, and her unintelligent continual repeating of a mantra in her speeches, eg. "I get things done" or the "moving forward", is demeaning to everyone who has the misfortune to hear her speak.

Even though I am not a supporter of Rudd, and as wrong as this may sound, he was the choice that should have been taken today.

By today's decision the Labor Party have virtually guaranteed their defeat in the next Federal Election.

Far worse though, they have given the Libs a free run to win the next election, leaving Australia with a pathetically demoralised and ineffectual opposition post election.

Well done to the political gurus of the Labor Party. Another Epic fail

There is something particularly stupid about the Australian media who can claim that a born and bred boy from the bush of Queensland toughened by terrible adversity as a child has not labor values but a migrant fresh off the boat from Wales does.

Honestly I have never heard so much drivel written about Rudd in all my life.

For those who watched media watch I suggest you read in full the answers by Tingle and Uhlmann.

They will piss you morons right off.

Because it was all made up by the journos and it shows.

Who’re you callin a moron Ms Shepherd??

Maxine McKew offered some interesting background to Gillard in the Age on Saturday. It seems that Gillard was plotting against Rudd from the 2007 election and her and Swan forced him into dropping the ETS.

Labor;...On a spaceship to nowhere!

...7.500 households in Queensland are without power as a consequence of "Non Payment of Account": Multiplied by seven states and territories is 52,500 households without power in Australia. Multiplied by the two parent and two children per household average, 220,000 Australians are disconnected from the power grid as a consequence of NPA.

...Obviously the above group are not assisted by the myth of full employment, and an unhelpful carbon tax.

...Rudd was the voters choice for leadership of the party; Gillard again demonstrates she is totally out of touch with the electorate, and will continue now, with her ignorant contribution of "dire consequences" to too many of them.

Who’re you callin a moron Ms Shepherd??
Ludwig,
the ones who had to count twice to get 71-31.

Blame the carbon tax for everything even though it doesn't come into effect till july.
The leadership is not a popularity contest.
I go on economy results, and AU is doing very well, even with the negative push from the opposition.
Great leaps in infrastructure are underway. In 2007 we were stagnating.
When the opposition eventually get some policies together then the contest for polling can begin, until then it is very one sided.

579, until you mentioned the “great leaps” and “economic results”, I must confess I’d not quite thought of the ALP in those terms. Like so many Australians as indicated by the polls, I seem to have been diverted by other issues.

Grocery watch
Fuel watch
Watering down of border protection laws
Boat people living in Hotels
Climate Change Citizens assembly
BER
Pink Batts
$900 cheques
Live cattle trade to Indonesia
East timor solution
Malaysia solution
Knifing a first term PM
20/20 Summit
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
Carbon Tax
Cash for clunkers
Minimum Renewable Energy Targets
Solar panel rebate
Green Loan scheme
Green car scheme
GP super clinics
Child care centre’s
Kevin Rudd being able to dole out $8bn in foreign aid annually
Computers for every school child
Indigenous health
Health rebate
Super Profits resource tax
Mineral Rent Resource Tax
Proposed Hospital Funding overhaul
Set top boxes for pensioners
Saying Sorry
Murdoch Press Media review
Giving Holden a bailout and a week later Holden workers get a 22% pay increase
Abolishment of the ABCC
Australian Television Network tender
NBN - $60bn and counting
$220bn national debt
Borrowing $112m per day
Budget surplus smoke & mirrors
Craig Thomson/Williams
Wayne Swan
Making KRudd the Foreign Minister if he is so bad
Indigenous Intervention
Marriage Act
Private Health Rebates
Starting the Australia day riot
Lying on the 4 corners interview

Nice of you to pop back to planet Earth occasionally just to let us all know how good things are on planet ALP.

For infrequent interplanetary visitors such as you we have allocated a large supply of “reality tablets”. These are available from “www.what is it you just don’t get.com”.

These tablets are available free if you can show that your brain cell count is below 580. At 579 you’re just in, lucky you

I did say infrastructure, I am not sure what your list proves. We have the greatest economy for quite some years. Employment at an all time low. You have nothing to grumble about.
The weakling abbott is in denial, as usual. Try understanding why our economy is so great.

Well 579, you could have actually read the list but I can accept that would be distressing for you.

Just to help you a little. We started with $22bn in the bank, no debt as we had paid off all the $94bn left by Hawk/Keating, and we had a future fund with a further $40bn. Got all that?

Now we have already spent the $22bn we had in the bank and already raided the future fund by $4.4bn to pay for the compensation for the CO2 tax that we will now have to pay. We have already spent a further $220bn that we don’t have so we borrowed it. That is costing us $112m every day in interest only repayments.

The national debt does not include the $60bn that the NBN will cost as our brilliant treasurer, “send us down the river” Swannie, has decided to put it Off-Book as an asset for future resale? God help us.

It appears that your brain cell count might not be as high as previously thought. Perhaps you might consider a new screen name round about the 100-120 mark? Just a suggestion.

Spindoc, those things you list are such mindless trivia.

The BER is amazing and underspent over nearly 24,000 projects, go and visit some schools dingbat.

As for the rest, it's mind numbing nonsense compared to kids not thrown, two wars, 1 million or more dead, AWB giving $300 million to Saddam Hussein and actual crimes.

The irony is that Emerson's first act was that of a dictator.

He tried to stop members attending a West Papua forum and Laurie Ferguson stated that Rudd would never do that.

So much for Rudd the dictator.

Rudd was being white anted by the zionist lobby in 2008 over the passports affair and anyone with a brain knows it.

If Mark Arbib had a sign in 10 foot red letters screaming I DID IT, his resignation could not be more a confession than if he actually wrote one.

History will show quickly that the media shills were making up the lies about Rudd and told them so often the morons think they are true.

Good morning Marilyn, go girl!

Was Mark Arbib pushed to stand down as a senator?

It appears that after Kevin Rudd resigned, Julia Gillard was working towards creating a Senate vacancy when she approached Bob Carr late last week promising appointment to the Senate together with appointment as the new Minister for Foreign Affairs. Bob Carr is understood to have accepted.

However, it appears that Julia's 'loyal' supporters got wind of her scheme and shouted "no way" to giving the Foreign Minister posting to Bob Carr, insisting that the posting must be given to the ever-faithful Stephen Smith or Simon Crean. Hence Bob Carr's press statement that he is no longer interested in being appointed to the Senate.

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of the soap opera, 'Julia: We Are Us'.