I have created this thread so that everytime the PM scratches himself there is not a new thread created with that news. Anything related to Kevin Rudd or his Wife and family and his time as PM can be posted here. Cheers and thank you.
New Childcare Centres on the way Unlike some people who participated in a news poll on Saturday on one of the websites I said Yes to the question "do you think anything good will come out of the 2020 Summit" Mind you 70 odd percent of those who participated said "no". So much cynicism and pessimism, honestly. Where has all the hope gone? I voted for Kev and am very happy with my decision. Seen enough Governments come and go to know how it works
The current Australian population is estimated at 21,279,493 maf-you of that 1000 people are being listened to, and of the 1000 the honor role goes something like; 118 from GetUp, 142 Union Delegates (big surprise), 100 indigenous delegates, 100 journalists, 100 actors, musicians etc, 200 academics in conservation, 200 politicians. Where's the average Australian worker in that? And what do the brains trust come up with............ they want a republic, anyone going to be asking the other 21,278,497 members of the population? What was never answered before the previous vote on becoming a republic, what is the benefit to the country?
Weren't new child care centres promised pre election? Any shovels been put in the ground at this point?
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
And what do the brains trust come up with............ they want a republic, anyone going to be asking the other 21,278,497 members of the population? What was never answered before the previous vote on becoming a republic, what is the benefit to the country?
Considering the last Republic vote was in 1999 and that only failed because the model put forward by JOHN HOWARD (he wanted a President appointed by 2/3 of Parliament rather than popular vote) was not what the country wanted, I think it's time that we start up the discussions again. I believe that we should wait until Queen Elizabeth finishes her reign before we actually become a republic. As for the benefit to the country, it will give Australia its own identity. You may say that the UK has no real effect on our democratic system anyway but then why must all of our laws be signed by a representative of the Queen who we don't have a say in choosing, apart from choosing the PM who chooses this representative. All the GG is, is a rubber stamp allowing laws to pass through, so we should have an elected representative to do that.
KEVIN Rudd has warned Australians to brace for tough economic conditions as he refused to rule out a recession driven by what he described as the most uncertain global financial conditions in three decades.
The Prime Minister blamed global factors and the Howard government for the turmoil, insisting his economic policies and $22 billion budget surplus had given Australia greater insulation against the worsening global situation than most other nations, The Australian reports.
Mr Rudd's admission the economic outlook was bleak and would hit family budgets came as Brendan Nelson demanded he "stop talking Ruddish" and accept responsibility for economic mismanagement.
The Prime Minister's gloomy forecast follows a string of bad economic figures, including continuing high inflation, a 1 per cent fall in retail turnover in June and the lowest level of bank lending in 25 years.
The slowdown has triggered predictions the Reserve Bank board, which meets next week, will cut official interest rates from their 12-year high of 7.25 per cent by October.
But it has raised questions from the Opposition and economists of whether the Reserve Bank's 12 successive interest rate rises and the spending cuts in the Rudd Government's first budget, delivered in May, might have caused economic activity to slow too quickly and increased the risk of recession, defined as a contraction in economic growth for two successive quarters.
While the Reserve Bank is expected to consider cutting interest rates next week, leading bankers are warning that the reductions might not be passed on to consumers.
In a radio interview yesterday, the Prime Minister was asked if the downturn could mean further job cuts such as those at Qantas, the Starbucks coffee chain and the Don smallgoods business.
He said the combination of global instability and the high inflation and interest rate rises caused by the previous government's policies would flow through to hamper economic growth and employment.
"One just follows from the other," Mr Rudd told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
And he went further in a speech in Melbourne last night, warning that the global economic downturn would match budget estimates of a fall-off in employment.
He expected the unemployment rate would rise from its current 4.2 per cent to 4.75 per cent by June next year.
He blames the Howard government but then goes on to mention the $22 billion budget surplus. Where'd that come from again?? To quote Larry David in Entourage "What are you talking... What language are you talking?"
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
Give him a break monkey, Howard was still blaming the Labor government for everything bad right up until they lost the election. Eleven years they shifted the blame but took credit for everything good from day one. Sounds like you have some selective indignation here monkey!
Just a quick look at international news and you will see that nearly every country are facing the same problems. I think it is only a fool who believes that Australia can row against the tide where even power boats are being turned back.
RE read the post; he's blaming the former government then went on to say yippie for the 22 billion the government is sitting on, which is their due to the former government.
As soon as the guy actually has some policy of his own rather than following Keating's grand plan, pandering to minorities and posing with celebrities I'll give him a break.
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
Well I think Howard did a lot of good (as well as bad).
Anyway, I'm against the Republic idea. Hello mini-USA. I love the monarchy, for some reason.. But then.. we'll end up like Rome eventually anyway.. for the USA sooner rather than later...
Damn straight! For ten months this guy has done SFA apart from treating the job like one big party. Say what you like about Howard and the former governments policies, but at least they actually had some!
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
I agree Tasman. I do not care what anyone says, I like Kevin Rudd. I think he has done well considering he has not been PM for one year yet. I don't expect to recieve a diatribe from anyone who does not have the same opinion as I do as everyone is entitled to their own I do believe he has been more decisive on important issues that I believe John Howard or Peter Costello would have been.
I have to say, I think he's doing a great job with the current financial crisis. He seems to be staying ahead of things as well as anyone can.
With yesterdays paper predicting 200,000 jobs to go I wouldn't be so sure. The huge stockpile of cash he's sitting on will be able to help the country greatly if used correctly, but lets not forget who pulled that cash together...
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
With yesterdays paper predicting 200,000 jobs to go I wouldn't be so sure. The huge stockpile of cash he's sitting on will be able to help the country greatly if used correctly, but lets not forget who pulled that cash together...
Im not a Labour supporter, but I do have to say that I like Kenin, although he doesn't have a very good team around him, and lets hope he does use the money wisely, and we don't fall back to the Hawke Keating years
Television Doesn't Rule My Life .... But .....
Wouldn't the World be a far better place if everyone just thought like I do
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd losing support in western Sydney THE chance of Australia going to an early election has lessened, with internal Labor research exposing a negative shift in mood toward Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in key marginal seats in Sydney's west.
A separate poll has also revealed that a growing number of voters believe that the Prime Minister was complacent and superficial.
While Labor sits comfortably ahead in the national polls, senior Labor Party officials have confirmed that there had been a softening of support for Mr Rudd in the marginal seats of western Sydney where Labor must hold ground to win an election.
There was an overriding message of "deliverability" and "believability", said a senior Labor source, particularly on health.
"While they give him credit for his handling of the global financial crisis, there was a strong undercurrent of dissatisfaction around the idea of broken promises, particularly on health."
AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a $50 billion funding takeover of the country's ailing health-care system today, proposing to wrest it away from the states and cut hospital waiting lists.
The new health policy is aimed at salvaging flagging support for the Rudd Government ahead of elections expected late in 2010 by winning over voters dismayed by long waiting lists for surgery in public hospitals starved of investment.
The Government still has a commanding lead in opinion polls, but support has been slipping due to Mr Rudd's inability to fulfill key promises, which include reform of the ageing hospital system.
