Monday, September 12, 2011

Why the attacks on Gillard?

The headline in the Melbourne Age today was "Labor win if Rudd was leader". It's yet another attempt to push the idea of replacing the current PM, Julia Gillard, with the former one, Kevin Rudd.

Why is the liberal media keen on Rudd? I'm not privy to the editorial decision making at The Age, but there seem to be two complaints levied against Gillard: first, that she is insisting on a tougher, offshore processing of asylum seekers and, second, that she is not 'flexible' enough in meeting the needs of big business.

In other words, at places like The Age she is being attacked for not being enough of a radical liberal on the policies that currently matter to left and right liberals. There are those in the liberal establishment who yearn, instead, for Kevin Rudd, a politician who was dumped as PM by his own party for being so electorally unpopular and who is recovering from heart surgery.

I'm not a fan of Gillard, but I do consider Rudd to be a worse option. Rudd was the politician who set immigration at record levels and who pushed for the creation of a EU style federation of Australia/Pacific nations.

2 comments:

  1. The amusing thing is that the Labor strategists haven't worked out that Rudd and Gillard are equally unelectable. They might as well just toss a coin.

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