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The Forum > Article Comments > Is Rudd a dud? > Comments

Is Rudd a dud? : Comments

By Chris Lewis, published 16/9/2008

If Rudd is concerned with leaving a legacy to match his ego, he should shift the balance of assistance to those most in need.

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Kevin Rudd is to the right of Malcolm Fraser. People who voted against John Howard probably wish that the Greens were a large enough party to take office.
Would a Malcolm Turnbull government be to the left of Rudd's Labor.
Posted by billie, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 8:41:28 AM
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Well measured and very good article, thank you.

I also believe Rudd governs with an eye to how history will see him, as did John Howard to an extant and certainly what Mal Fraser realised after the event. Poor Malcolm now spends his time trying to rewrite history, note to Mal, some of us will never forget you were Minister for Army (prior to Dept Defence existing) when Australians were conscripted to go to Vietnam, don't come the crying lefty to us. Hawke and Keating ruled on sheer strength of personality, and didn't care what people thought, as I saw it anyway.

In the end though, Rudds spinning on everything he does, and trying to do too much to please too many people of his personal choosing tends to seperate the community. Look at the media (likes Rudd) and the responses in the comments and blogs (hates Rudd), people are polarised about Rudd, and after only 9 months, they warmed to hating Howard over a much longer period.

It will be interesting to see if his game plan is to do a sharp turn soon, out to the United Nations or somesuch and abandon the country. it might be just too difficult to come down from the piller he has placed himself upon - realizing there is nowhere to go but down.

Mike Brierley, an ex-England cricket captain, led his team with a view to how history would be written, it guided his strategies and on field tactics - he was almost completely ineffective and eventually hated by his own.
Posted by rpg, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 9:12:13 AM
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It's trendy to be anti-Rudd, but this article is weak- full of contradictions and inconsistencies.

<<Rudd disappoints on the basis of displaying a level of intellectual dishonesty greater that any Labor or Coalition leader of recent years.>>

Chris Lewis then demonstrates the many ways Rudd is a vast improvement on Howard who surely will forever retain the title of the most intellectually dishonest leader of all time.

Lewis gives us a catalogue of Rudd's achievements to date. This includes:
* apologising to Australian Aborigines for past treatment by the Commonwealth;
* ratifying the Kyoto Treaty;
* withdrawing troops from Iraq;
* implementing a strategy towards an emissions trading scheme (ETS);
* reversing the Coalition’s bid to cut Australia’s migration zone by relaying [sic] almost exclusively on the so-called Pacific Solution; and
* increasing foreign aid levels to 0.35 per cent of GNP by 2009-10.

He could have added lots more, for example:

* a new policy on detention of asylum seekers;
* improved relationships with a number of Asia-Pacific nations including East Timor;
* additional funding for the arts;
* abolition of new Australian Workplace Agreements;
* new funds for computers in schools;
* $150 million provided to the States and Territories for a blitz on elective surgery waiting lists;
* doubling the number of undergraduate Commonwealth Learning Scholarship and 1,000 new Future Fellowships for mid-career researchers;

There are many other initiatives in train but yet to be finished (e.g. rolling out national broadband network, the new workplace relations system to be in full operation from January 2010; a new dental health scheme)

And Lewis comments: "It remains to be seen just how generous Labor will be on many other issues."

Yet in the next breath, he has the gall to conclude that Rudd "...has brought Australian federal political leadership to a new low in terms of promising the world but delivering little."

The man's been in office for less than a year. Howard had nearly 12.
Posted by Spikey, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 10:55:25 AM
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It's good to see Quadrant broadening out to include articles like this from labourers in Vic.

Rudd as centre left? That might be where he sits in the Parliamentary prayer group but not in politics. Move right and stay there.

The writer did flag how effective Rudd, et al have been. Yes. He has been far from glowing. I don't know whether this is due to intranscience by the bureaucracy or whether the Caucus is cactus.

Rudd and Gillard know the first battle is getting the schools reform agenda through, and that means taking on the AEU. It's a battle they have to win. Lose that and the press gallery will be all over them.
Posted by Cheryl, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 11:02:01 AM
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I don't see any real achievements other than window dressing.

1 year into his reign he has overseen a major economic slowdown. He is now past the point of being able to blame the previous gov and the next 2 years will determine whether he has any real substance, and can provide both growth and low inflation.

I hope the state labor governments are not a taste of what is to come federally.
Posted by Shadow Minister, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 11:35:15 AM
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Spikey,
What he means is that Rudd isn't doing what HE wants. Craig is old school Union.

From where I sit Rudd seems to be doing what he Believes is appropriate. One could argue is that he is simply more pragmatic and less driven by someone else's ideology than Howard was.

Craig despite his education is still an old school ideologue with polish.
As I've said before Australia in the 21st century needs new ideas new ways of looking at things outside of the constrictions of the obsolete Left/Right prism.
In effect Craig is simply the mirror view to Jerry and the CIS.
And as such they are both are or rapidly becoming irrelevant as wig powder.
Posted by examinator, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 1:46:59 PM
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