"For the first time in history the Australian Government will take on the dominant funding role for the entire public hospital system," Mr Rudd said, adding his Government would also take complete control of primary-care services outside hospitals.
"This amounts to a $50 billion takeover of funding responsibility from the states and territories over the upcoming forward estimates."
The phrase "forward estimates" usually means over the next four fiscal years.
Mr Rudd said the plan was wholly consistent with the Government's fiscal strategy, adding one-third of the nation's consumption tax revenue would be directly spent on health.
The new health policy does not automatically mean increased health funding but aims to give Canberra much closer oversight of how federal funds are spent in this sector.
Australia spent more than $103 billion on health care in 2007-08, with only $5.5 billion going to new infrastructure.
Public hospital spending totalled around $30 billion.
Successive surveys show health care is among the most important issues for voters and Rudd won office in 2007 promising to take over hospitals and end long-running squabbles with state governments over who should control the public health system.
The plan could be bitterly opposed by state governments because it strips them of a core function under Australia's constitution and places stricter controls on federal funding.
Currently, Canberra hands health money over to the state governments which then decide how to spend it.
Rudd said state governments will be asked to set up local hospital networks from next year if they agree to transfer health funding powers to Canberra.
State premiers and territory chief ministers will be asked to agree to the transfer at the next Council of Australian Governments meeting in April.
"If we get agreement, we will establish then the implementation arrangement to get on with the job from the get-go," Mr Rudd said.
"We'll start the progressive transition to the commonwealth of state-funded general practice and primary health care."
The states would then be asked to set up local hospital networks in 2011 and 2012.
From July 1, 2012, activity-based funding would be given to local hospital networks.
I remember Howard talking the same tune, trialling in Tasmania before the last election and comrade Rudd being hell bent against it; you all remember the days when any time anything was announced he had a better idea? And we've seen a lot of them in the past two years haven't we?
I highly doubt the states will be ASKED at the next meeting rather TOLD. It will go something like "You morons are certainly out at the next election I still have a chance to con people into one more term". Even still they won't be happy about their slice of pie being cut down!
Also Labor doesn't have a commanding lead, it's been stated several times in the media of late if not for preferences they'd be GONE!
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
Rudd has said they will achieve this in a fiscally responsible way and will absolutely not raise the GST rate. Just remind me how far have these guys put us in debt with their fiscally conservative practices?
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
Kevin Rudd delays emissions trading scheme until Kyoto expires in 2012
KEVIN Rudd has delayed the Government's carbon pollution reduction scheme until the end of 2012, backing away from his biggest election promise.
The Prime Minister said that by 2012, when the current Kyoto deal expires, governments around the world would need to make clear their new carbon reduction commitments, The Australian reports.
I never wanted them to win in the first place, it was obvious they'd be rubbish
Damn straight Dara and I'll add the NSW idiots to that (whoever the hell was premier last election...), I feel that should allow me safe passage through all the rising costs these guys can be blamed for! Now Andrew Bolt could be labeled as so far right it's a wonder he's in the media but this is a good piece:
Quoted Text
THE great fraud has been found out, and his country saved - for now - from the greatest of his follies.
Here's the worst lie that Kevin Rudd, perhaps our most deceitful Prime Minister, once told about global warming and his Emissions Trading Scheme: "The biggest challenge the world faces in the decades ahead is climate change.
"It is the great moral and economic challenge of our time."
But on Tuesday Rudd decided "the great moral challenge" of our time wasn't, after all.
It was just "a" challenge, he said.
And with public trust falling in his ETS "solution" - a great green tax on gases - he cut and ran.
His ETS would be shelved until at least 2013. Two elections away. Yet only last year this same Government claimed "delay was denial", and we could not wait to save "our jobs, our houses, our farms, our reefs, our economy and our future". To stop "700,000 homes and businesses" on our coast from drowning. (Another lie.)
Rudd had his excuses, of course. The naughty Opposition now opposed the ETS in the Senate, and other countries were "slower to act" on global warming themselves.
But it was just more Rudd spin.
For years he's mocked warnings from sceptics and some Liberals that it was reckless for small Australia to make cuts that almost no other country would make.
As I've often argued, we'd just export jobs overseas without making a scrap of difference to any warming, which seems to have halted since 2001 anyway.
Rudd pretended then that such arguments were mad. Almost criminal.
"The clock is ticking for the planet," he said six months ago.
"The resolve of the Australian Government is clear - we choose action, and we do so because Australia's fundamental economic and environmental interests lie in action. Action now. Not action delayed."
The costs of delay would be "severe".
So why does Rudd only this week agree that waiting for the world is not mad, after all, but responsible? Was he spinning then, or is he spinning now?
Almost as empty is Rudd's excuse that his hand was forced by the Opposition's rejection of the ETS since the accidental rise of Tony Abbott to the Liberal leadership by a single vote.
IF Rudd truly believed his ETS was so desperately needed to meet the world's "biggest challenge", why didn't he fight like sin to get it through the Senate, as President Barack Obama fought to get his health reforms through his Senate?
Why didn't he throw everything into cutting a deal with the Greens and the two independent Senators to vote through an ETS to "save" the planet?
That deal may yet come, of course. Rudd's ETS is not yet a corpse but a zombie, and with an election looming, Rudd wants that zombie down in the crypt, so timid voters won't tremble.
You may think I'm harsh on Rudd, but I say little that he hasn't said himself - and of delayers just like him.
I remember his speech last November to the Lowy Institute in which he vilified me and a few other sceptics he named:
"The third group of climate deniers are those who pretend to accept the science but then urge delay because they don't want their country to be the first to act.
"What absolute political cowardice. What an absolute failure of leadership. What an absolute failure of logic."
You said it, Prime Minister. Or were you just spinning then, too?
Department of Hot Air costing $90 million TAXPAYERS will fork out $90 million a year to keep more than 400 public servants employed within the federal Climate Change Department - despite most now having nothing to do until 2013. More than 60 of them are classified as senior executive staff on salaries between $168,000 and $298,000 a year. Their salary bill alone will cost an estimated $12 million every year.
A further $8 million will also be paid in rent for plush offices at Canberra's Constitution Place until 2012, where it is believed 500 new computers will be delivered this week.
It can be revealed that despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's decision on Tuesday to suspend the failed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme until at least 2013, the department has ruled out plans to cut back staff.
A formal response by department secretary Martin Parkinson to a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday - the same day as the scheme's suspension - claimed the department would not offer redundancies.
The formal response, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, said there were no plans for "the immediate future" of any scaling back of staff, despite the agency losing its core function.
According to official figures, the number of top-paid bureaucrats being paid up to $298,000 a year has almost doubled since January this year from 39 to 61. That was to gear up for establishment of the Australian Climate Change Regulatory Authority, which will also now have no function.
The number of overall agency staff was also ramped up since last year with total climate change employees rising from an initial 246 to 408.
Of the 61 senior agency officials, only nine were inherited from the scrapped home insulation scheme.
The majority, 38, were employed on the CPRS and a further 19 were employed on the renewable energy scheme which has also been axed.
