Right, the News Media seems to have a bizarre idea of what makes the 'actual' left-wing of the Labor Party.

The left-wing of the Labor Party is the one that represents the Unions, the AWU, ETU, CFMEU, AMIEU, AMU, to name just a few. They come under a council called the Australian Council of Trade Unions, or the ACTU. The so-called "loony left" includes actual Communists (who are the only ones who are actually left-ish), the pro-boat people idiots, the wackos etc.

The right is essentially the inner-city suburban electorates, full of yuppies and single-ethnic community stacking.

The media is going mad, suggesting it is amusing that the "Right" is supporting Gillard against Rudd, they aren't. The "actual Right" (the stacked inner-city branches) are pro-Rudd, the "actual Left", the Unions, especially the harder ones, are supporting Gillard.

If Gillard loses this, my suggestion would be that she go to the back bench and allow Messrs Swann and Rudd to go and lose the next election (which they would, the left destroyed Latham by not voting) then take over again.

If She wins, then the actual union members have ZERO interest in refugees, continued out of control migration and letting jobs go offshore. That is not a "race to the right" (Rudd, tonight), but a race back to the left, to embrace the "ACTUAL" Labor voters who have been left behind by the constant move to the right of the Labor Party (the people who voted for Hanson are predominantly & historically, staunch Labor supporters).

Gillard is from the left, hopefully she stays there.

CUSTARD :) I'll try to make it to Werribee Station during peak hour to display some 'interesting' information *Hi5*

Werribee is Guillard Central.

They are already going nuts in the Pilbara. A dozen crane drivers
on a major site are holding up everything, as 3500$ a week is
just not enough, they want 7% more, so are sticking in the knife.

Union thuggery, just like we used to have it! That will make
Custard so happy.

Perhaps Boazy should learn to spell the new PM's name correctly, or he'll make an even greater idiot of himself. Boazy - get someone to video you and post it on YouTube!

Yabby, are you suggesting that the crane drivers are on strike because Gillard is now PM? Surely just about anybody's better than Rudd.

Gillard is no more 'left' than Macklin or Tanner, or the Ferguson twits are... the entire ALP is a right-middle rightwing party, which is where the vast majority of Australians sit.

The ALP has never ever been 'left' at all but it has tried to cater to 'the workers' who, in the main, are the most dismally rightwing here as they are everywhere else, like the USA and the UK.

The ease with which Gillard, Macklin and Tanner adopted Rudd-speak-and-action is distressing, since Macklin in particular has become a supporter of the most drastic of Howard's policies that she could now easily slip under the wing of Abbott.

Tanner has adapted very easily to the standard view of economics, the dominant neo-liberal rubbish that promotes constant growth and 'free markets', while never being responsible enough to stand free of state props when the 'free enterprise' fails and needs the long suffering tax bail-outs that keep our economic system healthy.

As within the ALP, with its factions, people are only attached to a left right paradigm in order to distinguish one from another.

The titles are totally meaningless when all the economics used is rightwing economics, and there is very little difference at heart between Abbotts economics and Tanners, although I'd wager that Tanner has a better grasp of it than Abbott could ever manage.

All said, it's great to see the back of the ACL controlled Rudd anyway... even if JUlia is no more than Rudd-in-a-frock in reality.

Custard, you DO realize the Labor Party only puts on a front to whichever various sub-groups and lobbyists it thinks will support it.
Otherwise they just ride the gravy train and couldn't care less either which way about "left" or "right".
In fact, the only reason Labor are "Left" at all is because the Liberals beat them to winning over the "right", so Labor are trying different approaches to pander to others who might be gullible enough to support them- and now they've alienated themselves from the "right", they have no choice to pander solely to the "left" or lose everybody.
Just like Liberal would if the tables were reversed- and still do anyway.