Rudd for Rudder

While Troppo Armadillo has pioneered a new form of direct democracy through its advice to the Labor Party to pick either 1. Julia 2. Rudd for Rudder (thanks, FXH) or the other way round, the blogosphere primary is now well and truly off and running. Staying at home first, blogger turned book writing commenter The Currency Lad suggests 1. The Beazer 2. Rudd, with a reasoned argument to back up his preference.

John Quiggin disagrees with the Lad and says “Please, not Beazley”, favouring either Ruddy or Gilly. Suki just wants the Labor Party to pick a leader, thinks Ruddy needs some style advice and that it may be time for a woman as leader, while miss piss at piss’n’vinegar thinks most voters will be mightily annoyed by ALP shenanigans. Darlene thinks that Jenny Macklin should also go.

Meanwhile, Liam at Cut Price Commentariat rules Gilly out because of her Left factional affiliation. It’s not that I don’t understand this is a barrier to her potential leadership, Liam, but rather that I think the ALP should choose the best leader available. And I think that we in the blogosphere are actually doing something valuable here – a bit of input from the citizens can’t go astray. If anyone’s listening.

I should note also that in these postmodern times, the ALP appears to be selecting a new Leader while the old one’s in place, with no talk of a challenge. It tends to suggest that the belief that Latho’s going to resign and is playing for time to get the result he wants might well be on the money.

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Scott Wickstein
2025 years ago

“I think the ALP should choose the best leader available”

How do you define the term ‘best leader available”?

I mean, everyone on the Left is going to have different ideas of what you think a leader should do. Is it about policy generation, or winning elections?

Mark Bahnisch
2025 years ago

At this point in time, Scott, I’d settle for someone who can effectively take the fight up to Howard and has potential electoral appeal. Policy generation is not necessarily dependent on the leader – though someone with some policy ideas certainly helps – particularly if they’re saleable within the party – as a lot of Latho’s weren’t.

Homer Paxton
Homer Paxton
2025 years ago

Mark, on that basis Howard wouldn’t be Liberal leader!

Bomber will ony accept leadersip if there is no challengers like Howard did

Vee
Vee
2025 years ago

Does Crean have a shot?

Mark Bahnisch
2025 years ago

No hope at all, Vee. I gather he’s backing Gillard.

liam hogan
2025 years ago

Being in the Left isn’t just a difficult barrier, Mark, it’s the ultimate insurmountable barrier. The only reason the various national Right factions keep voting with each other, despite their mutual contempt, ambition and hatred, is to stop the Left ever gaining power.
When Left people join the Party they do it with this explicit understanding—their involvement in the ALP is going to be a mixture of failure, frustration and self-mortification.
Though as “Fiona” added in the comments to my post, Julia Gillard swings between the factions to an extent I hadn’t realised. Maybe it can happen…

Darlene
2025 years ago

Gosh, Liam why would anyone join a political party to experience all that?

Perhaps they enjoy pain or like the sense of righteousness or whatever they get from it.

Quite frankly, as a former member of the ALP of five and an half years standing, I got the impression that members of the left were in it for the same reasons nearly everybody else was.

They were just good at hiding their ambition behind nice words. Well, that’s not totally true, but there are good and decent people across the factions and also complete and utter tools.

Mark Bahnisch
2025 years ago

Darlene, I’ll quote the comment I made at Liam’s place (follow the trackback):

“#

It’s a matter of roles, Liam. I’m no longer in the ALP (still tossing up whether I should rejoin) therefore as a citizen, I’m happy to join those who say that the factional system is at the heart of the problems the party has. With respect, your perspective is that of the political insider and realist. I’ve been there, done that. Your comments on your previous post about being in Labor and the Left as a form of masochism were apt. But surely the reason you joined was idealism? This is not a personal remark but rather a sociological observation – inevitably your perspective has been shifted by the political culture (and social networks) in which you find yourself. The sort of “hard-headed realism”

suki lombard
2025 years ago

Julia is certainly capable, however, I am not confident that middle Australia would vote for a woman Prime Minister, let alone a relatively young one.

There was never any doubt that Natasha S-D was capable, but her youth, her DOCS and her feminism/femaleness really scared the voters.

Middle Australia, accepts only a narrow window of type for Prime Ministerial contender.
I offer up Ruddy Rudd because he has a chance of being within that acceptable bandwidth.

Once HoWARd’s out, then we can work on allowing Australia to claw back its progressiveness and inclusion.

