FORMER NSW premier Kristina Keneally and indigenous leader Warren Mundine have emerged as leading contenders to take Mark Arbib's Senate spot after his shock resignation as assistant treasurer, and from parliament, The Australian yesterday.
If Keneally was to land the job to replace Agrub it will show how far the ALP has reformed. A ditsy right wing catholic the party does not need. Anyway, its my understanding she is the leading contender to replace Pete Garrett in Kingsford Smith at the next poll. Pete if he was to run again would give the Liberals a big chance of winning the seat for the first time ever, got a 6% margin, he is unlikely to get Green preferences and the Libs should run a strong candidate if the same bloke who ran last time stands again. At the last NSW poll Keneally suffered a 16% swing in Heffron after her 'million dollar' campaign and the Libs ran a weak 'out of towner' candidate. What Keneally doing these days, an opposition back bencher in the NSW parliament with a new hair do.
Surly the ALP would go for Warren Mundine over Keneally.

Houellebecq, true, but please don't misinterpret my intent on Crean.

I am not suggesting him as the mystical 'third man' to come out of the bog and lead the ALP to wisdom and power, I just think he sounds a little more leaderish than Gillard does, or any of her lackies.

Frankly, there is nothing quite so odious as Pyne either, although I do agree that Crean has an unfortunate nasal whine that makes him sound as if he is constantly whingeing.

Perciles, I am inclinded to agree with your analysis of the political scene.

However, I rather foolishly went to a candidates meeting this week, and had to suffer the Katter Krackpot Kandidate, perhaps not an example of what you were thinking of but a fact today, the small party of dedictaed loonies who fixate on tiny aspects of government.

A worse mob than the One Notion crowd I suspect. Then we already have the Guntoters and the 4WDs, the Sex Party, The various God Squads, what next?

The Tools Party for tradies? The Black Car Black Window Party for gormless self-important drivers? The HGV Lorry Party for long distance drivers? With their factional breakaway groups, the Rigids, the Semis, the B Doubles and the Road Trainers?

Sadly, we still seem to need broadly based political parties but these parties need members who will turn up and drive them on policy issues, which is what most of us do not do.

The ALP membership barely extends beyond union staff, ALP staff, chancers who want to sit on red or green leather, and the immediate families of all the above.

There are no 'real people' in the branches anymore and those who are there are old and still fighting the Whitlam era stoushes, waiting for Gough to rise again, just after a steam powered Chif' comes back out of the tunnel with his Davey Safety Lamp, to shine the way ahead, like the Prince of Darkness, Joe Lucas.

Paul 1405, love it, "A ditsy right wing catholic the party does not need" but that could be said about so many of the ditsy right wing catholics in the ALP too.

The really sad and pathetic thing about KK is that she has no idea she is a rightwing catholic. She thinks she's a 'progressive' with her daring stance against Pell Doctrine and her 'thoughtful' lurv of 'social justice'.

I do hope the SMH is going to bring us the next debacle within the NSW ALP, as they all scramble for the drippings of power from the Judas retirement- oh what joy to be in the vicinity of Sussex Street today!

Personally, I think we on OLO should write to the NSW ALP and nominate our own candidate, Belly, who seems to have the requisite dedication to the dead doormat that is demanded and also demonstrates a far better understanding of what he values than any currently sitting in any parliament on the ALP side today.

He may not be a blonde with hair pieces, he may not be Indigenous, he may not be 'in favour' but he's honest, he's as articulate as a Katter or a Heffernan and he understands the meaning of 'allegiance'.

He's my man for the NSW Senate spot.

Graham, there are many Australian’s who are in a state of political shock. Not so much because of the leadership spill but what has been said and done in the quest for power and the “in your face” naked ambition.

No genuine Australian can feel proud of recent events. When I say recent I mean from the day K Rudd was removed. There has been a political dialogue and policy making environment that manifests more like sixth form adolescence with a touch of student politics. From any perspective it remains an unresolved embarrassment.

No one really believes that the “healing can begin” because we all now know that the modern ALP is a consortium of opposing ideology and power brokers. It is no longer a major “political party” just an infected carcass of its former self. To watch this once great movement along with its social justice and equity values disintegrate is a tragedy for all Australians.

What is even sadder is the fact that the onset of this decay is not new. The rot has been ongoing by stealth and papered over by successive political leaders, rusted on support from the good old days, the progressive media, ideologues and academia. All this time these people have been preventing the stench and extent of the rot from getting to the electorates.

All this is now fully exposed for all Australians to see and yet, god bless them, many in the media are back to work with all the old “all is good” rubbish. We should all despair equally at the demise of the inquiring, independent and professional journalists, the absence of whom is part of the problem and self evidently, not part of the solution.

Not only will the ALP fail to recover, we will see the “departure” of the good the bad and the future potential for the ALP. Preferences will not flow as in previous federal elections and this will add to the destruction of the ALP as we know it.

I despair at the ALP supporters; they still defend what “is” rather than fixing it.

A westminster system at work. Sounds like a golly good rant to me. Not one libber can see what they do not want to.
A political party in denial, of everything, even the system we have.
The opposing party are very thoughtful of labor changes., but do not contribute at all to the AU economy, or any thing at all that matters to this nation.

THB I don't know about Belly, I think he is a member of the KKK, that is the Kristina Kerscher Keneally fan club, was at the last NSW election.
I think the best man for the job would be if the ALP could find some disgruntled Liberal member from the house of reps who could defect to the Senate as an ALP. All they would have to do is agree to let him dress up like King George III when he's in the chamber. That wont work they already agreed to let Pete Slipper dress up as George III, but then again the new bloke might like to dress up as Napoleon or Julius Caesar, nothing too outlandish.