But none of the 408 staff within the department will be shed even though the department's key function, the CPRS, has been axed.
Its own tender documents revealed a lease contract of $16 million for its offices which expires in 2012.
"The hundreds of public servants who have been beavering away on this policy, the 114 public servants who they took to Copenhagen for that matter in support of this policy ... none of that's changed," Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said yesterday.
"Which is why I think that Mr Rudd for political reasons doesn't want to talk about his great big new tax on everything but as sure as night follows day, if he gets re-elected, we'll be stuck with it."
Hey it's only money, it's not like the pond scum ALP know the value of it, they've never done a real days work! 'Department of hot air' should that be on Dudd's door?
The amount Australia spends on "climate change" is proven to be enough to provide all clean drinking water to everyone in Africa. There shouldn't be a federal Climate Change Department, and seriously, 114 people to Copenhagen?
OK kids time for some financial advice from uncle Aqua, grab all the cash you have, put it in a lockable bag or briefcase and handcuff it to your wrist because Dudd and Swandive are coming for it through their new "tax review". Yep you guessed it they've figured out some people out their have managed to retain some money and they want to shake it out of you RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!
THE Federal Opposition has been warned not to get too excited about the latest Newspoll which puts it ahead of Labor for the first time since 2006.
Kevin Rudd's personal satisfaction rating has dropped the most in the shortest time in the 20-year history of Newspoll surveys, and for the first time since the election Labor no longer has a clear lead over either the Coalition or the Greens on the issue of climate change, The Australian reported.
Mr Rudd's previous standing as being seen to be "decisive and strong" also fell significantly and Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is considered almost equal with the Prime Minister in his grasp of major policy issues.
After weeks of dramatic policy reversals and broken promises, culminating last week in Mr Rudd's decision to put off his Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme until at least 2013, the Government's primary vote has plunged eight percentage points to just 35 per cent. The Coalition's primary support has risen three points to 43 per cent.
According to the latest Newspoll, taken last weekend exclusively for The Australian and polling almost 1200 voters, the extraordinary shifts in the primary vote mean the two-party-preferred support for Labor has dropped to 49 per cent while the Coalition's has risen from 46 to 51 per cent.
The Prime Minister's personal satisfaction rating, down 11 points from 50 per cent two weeks ago to 39 per cent last weekend, is the lowest he has had as Labor leader, and it is the first time he has had a negative satisfaction rating, after dissatisfaction with him jumped nine points to 50 per cent.
Labor's primary vote, at 35 per cent, is at its lowest since March 2006 when Labor was in Opposition.
"Labor's taken a hit,'' Newspoll boss Martin O'Shannessy said today.
But Mr O'Shannessy said the big turnaround should be treated with caution, saying it fell in the "rogue poll'' range.
"We think these numbers are probably telling us there is a protest vote ... probably against the shelving of the ETS,'' he said.
When asked what advice he would be giving Mr Abbott about the poll, Mr O'Shannessy told Sky News: "Don't get too excited, we haven't seen all of those (Labor) votes coming across to the Coalition.''
Instead, the Greens and independents were picking up much of the dissatisfaction with the Government.
"That's a pretty classic sign of a protest vote,'' Mr O'Shannessy said.
The last time the Coalition was in front on the two-party-preferred basis, according to preference flows at the last election, was in August 2006 when Kim Beazley was opposition leader and John Howard was prime minister.
Although Labor's vote dropped heavily after the Government announced it would cancel the proposed new home roofing insulation scheme and spend $1 billion fixing up the old failed scheme, drop its CPRS this year and lift the tax on a packet of cigarettes by $2.16, the Coalition's vote did not lift to the same degree.
Satisfaction with the way Mr Abbott is doing his job as Opposition Leader dropped a little, from 46 to 45 per cent, and dissatisfaction rose back to where it was a month ago, to 43 per cent.
Because of Mr Rudd's fall in favour, Mr Abbott is now the best placed Opposition Leader on the question of better prime minister.
Treasurer Wayne Swan said tough decisions taken by the Government over the past fortnight were the reason it had taken a hit in the polls.
"We've taken some tough decisions in recent weeks, particularly the decision to increase the excise on cigarettes or tobacco," Mr Swan said.
"That's what governments have to do. Governments have to govern in the national interest."
Opposition frontbencher George Brandis said the shift was "very striking'', and that here had been a "sharp collapse'' in public respect for Mr Rudd.
"We've been saying all along, sooner or later, the public were bound to wake up to this bloke,'' he told Sky News.
Mr Rudd's previous standing as being seen to be "decisive and strong" also fell significantly - I'd just like to know how the hell anyone has ever thought as Rudd as "decisive and strong" and what medication(s) they were on at the time???
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
· Andrew Bolt · From: Herald Sun · April 13, 2010 7:57PM KEVIN Rudd spent his first two years in power smashing stuff. Now, in this election year, he's spending up to $1 billion of your money to fix the damage. That's right: Rudd is spending at least $1 billion to fix the havoc he's unleashed by handing out free insulation, splurging on overpriced school buildings, relaxing boat people laws, letting in an unsustainable 300,000 people a year and more. Oh, I know. You think I'm far too hard on a Prime Minister with the air of a particularly methodical Christian dentist. But one disillusioned day you will hear from many who now work with him that how Rudd seems is bizarrely different to how he is. I don't just mean that this publicly prissy churchgoer is privately a foul-mouthed, arrogant, paranoid and abusive control freak, but that many of his brightest ideas swiftly flop. The truth is his uncanny skill at spinning has so far saved Rudd's reputation as a manager. But check the substance rather than the image and you find he already qualifies as possibly the most incompetent prime minister since World War II. And, no, I haven't forgotten Whitlam. Take Monday's announcement that his Government will now spend another $14 million on a taskforce to tackle the massive rorting of its $16.2 billion school stimulus scheme. This so-called "Building the Education Revolution" spendathon was always destined to be a colossal waste. To spend so much so fast on school halls, shade-cloths and a few classrooms and libraries was to blow a fortune on fripperies that had little to do with making children smarter or more civilised. But even I couldn't predict the scandalous rorting which followed. In NSW, for instance, builders have charged at least $800,000 a time for more than 40 covered outdoor learning areas which official state government costings say should cost just $250,000. From Perth to Sydney, schools have complained of receiving trash for your cash - useless canteens at half the size for twice the price, libraries with no shelves or with heating that would kill if the windows were closed; single classrooms costing double what you'd pay for a package home; and fire-fighting tanks that weren't asked for. In Victoria, even a dying school with just two children was given $150,000, and from everywhere came complaints that BER developers were charging "management fees" of up to 21 per cent. That's all your money, folks. Blown in what some now call the Builders' Early Retirement fund. Now the Government is spending even more of your money - $14 million - on a taskforce to stop the looting of what's left of our $16.2 billion. Or to seem to. Why did Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard only now announce this "safeguard" when it's been clear for months that your taxes were being wasted like never before in our history? Three reasons, all squalid. First, Channel 7 last weekend mainstreamed