“One thing the Labor Party has got to learn is that it doesn’t solve its polling problems by simply changing the leader.”
Wise words from Simon Crean today, who should know better than anyone.
The problem is, the current leadership tension — to which Crean has plainly added courtesy of his comments this morning — is inextricably linked to Labor’s decision to “simply change its leader” in June 2010.
That certainly didn’t solve its polling problems: after a momentary spike, Julia Gillard took Labor’s vote below the levels Kevin Rudd was achieving shortly before his removal, and has kept it well below it ever since. Julia Gillard — the deputy PM who seemed to promise so much — is deeply unpopular with the electorate. There is no sign of her government turning around its fortunes. She has begun the year terribly, and in Queensland it is likely to get worse before it gets any better.
Tony Abbott, meanwhile, happily feeds off the constant series of errors Labor hands him, and rarely offers anything of substance. Serious questions remain over the policies he has announced, and they come with a bill that runs to the tens of billions of dollars. There is little evidence he has the substance or temperament to be an effective prime minister. And, like Gillard, he is deeply unpopular with the electorate. But his position as leader is entirely safe, given the strong lead his party holds.
People get the governments they deserve, runs the cliché. Do we get the leaders we deserve? It’s unclear what sins we as a nation collectively committed to deserve Gillard and Abbott.
I deserve Rudd vs Turnbull
NOT
Gillard vs Abbott
A: We are turning into a nation of bogans. QED.
For me Gillard showed off her “Gee???? spot” when she grabbed such difficult government by the tail – no doubt on behalf of all the under-achievers in the party looking for celebrity and kudos, before they look for “work”, that she represents and takes the “bullet” for (so they don’t have such accountable responsibility), no doubt – when she could have let the rope go and let Abbott have it – frays, loose ends, knots and all.
But she had to be “Australia’s first elected PM!” – what a look now?
And as if to show how “myopic” she is, she still “courts Murdoch’s Limited News” with their “political priorities”, their infatuation with playing “Divide and Conkers”, and PR sausage machine mulching her image – just like Rudd does?
What part of “LNP = Limited News Party” can’t she see?
I would like to see some objective analysis of what Gillard has achieved/failed to achieve (and why) before passing sentence.
For instance, the stuff up last Friday is hardly a hanging offence except in the eyes of her opponents and the media (or dont I need to add “and the media”) so I would at worst give this a -1 on a scale of +10 to -10.
That is not to deny that she and Abbott are both deeply unpopular but please start reporting with clarity and analysis rather than talking about polls.