Australia General Discussion

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Senior ALP Ministers are leaking to the press that any Rudd challenge would see them resign and force an immediate election. Which means a lot of people are taking things a lot more seriously than in the past.

Call an immediate election because they hope to take advantage of any bounce, or resign to stop Kev'.

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Senior ALP Ministers are leaking to the press that any Rudd challenge would see them resign and force an immediate election. Which means a lot of people are taking things a lot more seriously than in the past.

Call an immediate election because they hope to take advantage of any bounce, or resign to stop Kev'.

If one ALP member were to resign, Rudd couldn't command a working majority in the House - he'd be forced to call an election.

Oh, I just thought you meant resign from cabinet.

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Remember the days when the ALP were at 60-40?

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The ALP is truely screwed no matter who's the leader. Kev' is less childish than Julia (and, by definition, Abbott), but a leadership spill to take revenge for a previous leadership spill (which is what it is, let's be frank) would ruin any image of credibility for Rudd.

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http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/gillard-used-polling-to-trigger-coup-20120214-1t49l.html

This just gets worse for her...

Argh, why is the PM such a joke!? Even Gordon Brown held knifing Blair better than this.

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I think Rudd's biggest mistake was not going for a double-dissolution in February 2010. He had the opportunity before Abbott got his footing to basically take the moral high-ground on climate change... but he, like many if I'm honest, expected Abbott to implode and would be an easy win later in the year.

So it was kind of Rudd's Jim Callaghan/Gordon Brown moment?

And the carbon tax was Julia's Clegg moment?

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Does Australian House of Representatives have a vote of no confidence rule? And if so, how likely would it occur on this situation.

Assuming it's similar to the UK, the Leader of the Opposition (probably him anyway) would table a motion of no confidence, the House would then debate the motion - a speech from Gillard, a speech from Abbott. Then, should have the House vote that they've lost confidence, Julia would go and see the Governor-general to offer her government's resignation and either ask for a new election or tell the GG to ask Tony to form a government (without an election, a bit like what Lib-NDP-BQ were planning in Canada when Harper got another minority in 2008).

Or, if the budget wasn't passed, it'd count as a vote of no confidence.

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Re economy: You could say the same about Major's Tories in '97.

The Tories presided over two recessions and services had been ravaged and neglected. That's the stuff the electorate notices, but let's stay on topic.

Julia's embarrassing, but hardly John Major embarrassing.

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Perhaps now would be the time to consider democratising the leadership process somewhat?

How does the rank and file feel about Rudd?

I've no idea and that's really not the point.

Personally, i've always found the Australian way of selecting party leaders to be very strange.

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What is Rudd's great sin?

He's non-collaborative (ie Ministers often only know of a decision in their portfolio once it's announced) - this is especially bad in the ALP, where the caucus is meant to a filtering process. The other ALP-specific sin is that he's not aligned with one of the factions - which means no one trusts him. But for the public at-large (and those of us in Canberra) - he's very ill-mannered, in private every 3rd word is f*** (or some variation), and his government was marked by a lot of activity, policy made up on the fly and no real pay off.  

I though KRudd was meant to be insanely popular for like two years after his election. What happened?

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http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/rudd-row-gets-dirty-20120218-1tg9j.html

Wonder how this got out....

Definately his Gordon Brown "bigoted woman" moment.

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If Gillard calls a spill tomorrow, naturally she'll win.

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Surely the premier's hoping for KRudd to get back to the Lodge, it can only help her own prospects of reelection.

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anyone know where I can find a breakdown of the support for Rudd or Gillard?

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2012/02/23/gillard-vs-rudd-the-re-match/

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE9FDKxMXTw

Jules officially calls for a ballot.

Just wondering what my own Labour Party'd be like if we had the Australian system of electing a leader. We'd be a massive mess.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE9FDKxMXTw

Jules officially calls for a ballot.

Just wondering what my own Labour Party'd be like if we had the Australian system of electing a leader. We'd be a massive mess.

Someone else would have won your last contest.

Yup. Even if Ed still won, it would've lasted all of five minutes. Gordon Brown would've became PM in like 2003-04, as agreed.

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As someone who doesn't know much about Aus political history, why is today's ALP situation any different to Keating in 1993 or Howard in 2004's situation? Being unpopular and down in the polls, but winning in the end.

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Apparently, no mobile phones are allowed into caucus this morning. How naive.

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73-29.

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This Liberal Party mixing up their metaphors.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cj6w83yueM

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And looks like Craig Thompson is going to "quit" the caucus and sit as an independent, so reports the Daily Telegraph.

Has Tony Abbott demanded a General Election over this yet?

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And looks like Craig Thompson is going to "quit" the caucus and sit as an independent, so reports the Daily Telegraph.

Has Tony Abbott demanded a General Election over this yet?

I remember when Cameron demanded a general election every other week during the Brown Government. Of course, Miliband can't do that because of the fixed terms bill.

A variation of the old "noun, verb, 9/11".

A noun-A verb-A demand for a General Election. The extent of Tony Abbott's rhetoric.

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Prime Minister? Really!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osID-_Zi-1I

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Yeah, you have to wonder how he ever became a Cabinet Minister (actually, we all know the answer to that one... *wink*).

Just looked at his wikipedia page. As if he dated Julia!

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We have to wait and see who's left in caucus first...