this scandal, running a devastating report on its Sunday Night current affairs show. Second, it's election year, and setting up a taskforce makes it seem like you're dealing with a problem, at least for now. And, thirdly, although Gillard refuses to admit it she has got an advance report on this BER racket from the Auditor General that is likely to be devastating, and it's a fair bet she set up her taskforce to short-circuit the criticism she'll get when it's released. This BER rorting is the biggest waste by Rudd so far, with anything up to $8 billion thrown away. But the more graphic symbol of his incompetence - of having to spend millions to fix what he caused by spending billions - is his free insulation scheme. Again, it didn't make sense from the start for Rudd to spend $2.5 billion of your money to install free insulation in the homes of people who thought it wasn't worth doing with their own cash. It's even crazier now we know Rudd barged ahead even after his own department was warned in writing a year ago that rushing out these freebies could attract shysters, burn down houses and kill people. It all happened, just as Rudd was warned, with four installers now dead, 120 homes set on fire and more than 300,000 houses fitted with potentially lethal, incomplete or near-useless junk. TO fix the disaster and compensate the losers, the Government may now have to spend anything up to $1 billion, with the National Electrical Contractors Association estimating repairs alone could cost $450 million. It also means taxpayers must pay millions to take out insulation that Rudd made them pay millions to put in. It couldn't get crazier. Correction. It already has. See, Rudd meant this giveaway to "stimulate" the economy and put people in jobs. But the day before Easter (a good time to bury bad news) his Government announced, in effect, that his insulation scheme had killed off the very industry he'd meant it to help. The Government said it would now give insulation manufacturers $15 million to help them stockpile all the batts and foil they can no longer sell, now that Rudd's scheme has stuck the stuff in a million more ceilings. Those stockpiles of unsaleable batts are a clear sign that these once healthy businesses have been poleaxed. Indeed, an industry which once predicted Rudd's free insulation plan would create 4000 jobs now says its collapse has cost the jobs of 6000. Or even 8000, says Dandenong's Fletcher Insulation, which warns that every insulation manufacturer may shut this year, at least temporarily. That's why Rudd has spent another $41 million of your money to help retrain the people sacked from an industry he spent billions to "stimulate". And still this lunatic incompetence doesn't end. To fix this mess before the election, Rudd has switched his entire emissions trading team on to it. Remember them? They're the 154 public servants Rudd originally hired to work on what until this year he called "the greatest moral, economic and social challenge of our time" - the man-made global warming he told us his great new green tax on everything would help stop. But that tax is now blocked in the Senate, and public support for it is falling like a batt out of hell, so Rudd has put "the greatest moral, economic and social challenge of our time" on the backburner, and set his $57 million-a-year team of planet-savers to work on insulation instead. And still this comedy is not done. Rudd last weekend froze the processing of refugee applications from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan to stop the tide of boats he unleashed by weakening our boat people laws two years ago. Boat people were a problem John Howard had fixed, cutting arrivals to just 18 boats over six years. Rudd unfixed that problem by going soft, so he's now luring in more than 10 boats a month. THE Christmas Island detention centre is filled to bursting, and fixing this will cost hundreds of millions more of your dollars, with the 2000 people who've arrived just this year costing some $80,000 each to process. Then there's the whole new "Department of Population" Rudd abruptly created this month to hose down the alarm he'd raised by not only letting in a record 300,000 immigrants last year, but by then happily endorsing predictions that our population will explode to 36 million by 2050.
And we still don't know how much in total we must pay for all Rudd's other failures - FuelWatch, Grocery Watch, the scrapped tender of his first broadband scheme, the lobbying for his new pan-Asian body, the botched Green Loans plan, the rorted solar hot water scheme, the "Ideas Summit" fiasco and the new nuclear disarmament body.
Still, more amazing than this waste is that Rudd retains the air of a man who knows just what he's doing, and is across every detail.
Watch him now sell his latest multi-billion-dollar plan - a health shakeup that Ken Baxter, former head of the premier's department in Victoria and NSW, warns will create a bureaucratic monster that will eat money. But look at Rudd. See how assured and competent he seems, even as his last schemes still fall around his ears? Amazing gift, that, and you're paying billions for it.
...and guess what.....his 'spin' will elect him again at the next election.....unless other media journalists also remind the public & expose the litany of failures by this pompous man. Which part of mismanagement, waste & wholesale debt creation do people not understand ?
UNBELIEVABLE ! If you are genuinely concerned about how you are governed - pass this on.
A list of Kevin Rudd's lies, contradictions, broken promises, and political failures.
"More than ever, Australia needs a government that will help the nation fulfill its promise rather than a government which makes promises it cannot fulfill.' - Kevin Rudd, 2007.
Here's the list:
Kevin Rudd promised $290 million to be spent on improved dental care for Australians. Reneged on this post-election.
Kevin Rudd promised a federal takeover of hospitals should their performance not drastically improve by July 2009.....
Kevin Rudd pledged to build 36 GP 'super clinics' - of which there are currently 2 in operation.
Kevin Rudd destroyed the Howard Goverment's border protection policies, with the following result of illegal arrivals by boat, listed by financial year: 2007/2008 - 25 arrivals. 2008/2009 - 1033 arrivals. 2009/2010 - 2501 arrivals as of Feb 2nd 2010.
Kevin Rudd also slammed the Howard Government's Pacific Solution, which involved paying poor Pacific nations to detain asylum seekers. Rudd now pays Indonesia to do it.
Kevin Rudd proposed a national high-speed broadband network, budgeted at $4.7 billion. Almost immediately after election this was scrapped and replaced with a new plan, with a budget of $43 billion.
Pre-election Kevin Rudd promised to keep fuel and grocery prices down - a feat he must have known to be impossible. Labor launched Fuelwatch and Grocerywatch websites at huge cost to taxpayers, promptly shutting them down when they proved completely ineffective.
Kevin Rudd quietly reversed his decision to no longer make temporary residents sell their houses when they leave the country.
Kevin Rudd promised to keep interest rates down. To be fair, he got them down - by destroying the Australian economy. They are now steadily rising again, with the country in massive debt, as banks announce record profits by charging well over the cash interest rate.
Kevin Rudd promised to build 260 childcare centres on school grounds. On April 22 2010 he made a junior minister announce that this had been scrapped.
Kevin Rudd promised a laptop for every Australian schoolchild, which has still not been anywhere near delivered.
Pre-election Kevin Rudd promised to initiate legal proceedings against Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on a charge of incitement to genocide, but never did.
Kevin Rudd said 'I am an economic conservative' prior to the election... before immediately becoming the highest-spending PM in Australia's history, accumulating $200 billion of debt in 12 months in office.
Kevin Rudd slammed the Howard Goverment's commitment of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan while in opposition... despite maintaining a presence in Iraq and INCREASING troop numbers in Afghanistan.
Kevin Rudd increased tax on alcopops by 70%, claiming it was to curb teen binge drinking, only to see sales of straight spirits skyrocket.
Pre-election Kevin Rudd promised to take Japan to the international courts to stop whaling. Post-election this was watered down to 'we'll do everything in our power', then finally to 'I don't have a magic wand'.
