"The model for that group is being revisited and it may yet become a force for genuine equality"

Hope you are right there. I wonder if Rudd has learned anything about the old model in his travels or is he so self obsessed that he can't or won't think about how that plays out in the real world for other people.

R0bert

It's not really surprising that the SA branch was at the forefront of dumping Gillard.

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/06/sa-in-biggest-downturn-since-early-90s-recession/

They're not alone

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/06/where-are-the-job-gains-and-losses/

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/06/abs-job-vacancies-at-post-gfc-low/

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/06/hudson-australian-hiring-intentions-fall/

We need hard-nosed pragmatism and we need productive work to be created. We simply can't afford the free riders and rentseekers to consume what we have left of our national production base.

I hope that Rudd is the person to do it, but if he isn't, then I want the LNP in as soon as possible, because the nation can't take much more.

Emily's List

I can't abide cronyism. Ends do not justify the means.

Besides, the quick-witted and unprincipled are certain to take advantage.

@ Antiseptic / Onthebeach,

I'm going out on a limb here (but as Poirot would say : "It's just an observation")

In principle I am not in agreement with things like Emily's List and affirmative action.BUT, is there evidence that such initiatives are elevating women candidates who are of a lesser calibre to their LNP counterparts. Gauging from the way they handle themselves (on a individual level) in public debates/forums (Q&A etc) they can more than hold the own with the best of the LNP candidates.

Apart from (the usual) cliche examples like Joan Kirner (and even that is debatable)where is the evidence that Emily's List etc gives a leg-up to less capable candidates?

I'm open to correction on this.

Gillard, Roxon, Crossin. Say no more.

If they are indeed changing as I believe, then they may well be a force for some good, but it's probably a moot point anyway if the ALP goes under because of the AWU-WRA affair.

Sorry SPQR, I didn't answer your question, really.

I haven't bothered to compare ALP and LNP women because Emily's list is about competing with ALP men. It also excludes ALP women who are socially conservative, such as Jacinta Collins and even the talented (and shortly to retire) Kate Ellis.

It is that insistence on "the false certainty of consensus" as Eva Cox put it in her 1995 Boyer lecture that I find objectionable and makes it no different to the failed factional model that is at the heart of the ALP's present troubles.