Economy
Rudd’s Rise. Gonski, Unis, Battlerorts, Facts-Fight-Back, Recycling. Indigenous vote. The non-debate
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has used his renewed authority to order historic changes to Labor rules to ensure no sitting prime minister can ever again be removed by the party’s ”faceless men” as he was in 2010.
The changes would see the direct election of the ALP leader by a combination of rank and file ballot and caucus, as well as other preconditions making hostile leadership changes all but impossible.
The move, which Mr Rudd has used to declare a major membership drive for his party, has taken key players in the ALP by surprise, with NSW state secretary Sam Dastyari admitting he had no warning of the bombshell, which had left him ”flabbergasted”.
”I don’t know what to make of this yet. This was tightly kept within the parliamentary leadership. The organisation was not in the loop on this.”
The changes appear to go further even than those advocated by the party’s elder statesmen Steve Bracks, John Faulkner and Bob Carr – the latter now Foreign Minister in Mr Rudd’s cabinet.
It is understood Mr Rudd honed the package on Sunday night with his leadership circle – Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a long-term backer of greater democracy; Treasurer Chris Bowen; Leader of the Senate Penny Wong; her deputy, Jacinta Collins; and Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten.
Arguing that the Australian people wanted to know they would retain the prime minister they elected, Mr Rudd announced the package on Monday evening following a full ministry and subsequent cabinet meeting.
It comes just days after he ordered a federal intervention in the corrupted NSW branch to weed out crooks, and within a fortnight of his own coup over Ms Gillard, which he won by 57 votes to 45. That followed a long campaign of destabilisation by his supporters.
Under his new rules, that campaign would have been impossible.
”Today more than ever, Australians want to know that the prime minister they elect, is the prime minister they get,” he said.
Read more:
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/rudd-drops-alp-bombshell-20130708-2pmdk.html#ixzz2YUJSjIGs
• Newspoll shows Labor and Coalition neck and neck after PM Kevin Rudd flags leadership vote reform:
Federal Labor’s popularity has risen since Kevin Rudd was reinstated as Prime Minister, according to the latest Newspoll out today.
The Newspoll published in The Australian newspaper has Labor and the Coalition locked in a dead heat with 50 per cent of the vote after preferences.
Labor’s primary vote has risen to 38 per cent, while the Coalition’s has dropped to 42 per cent.
Mr Rudd continues to lead in the preferred prime minister stakes, with 53 per cent compared to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s 31.
The poll’s margin of error is three percentage points.
The poll’s publication comes after Mr Rudd announced he wants to give Labor Party members a say in deciding who leads the ALP.
Mr Rudd said he wanted to change the party’s rules to make sure that a serving prime minister could not be cut down during their term in office – as happened to him and to the woman who replaced him, Julia Gillard.
etc …
• Christine Milne: Greens launch bid to boost university funding
• The Australia Institute: Facts Fight Back – new TAI initiative :
Elections are about persuading voters about priorities. To do so, facts are important, but they can also be misused when politicians try to influence voters. On this new site, the facts fight back!
While politicians should be free to make their case for what the big issues are and why their policies are best at tackling them, they should not be free to make up their own facts. Voters must be trusted to weigh their own priorities, but they cannot be expected to check the truthfulness of everything they hear.
For political debate to strengthen our democracy the political cost of deception needs to be far higher than any political advantage that flows from fabricating the facts.
Facts Fight Back will provide a timely and accessible source of information to help voters, journalists and the politicians themselves keep track of who is playing loose with the truth.
Be sure to take a look at the new site:
http://www.factsfightback.org.au/
and if you have a fact that you think needs checking email it to facts@tai.org.au.
• Independent Australia: Tony Abbott’s #Battlerorts scandal goes mainstream
• Andrew Wilkie welcomes new school money
• Wikileaks Party: Are you being spied on?
• Family First Tasmania – Single Parents Outraged “Not happy Julie!”
• Fairfax: Labor to hold vote on indigenous recognition within two years
• ABC: Kevin Rudd to appear alone at National Press Club after Tony Abbott rejects debate challenge