While in opposition Kevin Rudd was vocal in his criticism of John Howard for living in Kirribilli House, saying it wasted taxpayers dollars on travel between Sydney and Canberra. He promised if he was elected he would live solely at The Lodge. He now spends a great deal of his time at Kirribilli House.
Kevin Rudd promised to keep the Medicare Rebate at 30%, however reneged on this post-election, deciding to means test the rebate for singles earning over $74,000 and couples earning over $150,000, forcing more people back into the crippled public health system.
Pre-election Julia Gillard slammed the Howard Govt's 'cruel' limitations on Medicare rebates for IVF treatments. Post-election Kevin Rudd places caps on all IVF treatments, all obstetric services, and some ultrasounds.
Kevin Rudd allocated $672 million to building remote indigenous housing in the Northern Territory. As at Jan 30 2010, not one house has been built.
Pre-election Kevin Rudd criticised John Howard's NT intervention policies, saying it treated Aborigines as 2nd class citizens. He has now EXPANDED on those policies.
In early 2009 Kevin Rudd declared that on the first sitting day of parliament each year, he would deliver an update on the progress of 'closing the gap' on Aboriginal well-being. This didn't happen in 2009 OR 2010.
Kevin Rudd does not know how many people live in Australia. He said on the 7:30 Report 'there are 21 million of us', when there are actually over 22 million Australians.
Kevin Rudd took more than 3 times the amount of people to Copenhagen as the UK did, at enormous expense to taxpayers, for no result. He also changed his travel plans twice to co-incide with Barack Obama.
Before the election Kevin Rudd pledged to hold a referendum on fixed four year terms for federal parliament. This is no longer happening.
Pre-Copenhagen Kevin Rudd said Australia would do 'no more, but no less' than the rest of the world on tackling climate change. When no agreement was reached, he declared he would go ahead with his ETS.
Kevin Rudd callously refused to meet with Australian farmer Peter Spencer, despite him risking death by engaging on a 52 day hunger strike. During this time Kevin Rudd found time for a holiday in Tasmania, and several stints commentating the cricket.
Kevin Rudd has declared alcohol abuse as a blight on Australia's culture, despite admitting to being too drunk to remember events at a New York strip club.
Australia's carbon emissions have increased 3% since Kevin Rudd was elected.
Kevin Rudd and Labor's home insulation scheme failed dismally, with dodgy operators profiteering off government grants, and four deaths of installers due to lack of adequate training. Prior to the scheme Peter Garrett wrote four letters to Kevin Rudd warning him his department was not able to handle the roll-out. The letters were ignored and Kevin Rudd refuses to publicly release them.
Labor's $16.2 billion school stimulus scheme was equally disasterous, with schools given funding to be spent on projects they don't need, and more widespread profiteering from contractors, with examples such as shade cloths worth $250,000 being installed at a cost of $1,000,000.
Kevin Rudd, December 2009: "Global warming is the great moral and economic challenge of our time. The resolve of the Australian government is clear - we choose action. Action now. Not action delayed. The clock is ticking for the planet." In April 2010 Kevin Rudd announced that any action on an ETS will be delayed until 2013 - two elections away.
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
A list of Kevin Rudd's lies, contradictions, broken promises, and political failures.
Kevin Rudd, December 2009: "Global warming is the great moral and economic challenge of our time. The resolve of the Australian government is clear - we choose action. Action now. Not action delayed. The clock is ticking for the planet." In April 2010 Kevin Rudd announced that any action on an ETS will be delayed until 2013 - two elections away.
Hi aquamonkey
You can add the following to your list. He put a means test on the Solar Panel rebate scheme, so many families couldn't install solar panels. Then he reduced the rebate just to make sure that the people who were still eligible for the rebate couldn't afford the solar panels either.
On top of that, Kevin Rudd is dead set against nuclear power in Australia, but somehow thinks it is ok to sell Uranium to other countries.
Not only has Kevin Rudd lied about being pro-environment, his decision to reduce the rebate on solar panels (that John Howard introduced) has effectively increased the CO2 emissions in Australia.
I would like to know if the Governor General has the ability to sack the Prime Minister based on incompetence. If it is possible, I would like to help this guy on youtube do it (username: SackKevinRudd).
New Childcare Centres on the way Unlike some people who participated in a news poll on Saturday on one of the websites I said Yes to the question "do you think anything good will come out of the 2020 Summit" Mind you 70 odd percent of those who participated said "no". So much cynicism and pessimism, honestly. Where has all the hope gone? I voted for Kev and am very happy with my decision. Seen enough Governments come and go to know how it works
I hope your proud of yourself there, and you can say goodbye to your child care centres.
I would like to know if the Governor General has the ability to sack the Prime Minister based on incompetence. If it is possible, I would like to help this guy on youtube do it (username: SackKevinRudd).
The latest GG is a friendite of Rudd so I think their's that added bonus. Also it mustn't be possible to remove an incompetent government because the NSW ALP is still around and they can't help but go backwards!!!
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
You missed my point. My point is you can't trust anything Kevin Rudd says. He has been trying to convince us all that the world is going to end if we don't reduce our CO2 emissions, but then he does the exact opposite of what any intelligent person would do if they were trying to reduce CO2 emissions. The man simply can't be trusted.
EVERY government breaks promises (thinking back to John Howard's and Bob Hawke's days). It's OUR job to tell them what we think at election time.
On our news yesterday morning there was talk of a poll on climate change. Most people did not want anything to be done as they felt it was too costly for too little result. I will try to find the poll online if I can.
That's someting that irritates me about ALL politicians, no matter what party. Nobody will ever refuse the huge superannuation payouts or other frills.
don't insult Rudd like that, he has more class in his little finger than Hawke did
Hawke I'd say was closer to the "common man" than Rudd. Rudd would like you to think he's down on the same level as you but it ain't that way at all!
Quoted Text
Neilsen poll shows Kevin Rudd rating drop
Biggest rating drop for PM in 10 years
Mining tax fails to gain support
Labor would lose if election was today
KEVIN Rudd's approval rating has slumped even further, and if an election were held now Labor would lose, a new poll shows.
The Prime Minister's approval dropped by 14 percentage points in one month to 45 per cent, while his disapproval rating has risen 13 points to 49 per cent, according to a Nielsen poll published today.
The loss of personal support is the most dramatic for a prime minister in a decade and marks the first time Mr Rudd has had a disapproval rating higher than his approval rating.
The plunge comes in the wake of the Government's announcement last week of its 40 per cent tax on mining profits - a move that appears to have failed to gain popular backing.
And it adds pressure on the Government to win support with tomorrow's Federal Budget, although Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday he would not use the Budget to try to buy votes.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has ruled out replacing Kevin Rudd as leader before the next election.
According to the latest Nielsen poll, published in Fairfax papers, Mr Rudd's approval rating slumped by 14 per cent in a month.
That is the biggest slump in a prime minister's approval rating in a decade.
For the first time, his disapproval rating is higher than his approval rating, although he is still the preferred prime minister over Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
Ms Gillard has laughed off suggestions she could be the next leader of the Labor Party.
"Not one individual in the Labor Party has spoken to me [about that]," she said.
