Is Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on his way out? The Australian press is peppered with stories about how some in his party want to dump him and about what he needs to steady a shaky — some say sinking — political ship.
Rudd has been a key figure in Australian politics, particularly since 2006 when he became federal leader of the federal leader centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP). He has been Australia’s 26th PM since 2007 — a tempestuous time partially due to the global economy crisis. But his critics don’t feel he is a victim of being at his country’s top during an unbelievably difficult time. They see other flaws — and reports are indeed swirling that some in his own party are at least talking out loud about how to dump him.
Australia’s Herald Sun reports about rumblings within his own party to find someone else:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s control of the party has entered a treacherous phase, with Cabinet ministers and backbenchers canvassing the idea of changing leaders before this year’s federal election.
As Ms [ Deputy Prime Minister Julia] Gillard was forced yesterday to publicly deny she wanted the top job, Labor MPs described Mr Rudd as a “leader under fire” and said his prime ministership was “terminal”.
Senior Labor sources said Ms Gillard has always had the numbers to seize the leadership, but not necessarily the will to challenge for the top job.
“She would get it pretty easily right now, but I don’t think she wants it,” the source said.
While there was significant unease within the parliamentary ranks about Mr Rudd’s performance, there was also no guarantee that Ms Gillard could turn the polls around……
AND:
Internal Labor polling shows the party is in trouble, but a senior Labor source said that while the “polls are bad” they “don’t necessarily show that we will lose”. “It will come close, but it might also be a hung Parliament,” the source said.
A senior federal Labor MP agreed the leadership was Ms Gillard’s if she wanted it – but added there was no number-counting.
“Normally, when a leader is under fire, you have a contender chasing them down but Julia has done none of that,” the MP said.
“Normally, you have someone on the phone saying, ‘I want to be leader; will you support me?’ Nothing’s going on; no one is counting the numbers.”
However, the unease within the party room is growing.
One backbencher said: “A lot of my colleagues are of the view that we can’t win with him.”
Party elders are also lining up against him, the latest being former Queensland treasurer Keith De Lacy and former ALP powerbroker Graham Richardson.
Australia’s ABC News’ report does indeed show Gillard standing by what its hedline called the “embattled” PM:
“I don’t agree with the view that’s been expressed by Mr de Lacy,” she said.
“I’ve read the newspapers, and the thing that matters is not what’s in the pages of the daily newspapers but focussing on making a difference to working families.”
She says people are entitled to their opinions, but it is absurd to suggest she would challenge for the leadership.
“I read the newspapers, then put the newspapers aside and I get on with the job,” she said.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Paul Daley, in a piece that needs to be read in full, says labors “black hands” are backing Rudd. Here’s a small part. First, he outlines the context:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is in trouble.
But is his leadership really under the sort of imminent threat that some commentators, political opponents and even supposed allies have been suggesting, publicly and privately, of late?
According to the major published opinion polls, his government has a primary vote of about 36 per cent. He has a net negative personal rating as preferred prime minister. These are appalling figures for a prime minister swept to power on a wave of optimism and with such a mandate for reform just 2 years ago.
Rudd’s administration had been one of Australia’s most popular first-term governments. It’s not surprising, then, that Labor strategists are alarmed at how quickly support for the government has evaporated since public opinion began to turn in February.
They are now pondering two critical scenarios. The first is whether voters have stopped believing and listening to Rudd. The second is whether voters actually see Tony Abbott as a viable, trustworthy alternative.
If the answer to both scenarios is “yes”, then the portents for Rudd are grim. Labor will not blithely stumble from first-term government to opposition when it has a viable, alternative leadership option that would save it from the electoral abyss.
Much is made of the pragmatism and ruthless efficiency of Labor’s so-called machine men – that is, those who make or break leaders – in the face of an election loss. But the fact remains that federal Labor, especially in government, is extraordinarily respectful of, and deferential towards, its prime ministers.
To a point .
He details how Rudd’s popularity has waned. His end paragraphs:
One man of influence explains: “It would be political insanity. The challenger would lose and the party would be bitterly divided in the countdown to an election.
“That is why nobody in a position of authority is advocating any change right now. There is one solution for us and that is to win the election with Kevin as leader.”
…..Things could easily shift before the election. But leadership speculation does not yet amount to leadership manoeuvring.
There’s a big difference.
Go to the link and read all of it.
The Herald Sun’s Simon Kearney looks at Rudd’s “fatal flaws and how to fix them.”
We spent the week asking government insiders, and outsiders, what they thought to try and discover the truth of the poll slump and ultimately we came up with five flaws that the Prime Minister has to address with the common thread being Mr Rudd himself.
Opinion about what to do ranges from a minority who would, given the chance, replace Mr Rudd with Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, to a majority who feel that Mr Rudd needs to make changes to the way the Government is run – quickly.
Critical to one and all is the Government’s public image which patently needs some work.
As one, senior figures said the government needs to sell and define its achievements better, let ministers play a bigger role in public debate and concentrate on getting things right.
The flaws listed: bad language, hubris, haste, near sightedness, and judgement. Go to the link to read the details about what needs to be done about these “flaws.”
And, indeed, Ruddhas had some image problems.
For instance, in this you Tube below, during Question Time, Rudd can be seen to the left behind the guy who’s speaking picking his ear — and eating the ear wax. (Not good imagery but at least it wasn’t his nose…)
He had to later take a question about his alleged snack on Australia’s popular Today Show:
On the other hand, Australians seemed impressed with his many other qualities — such as his ability to speak Mandarin:
He got trouble last year for using a swear word on live TV (warning adult language):
When journalists have hit him about his loss of popularity and image problems he has not been timid about responding. Here’s a segment that aired on ABC in Australia in May that some critics said showed he was “losing it.” (By American politican/media standards it is quite tame):
The opposition seized on it to say it looks like he’s “losing it”:
He created a stir when he apologized to Australia’s Aboriginal people two years ago. This video also provides the context, for American TMV readers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB5eRqiP9Po&feature=related
And, in the way politics, the Internet and snark intertwine these days, his apology launched some satirical videos such as this one that uses computer magic to make him sing:
The emotions Rudd has arouses are clear if you look at some Google Images. Some of these are adult oriented — such as THIS one. Also go here here, here and here — and there are many more.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.