If rudd wins and calls an early election, it will be the easiest campaign for the Coalition. Hockey was already sharpening the spears in parliament today.

Well I got that wrong, as wrong as the two posts under mine above.
Rudd did not stand.
Because he knew he did not have the numbers.
My party is as split today as it was in the DLP days.
Its current owners, those who stopped the Rudd/ALP victory, the AWU/Labor right, won a right to drive my party head on in to its greatest loss.
They unseated Rudd, to its praise worthiness the NSW right partlty, came back.
But the right is owned and controlled by AWU inside and out side the party.
Abbott survives, because Gillard is as bad.
Today, AWU/Labor right gifted Abbott victory.
See above all the cat fight in Parliament, to back not just the worst judge of policy's in our history, Gillard they ignored.
Even took for granted both union and party voices crying for change.
Thanks for that, thanks for just maybe 23 more years in opposition.
MS Gillard? tough? the day you go my party breaths again.

Boy has the red witch put Ruddy on the point of the sword.

If he doesn't challenge he's a pathetic little woos. He'll have to resign from parliament, to preserve his ego.

If he challenges & looses, he is a pathetic little man, no one wants.

If he challenges & wins he's a pathetic lame duck PM, about to get his butt kicked by a bloke who can't string 10 words together.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.

Of course who ever wins, the majority, us, all loose.

She really is a female Latham isn't she? They would make a perfect pair.

Just imagine, in a perfect world, the pair would have married, & been happy ever after raising lots of little vipers.

So we now have a government with a majority of one, and a ruling paty which is bitterly split something like 55-45.

The Gillard supporters hate Rudd more than they do Abbott, and the Rudd supporters hate Gillard more than they do Abbott.

And we still have 177 days to go to the election. Unless something drastic happens.

Given that the Labor party will be decimated at the election, the task will be - is now - start planning to salvage, re-form, re-assess and painfully re-build.

But perhaps that can't even begin as long as the party is so divided. So clearly, in order to save it, both Rudd and Gillard have to be expelled from the Labor Party, for life. A stop-gap leader could then take the Labor Party to complete defeat in September, if not sooner, and then get on with the job of re-building, over the next three or vour cycles.

I'm about the same vintage as you, Belly, but I honestly don't expect to see another federal Labor government in my lifetime.

What could have been ......

Joe

So Juliar survives because Rudd was too much of a coward to challenge.

So much better for Abbott now that it is clear that Juliar no longer has the support of the ALP.

What a day this has been.

I was watching News 24 and listening to the
commentary from various Labor MPs who were
so certain that Kevin Rudd would challenge
the PM. He didn't. And Simon Crean
has found himself without a job. Ah well,
politicians are like poultry - roosters today and
feather dusters tomorrow.

At least any sort of leadership challenge has now
finally been put to rest and the Party will get on
with putting the blow torch onto the Opposition -
holding them to account for their reform agenda,
policies and costings.

The government can now
continue with the business of governing. There's
still so much to be done. They've already
Passed many bills unopposed (and many others passing with
narrow margins). I watched the PM's performance today,
and I have to admit that I admire her ability
to stay cool and collected under considerable pressure.

The next six months are certainly going to be interesting.