"I'm focused on my job as Deputy Prime Minister. I love it and particularly I am proud of our achievements in education and in workplace relations.
"We've so much more to do, including rolling out, for example, national testing this week."
According to the poll, Labor and the Coalition are now even on a two-party preferred basis.
Ms Gillard says tough decisions are behind the Government's slide and she still supports Mr Rudd as prime minister.
"He is leading the Government in what has been some difficult circumstances, leading the Government as we front up to some hard decisions, leading the Government as we provide the economic leadership that people want and need," she said.
"Obviously in the recent period we've been dealing with some big questions - the super profits tax for example.
"These things are going to take some time to explain and work through with the electorate and we'll be focused on doing that."
Mr Abbott says the Government has broken promises, wasted money and does not know how to implement reform.
"Its idea of reform is a new tax," he said.
"Its idea of reform is a new government program and I don't think people are buying this anymore. In fact, I think there is a developing crisis of confidence about Kevin Rudd's ability to govern effectively."
This afternoon Mr Rudd will fronts his MPs for the first time in two months and will be asked to explain recent policy backdowns, such as shelving the emissions trading scheme (ETS).
"The decisions that were taken, I guess we're all waiting for some reports on that when we get to Caucus today," he said.
"That's the way it works, that's the way it should work, but I think there needs to be some telling of [what is] the rationale behind some of those decisions and I think some of us are waiting to hear that."
"Its idea of reform is a new government program and I don't think people are buying this anymore. In fact, I think there is a developing crisis of confidence about Kevin Rudd's ability to govern effectively."
"Its idea of reform is a new government program and I don't think people are buying this anymore. In fact, I think there is a developing crisis of confidence about Kevin Rudd's ability to govern effectively."
Really ??? Thats a bit of an understatement....
I agree 100% with that sentiment. Understatement of the century.
A young Pollie by the name of Peter Andren did (refused big payouts) and wanted it passed in Parliament that super's for pollies be more realistic and other rorts be outlawed. He died from cancer a year or so ago.
Our economy was pretty good before wasn't it, I don't think the current government makes very good economic decisions.
Calling it "pretty good" is a massive understatement. At the last election people just didn't realise how good things were going and now we're in even worse shape than when the previous government started to get us back on track. "He who forgets history is condemned to repeat it."
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
We need to do everything possible to make sure Kevin Rudd guy does not get back into government again. He will try to convince everyone that he is getting the country back on track, but I haven't seen him apologise for the mess he got us in, in the first place, so obviously thinks he hasn't done anything wrong. He thinks he is doing us all a big favour by putting this country into massive debt and wasting money on ridiculous projects that fail miserably. So if he doesn't recognise that he hasn't done anything wrong then he is going to repeat the same mistakes. That is a guarantee. He was very quick to apologise to the aboriginals. What about apologising to whole country, for killing 4 people, burning down people's houses, wasting billions of dollars, and breaking pre-election promises.
Dear Lord, i know we have not spoken much lately, in the last twelve months you have taken my favorite actor Patrick Swayse, my favorite actress Farah Fawcett and my favorite singer Michael Jackson. Just wanted to let you know my favorite Prime Minister is Kevin Rudd
KEVIN Rudd's outburst in a television interview shows the prime minister is losing control of his self discipline, the federal opposition says.
Mr Rudd became testy on ABC Television's 7.30 Report program on Wednesday night after he was challenged about his decision to defer an emissions trading scheme until at least 2013.
Mr Rudd said he and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong were the hardest working delegates at the Copenhagen climate change conference late last year.
"Penny Wong and I sat up for three days and three nights with 20 leaders from around the world to try and frame a global agreement," he said.
"It might be easy for you to sit in 7.30 Report land and say that was easy to do. Let me tell you, mate, it wasn't."
Opposition frontbencher Ian Macfarlane, who admitted he had not seen the full interview, said Mr Rudd's outburst showed he was "losing control of his own self discipline".
"That is a worrying sign for all Australians," he told reporters in Canberra, but refused to liken the incident to the behaviour of a former Labor leader.
"I think it would take a while to match a Mark Latham moment.
"The prime minister is showing he is not in control of the situation."
Opposition frontbencher Andrew Robb said the prime minister was starting to lose it.
"When Mr Rudd's record is challenged in any way, he spits the dummy - we saw it on the 7.30 Report last night,'' he told reporters.
"He gets defensive and he's starting to lose it.''
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard defended her leader, saying Mr Rudd had a passion for climate change action. He had ``pressed hard'' for an international agreement at the Copenhagen conference.
"The prime minister is showing that disappointment about the slow progress internationally,'' Ms Gillard told Sky News.
"You're seeing the prime minister articulate the policy, but also the passion and enthusiasm to deal with this question of climate change in that interview.''
Labor backbencher Sharon Bird said Mr Rudd's response showed he was focused.
"I saw the interview last night and I thought what you saw was a prime minister passionate ... about the task ahead,'' she told reporters.
"I've seen the prime minister show passion lots of times.''
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner supported Mr Rudd's response to ``completely overblown criticism'' over his handling of the emissions trading scheme.
"I think the prime minister's basically responding to some of the more outrageous claims that have been out there in the general media,'' he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
Mr Tanner said despite massive pressures, including the global financial crisis, the prime minister had remained cool, describing claims of his ``notorious temper'' as a beat-up.
"Under extreme stress he is remarkably calm,'' Mr Tanner said.
"We all occasionally snap and express ourselves tersely ... I think there are very few people in senior positions that I've seen who are more calm than Kevin Rudd is.''
Australian Greens senator Christine Milne said the prime minister needed to turn his passion for climate change into action.
"If the prime minister is as passionate as he says he is about climate change, then my door is open today for him to come around and have a discussion about implementing the Greens' interim carbon tax proposal,'' she told reporters.
"We have a proposal on the table, we could pass it right now in this session before we get up for the winter break and before the election.''
Opinion polls indicated Australians wanted action on climate change, Senator Milne said.
"The prime minister cannot talk it away and he has to take responsibility for the fact that he might talk about passion on climate change but that's not what's occurring,'' she said.
in·ar·tic·u·late: Uttered without the use of normal words or syllables; incomprehensible as speech or language.
Actually sums up Kevin Rudd well, and given he deals in absolutes more than a sith lord (before he back flips of coarse) narrow-minded and two faced work for him as well!
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
And what do the opposition have to offer? Not a lot.
A narrow-minded, right wing, inarticulate two-faced man with as much self discipline as a sex addict in a brothel (saw that on Facebook).
Could you provide some evidence about being two-faced, because I can provide an A4 page full of examples for Kevin Rudd, and it would barely take any effort to do it. If I was to push myself, it might even require the use of one full brain cell.
Tim Flannery says Kevin Rudd 'betrayed' his vote By Cathy Alexander From: AAP May 27, 2010 7:20pm
AN internationally renowned climate expert has savaged Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for a "profound betrayal of trust'' on climate change.
Tim Flannery, a former Australian of the Year, said he was unlikely to vote Labor again after Mr Rudd shelved plans for an emissions trading scheme.
"It's a profound betrayal of the person I voted for,'' Professor Flannery said at a conference in Canberra.
