Yesterday Julia Gillard decapitated the Labor party with one swift, surgical strike and stitched her own head Frankenstein like onto the corpse. Now the government lurches forward growling inarticulately and groping blindly for prey. Actually for a process that started with a political murder things have progressed pretty smoothly. It was Gillard's predecessor (what was his name again) who seemed to lurch about inarticulately. Well Kevin Rudd may be gone, turfed out by his own party before completing even one term in office but at least he has his legacy. Long after the dust has settled on this latest upheaval Rudd will be remembered for introducing the term "ratfuck" into the diplomatic lexicon. A phrase like "those Chinese fuckers are trying to ratfuck us" is probably going to be remembered even if it does sound better in Mandarin.
Never in the history of politics has a leader gone from untouchable political god to "who was that?" in such a short period of time. The whole period of Rudd's ascendancy confused me. I voted for him but I wasn't that crazy about him and as he swiftly proved that he had every talent except those required to be a good politician I was astonished at his continued popularity. At least he was popular with people who didn't know him particularly well. His colleagues in the Labor party had a variety of opinions ranging from mild dislike to visceral hatred. While he was popular they ground their teeth and accepted a dictatorial control freak as their leader even though they could see it was causing problems. When his standing in the polls dropped so did he.
The funny thing is his poll standing wasn't terrible, just nowhere near as good as it was. The drop however gave Rudd's enemies the opportunity they had been waiting for. Who were his enemies? Pretty much everyone he could describe as a "valued colleague". The word coming out was that his micro management of affairs led to delays, bungles and the exclusion of all but a tiny coterie from any involvement in decision making. To take an example when he announced the half baked super profits tax on the mining industry the Minister for Resources (the guy most likely to be directly involved) learnt about it from the newspapers. Since this particular minister is that rare thing an experienced politician who is also widely respected by the industries who fall under his portfolio keeping him out of the loop was idiotic.
The other thing about Rudd was his staff. Trusting almost no one Rudd closeted himself with a handful of advisers in his own office and listened to almost no one else. These people weren't stupid but they were deeply inexperienced. The brutal hours Rudd worked (and forced those around him to work) meant that with the exception of himself there was nobody in his office over thirty. Older people couldn't stand the pace and these younger types collectively had less "real life" experience than the furniture in Rudd's office.
For all his managerial failings I was delighted to see that the catalyst for Rudd's fall was a bit of political bitching. Gillard, his loyal deputy (and she was loyal to the point where she is now going to have explain why she agreed to a bunch of stupid ideas in the first place), was deeply offended when after giving yet another protestation of loyalty Rudd got one of his staff members to canvas MPs to see the level of his support. This is bad for a couple of reasons; for starters it is a pretty blatant statement that Rudd didn't believe a word his deputy was telling him and secondly if you really feel you need to sound out your support in the party you get one of the whips or a respected backbencher in your camp to do it. You don't get some snot nosed thirty year old who hasn't been elected to anything in his life to bail up MPs demanding protestations of loyalty. In short Rudd didn't go because of the failings of his government or his drop in the opinion polls. He was knifed because he pissed Julia Gillard off by not following accepted etiquette.
Isn't democracy wonderful? Now we have a new Prime Minister, at least until the election. After that we have a choice between her and Tony Abbot. Without any particular reason to vote for either my vote will go to the candidate I would most like to sleep with. Lead on Julia. Sorry Tony, are we still on for dinner on Saturday?
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As you say, anyone managing to introduce 'ratfuck' into the diplomatic lexicon without starting WWWIII deserves to be remembered. But at this remove I learned lots more about him and the more I learned, the more I understood why he had to go. Having just endured a couple of years of a not very efficient control freak PM, and having seen the adulation heaped on the recently deposed US army general who supposedly existed on four hours sleep and seven-mile runs, I long for someone who might just sit and read a good novel or go to the theatre for relaxation. And if she worth sleeping with, so much the better......(though I have to qualify even that with the awful warning that the seriously sexy Sarah Palin poses for humanity).
ReplyDeleteSadly true about Sarah Palin. She is a bit of a dish.
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