Mark Bahnisch
2025 years ago

“Julia is certainly capable, however, I am not confident that middle Australia would vote for a woman Prime Minister, let alone a relatively young one.

There was never any doubt that Natasha S-D was capable, but her youth, her DOCS and her feminism/femaleness really scared the voters.”

Suki, I’ve been planning to write a review of Julia Baird’s book ‘Media Tarts: How the Australian Press Frames Female Politicians” and maybe in this context I should do so in the next few days! I could even dig my mid-90s blue docs out of the closet and wear them as I write!

It’s hard to know whether there’s just one template for PM. At one stage Howard was thought not to have the gravitas, and Labor Party research in 83 discovered that grannies feared Hawkey would be an inappropriate person to meet the Queen. Carmen Lawrence and Joan Kirner proved that women could successfully lead at state level. Someone made the comment somewhere that in Australia, women are often turned to at times of crisis, and the Labor Party is certainly having one atm. However, it’d be horrible to see the Stott Despoja/Kernot/Lawrence thing happen again with the media first proclaiming a female saviour then crucifying her. While Kernot mightily contributed to her own destruction, Natasha S-D and Carmen Lawrence in my view did most things right. I’d hate to see the same happen to Gilly.

Vee
Vee
2025 years ago

Thanks Mark

I think it was Mumble that also said Crean was backing Gillard but unfortunately I agree with Suki, the public isn’t ready for a woman to lead a major party in Australia yet.

Besides probably not running can I get a rundown of why Crean is out?

As I sometimes state I’m a mere layperson with a small fascination in politics in recent times but I was considering a prediction of Leader Rudd, Deputy or Treasurer Crean but according to you, those more astute than I, thats a very long shot.

Note, I never actually made the prediction just considered it.

Jason Soon
Jason Soon
2025 years ago

i agree with quiggers. please not beazeley again! in a contest between john howard and john howard lite, john howard will inevitably win

TimT
2025 years ago

What’s so ‘lite’ about Kim Beazley? I would have seen him as more a political heavyweight, myself…

kyan gadac
kyan gadac
2025 years ago

Rudd rudd rudd… gee that feels good to say. But seriously Kevin has got the popular vote in the deep south west – at least three of my apolitical friends have suggested him, unsolicited. They like his calm, unruffled intelligence and his quitely spoken manner. It gives him an edge on Howard’s self-righteousness. I used to think that he didn’t have the ‘killer’ touch but I don’t think that matters as much these days and he can demolish Downer in a reasoned way in about 29 seconds on the news.

Oh BTW I’ve started me own blog(sigh..not another one) at

http://kiangardarup.blogspot.com/

mainly covering Aboriginal issues and science, politics and philosophy. Feel free to exchange links.

Mark Bahnisch
2025 years ago

Vee, Crean wouldn’t stand a chance basically because he failed so dismally last time around (not that Beazley was exactly an unqualified success!).

kyan, I’ll look forward to reading your blog. Send me an email if you like (m dot bahnisch at bigpond dot com) and I’ll forward it on to Ken for the blogroll. There’s a bit of a backlog of new and moved blogs for him to deal with when he resurfaces in netland!

Jason Soon
Jason Soon
2025 years ago

TimT, Kim is a heavy man, but I meant ‘John Howard Lite’ in the sense that he really is a defence/social conservative who only differs from Howard to the extent necessary to be palatable to Labot voters.

TimT
2025 years ago

Well, that shines a different light on the matter ;)

Okay, that’s my last bad joke for the day, I’ll go.

Darlene
2025 years ago

Keep up the jokes, TimT.

Like to say something deep about the ALP but it’s so hot, think I will just add that the factions are a problem, but there would be problems if they didn’t exist as well. The main issues are to do with their rigidity and the way they can back those without talent just because they have the numbers, and also the way they deny others the chance to have a go. Also, people join them too young and before you know it they’re on the typical Labor Party career trajectory, but sadly lacking in life experience.

Mark Bahnisch
2025 years ago

Isn’t Brisbane summer grand, Darlene?

Brian Bahnisch
Brian Bahnisch
2025 years ago

“I used to think that he didn’t have the ‘killer’ touch but I don’t think that matters as much these days and he can demolish Downer in a reasoned way in about 29 seconds on the news.”

Rudd’s killer touch should not be underestimated. When he was Goss’s head of the office of cabinet and I was a public servant in Qld we used to call him “Doctor Death”.

trackback
2025 years ago

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