"Politicians only have one thing that they trade in, which is trust ... unfortunately my trust in the party's been corroded."
Prof Flannery is a scientist and author who is heavily involved in international efforts to tackle global warming.
As fresh data showed Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are rising again after dipping during the financial crisis, Prof Flannery berated Australia for being a "wooden spooner" on climate change.
He accused both major parties of a failure of political leadership, but said the problem went deeper.
The political system was captive to big business and dominated by old men.
"They seem to have a fossilised mindset ... not all the fossils are in the ground," the 2007 Australian of the Year told a green business conference in Parliament House.
Just across the corridor, more questions were being raised about the government's ETS delay in a Senate estimates hearing.
Labor promised to start an ETS this year, but now says it may start some time from 2013.
The bureaucrat in charge of the scheme, Climate Change Department head Martin Parkinson, said delaying the ETS would cost money and discourage action on climate change.
Australia has promised to cut emissions by 5 to 25 per cent by 2020. Delaying the ETS means there was less time to achieve it, Dr Parkinson said.
"The longer you delay, the more international units you have to purchase, or the higher the domestic cost," Dr Parkinson said.
"If there's continuing uncertainty about whether there will ever be a price on carbon, then people won't act."
Dr Parkinson said the cost of delaying the scheme from 2010 to 2013 would be "relatively minimal, I would have thought", but the government had not done any estimates.
Meanwhile, a report card shows that the financial crisis had a silver lining - it managed to bring down Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the latest annual National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, emissions dropped by 2.4 per cent in 2009, bucking a long-term upward trend. That's because the economy slowed - especially the steel sector - so less coal was burned to make electricity.
Last year's emissions were 537 million tonnes, the same as in 2005.
But conservationists are not celebrating. The inventory shows emissions started to rise again at the end of last year as the economy bounced back.
Australia is on track to stay within its Kyoto target of capping emissions growth to an eight per cent increase in 2012, from 1990 levels.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the data showed an ETS was needed to bring down emissions, and the government was committed to such a scheme.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott painted himself as an environmentalist in a speech to the same audience Prof Flannery addressed.
He presented the opposition - and himself - as greener than Labor.
Mr Abbott said he was confident that humans were affecting the climate, but he emphasised that environmental action should not dampen economic growth.
While rejecting an ETS, Mr Abbott talked up his party's alternative plan to spend money directly on green programs and said Labor had no climate plan now it had shelved the ETS.
But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hit back in question time, accusing Mr Abbott of backflipping on his climate scepticism.
WOW this time tomorrow we could have ourselves not only a new Prime Minister, but the first FEMALE Prime Minister. Really shocked that K-Rudd hasn't even served out a full term...
Julia Gillard poised to replace Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia
KEVIN Rudd looks certain to be ousted as Prime Minister after a stunning coup by Labor powerbrokers to back Julia Gillard as the party leader.
A defiant Mr Rudd told reporters in Canberra he would fight to stay prime minister at a special caucus meeting on Thursday morning.
"I was elected to do a job," he said.
"I intend to continue doing that job."
He believes he has the numbers to prevail.
"I believe I am quite capable of winning this ballot tomorrow," Mr Rudd, who is scheduled to attend the G20 leaders meeting in Toronto on the weekend, said.
His deputy Ms Gillard confirmed she would contest the ballot.
"I will be a candidate in tomorrow's ballot," she told reporters.
"I haven't got any other statement at this time."
No other contenders have emerged.
Ms Gillard would appear to have the factional numbers to win the leadership ballot.
The drama began around 7pm after ABC news reported the numbers were being counted for Ms Gillard, though at that stage there was no suggestion she wanted the job.
It had begun to unfold earlier in the morning when NSW powerbroker Mark Arbib, Victorians Bill Shorten and Dave Feeney, and South Australian Don Farrell visited Ms Gillard to tell her they had lost confidence in the prime minister.
Through the evening support for Mr Rudd began to slip away and his position began to look untenable when the powerful Australian Workers' Union threw its weight behind the deputy prime minister.
AWU national secretary Paul Howes told AAP he and Queensland powerbroker Bill Ludwig had moved their support to Ms Gillard after making an assessment that a change in leadership was in the best interest of their membership.
Mr Rudd suggested factional warlords were behind the attempted coup.
"It has become apparent to me in the course of the last period of time ... that a number of factional leaders in the Labor party no longer support my leadership," he said.
"That is why it is imperative this matter be resolved."
Late on Wednesday, Environment Protection Minister Peter Garrett, who was in Morocco for an International Whaling Commission meeting, and Trade Minister Simon Crean were the only ministers who had publicly come out in support of Mr Rudd.
Coalition backbenchers were enjoying the spectacle of trouble in Labor ranks, with Mary Jo Fisher gatecrashing Mr Rudd's press conference, and Bill Heffernan and Stuart Robert attempting to before being convinced to leave.
But change at the top could spell trouble for Tony Abbott and his team, with opinion polls showing Ms Gillard the preferred against the Liberal leader.
The spill will take place on the last day of parliament before the eight week winter recess.
While Mr Rudd has been struggling in the polls, he had been starting to assert himself against Mr Abbott during the cut and thrust of parliament.
And, the latest Newspoll had Labor in an election-winning position, though its primary vote has slipped to 35 per cent.
Mr Rudd told reporters he believed it was important for the stability of the government for the matter to be resolved.
"It's far better for these things are done quickly rather than being strung out over a period of time," he said.
He vowed that if he remained leader, Labor wouldn't lurch to the right on asylum seekers and would set its own timetable on climate change.
The NSW right, led by Senator Arbib, is believed to have played a key role in the decision to shelve an emissions trading scheme, which marked the start of Mr Rudd's slide in the polls.
He flagged a possible earlier timetable if he won.
Mr Rudd conceded Labor had hit "heavy weather" in recent times.
"A few people have become a bit squeamish about that," he said.
That one event sparked a remarkable change in fortune, that was exacerbated by the government's bitter battle with miners over the resources super profits tax.
The change in fortunes for Mr Rudd has happened with alarming speed.
After a lengthy honeymoon with the electorate, the public mood started to turn following a run of problems and backflips, including the botched home insulation scheme and a suspension in processing of Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum seekers.
But it was the ETS that dragged Mr Rudd's popularity down.
Without a power base in caucus, once Mr Rudd began to lose public support, his backing within the parliamentary party began to ebb away.
Also history repeating with Labor digging the country into a financial black hole and then dumping the boss!
Rudd has been going downhill since the whole ETS / global summit fiasco, simply switching mega taxation devices just accelerated it. I don't think Dullard will be a huge election threat it's the same stupid policies in an even more boring package. She certainly doesn't have the perception filter Rudd does, as far as hypnotics and parlor tricks go he's like a real life version of The Master.
This leaves NSW residents under the oppression of a female premier that no one voted for (until the next election) and a female Prime Minister that no one voted for (probably until the next election)! Predictions are if Gillard becomes the new dark lord of the sith..... umm I mean Labor leader she'll make Swan her apprentice, even the most rusted on Labor support must see he's already out of his element! Then again it could open the door for someone else to take over treasury!
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
I hated it when Keating became PM after toppling Hawke with his party behind him. I never ever voted for Keating. Now this. I voted in a news poll the other day where it asked, 'would you vote Labor if Julia Gillard was leader?' Last I checked there were thousand upon thousands of votes with an overwhelming majority (2:1) saying NO they would not vote Labor in that instance, myself included. I am a swinging voter which suits my fickleness. I will not vote Labor next election if she or Kevin are at the helm!
She's an inarticulate bogan, no one with 1/2 a brain will vote for her! I can relate the situation to Black Adder when he's trying to get the idiot prince married and their's only one viable option to which he says "She'll never marry him". Baldrick asks "Why not?" To which he replies "Because she's met him!"
"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained. " The Doctor
Heheheh! @ post 90. Gillard is now our PM (Prime Monster) and they are working out the details as we speak (as we read?) BIG MISTAKE Labor. That trick never works!
Looks like I will not be voting Labor next election I'll vote for the Greens I cannot see how the Political analysts can even allude to the idea of Julia getting the female vote and about how she will be a good PM. What the hey?
Yeah I don't know with some of the stuff we're fed by experts. There's a lifestyle or social expert on one of the morning shows, or maybe she's a social commentator, and I usually don't agree 100% with her and think "Who the hell made her an expert?" because I think anybody can walk onto a set and do the same exact job. They'd simply have a different opinion. I bet it feels kind of belittling like in a 30 years ago sort of way to hear that political analysts say that. All it really means is "People who get paid way the hell too much to do the same thing everyone else does", reckon women will vote for her.
The Greens rock because they give diversity to the system, they have some good intentions, and the rest of their intentions (good intentions also) are just so crazy that you sort of think "Well nothing else works" when it comes to some of it, and the rest of their policies are unfortunate and inconvenient compromises that a person would have to make. A government run by The Greens isn't very likely though. The diversity they add is a welcome one for me because with the politics I grew up with, the two major parties in Australia are the "leaning to the right quite often" party and the "defiantly right wing" party. I see it as unbalanced.
I saw a dumb woman representing the Greens on a show the other night on ABC so I'm not sure about them...
That's part of what makes them so exciting. Its like skydiving with someone who just got their certificate to allow you to do it - maybe they didn't even pack the parachute correctly.
all bloody howard did was sell off everything, telstra, quantas . and say "oh look what we did,we are now in surplus". That and the GST. Give me a break, last time i looked interest rates werent to bad and unemployment down. What othe industrialised countries are sitting as well as we are? I wasnt a big Rudd fan but honestly dont think he did to bad for a first term.
I have changed the name of the title to reflect today's outcome. Thanks to those who suggested it.
And it would be nice if you could add Julia Gillard's name to the title in the other thread you know...... the one about Australia's new Prime Minister.
GOODBYE fellow eBlah's .....it sure has been nice meeting yo'all here and I will miss everyone of you
And it would be nice if you could add Julia Gillard's name to the title in the other thread you know...... the one about Australia's new Prime Minister.
Remember when reading this report that EVERY ex Prime Minister gets this deal. Kevin is NOT the first and will NOT be the last. Coming to mind of the PM's in my life since I have been aware of Government/Politics are... Gough Whitlam, Billy McMahon, John Gorton, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and of course John Howard. All of these men, well those that are still in the land of the living, get the same benefits as Kevin is slated to get.
Why's Kevin Rudd smiling? He's getting $600,000 a year for life By staff writers From: news.com.au June 30, 2010
DEPOSED prime minister Kevin Rudd will receive allowances of about $600,000 a year for the rest of his life when he leaves politics. As prime minister for more than a year he is entitled to superannuation, a gold air pass, a car, at least four personal staff and his own office in Brisbane for life.
If Mr Rudd lives to be 85, that would cost about $20 million, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Mr Rudd can expect to leave Parliament with a pension of between $118,346 and $145,987 a year, indexed for inflation.
Then there is the airline gold pass, worth about $60,000 a year, office space costing up to $120,000, four office staff costing about $262,000 and a car leased for around $18,000 a year. New home
Five days after his political assassination, Mr Rudd, his wife Therese and daughter Jessica left the The Lodge yesterday. It was the quickest eviction imaginable. Most Australian renters would have more rights.
At dusk on a freezing Canberra day, a stoic former prime minister stood before cameras to say his last goodbyes to the nation.
"This has been our home for the better part of the last three years . . . our family home," Mr Rudd said. "It is the people's house and we return it gratefully to the people," he said.
Therese Rein and the former prime minister have also been using the social media website Twitter to offer supporters a little window on their own soul, well ahead of any sit down press interviews.
Last night, about 10.30pm Ms Rein used Twitter as soon as she arrvied back at the family home, “So… Back home in Norman Park. Welcomed home to a warm house filled with flowers, the kettle on, and hugs from a dear friend. Thank you!”
“Thank you to the photographers and cameramen this afternoon as we left the Lodge. The hugs really helped.
"We said 'bye to the staff at The Lodge. Hope to be able to cook for them one day soon.”
On June 28, she confessed the termination of her husband’s lifelong journey to the Lodge hurt her, too.
“I wouldn’t have made it through this difficult time without the support of our children. Telling stories. Reflecting. Hugs. More hugs,” she tweeted.
The family are going away for beach holiday Mr Rudd has said.
Ms Gillard said she would not move to The Lodge until winning an election as leader.
Gillard under pressure
Meanwhile, miners are demanding Ms Gillard go beyond a deal on the resource super-profits tax that was reached with Mr Rudd before he was removed as prime minister and include a significant increase in the threshold at which the levy kicks in, The Australian reports.
As cabinet yesterday considered a proposed deal to impose a lighter tax regime on the burgeoning coal-seam gas industry, Fortescue Metals Group chief Andrew Forrest said he had been in secret talks with Mr Rudd and Treasury officials on the release of an RSPT discussion paper until a day before Mr Rudd's removal.
He claimed the discussion paper, to have been circulated among the mining industry, would have included key changes to the RSPT, forecast to raise an extra $9 billion a year from the sector. These would have included lifting the threshold at which the tax kicks in from about 6 per cent to as much as 15 per cent, and abolishing the government guarantee over 40 per cent of a mining project's losses.
The changes would have reduced the impact of the tax on existing projects -- a key mining industry condition of any deal with the new Prime Minister.
Ms Gillard is expected to announce a new deal for coal-seam gas projects, particularly in Queensland, as early as today before a $5000-a head dinner for mining companies in Brisbane tonight.
'No snap poll'
As the mining talks continue, August 28 and October 10 have emerged as the most likely dates for a federal election, with senior Labor sources dismissing talk Prime Minister Julia Gillard may this weekend call a snap poll, The Daily Telegraph reports.
"That just isn't going to happen," said a senior Labor strategist in the Gillard camp.
The comment shot down claims made by Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey, who said: "I expect this weekend or the following weekend at the latest. Gillard is about winning the election, not about good policy."
Logged
@ above post.
I will not vote Labor next election if she or Kevin are at the helm! 
