It’s Kevin Rudd again: Labor Party games hit a new level

With so much of internal strife and quest for power within the Labor party, the worst party to lose out is us, the general public.

After an extraordinary day of political drama, Kevin Rudd has been reinstated as leader of the Labor party and subsequently the Prime Minister of the country, securing 57 votes to Julia Gillard’s 45 in the party’s caucus ballot. Additionally, Rudd’s return as leader has triggered the prospect of the federal election taking place in August this year as opposed to mid September. This leadership shuffle could pave the way for a revamp of the entire cabinet and revision of key policies such as the Gonski school reforms, asylum seekers, 457 visas & carbon tax.

Gracious in defeat, the former Prime Minister of Australia, Gillard, said;

“We cannot be in a circumstance for much of my prime ministership if the truth be told, where I have been in a political contest with the leader of the opposition, but I’ve also been in a political contest with people from my own political party. No leader should be in that position”.

After three years at the helm, Julia Gillard reflected on her tenure listing carbon pricing, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Gonski education reforms and the Royal Commission into child sex abuse as among some of her achievements. An emotional Gillard however deservedly prided herself at not just being the first female PM of Australia but also for paving the way for aspiring women to take up the role of PM in future.

Despite being vanquished and betrayed by her own party members, the ever-resilient Gillard urged her colleagues to fight till the very end in the upcoming election. She said, “I do say to my caucus colleagues, don’t lack the guts, don’t lack the fortitude, don’t lack the resilience to go out there with our Labor agenda to win this election. I know it can be done”.

Kevin Rudd will be sworn in this morning as Prime Minister three years after he was ousted by his party. In his speech after securing victory as Labor party leader, he stated that politics had failed the Australian people, promising to strongly contest the upcoming election. He added, “I simply do not have it in my nature to stand idly by and allow an Abbott Government to come to power in this country by default”.

When asked if the Opposition party should be worried now that Rudd mania is back, Opposition leader Tony Abbott played it safe saying, “Winning any election is a huge challenge”. But the Liberal party would now be aware that they have their work cut out in regards to winning over the Australian people because Kevin Rudd is miles ahead of Tony Abbott on the popularity charts.

With her exit as PM, Julia Gillard has quit politics. However, I strongly believe that Gillard is made of sterner stuff when compared to Kevin Rudd; let me explain why: when Rudd was deposed as PM in 2010, he gave an emotional speech struggling to hold back tears. But Gillard, who has been a subject of ridicule ever since she became PM in 2010, held her head high in her farewell speech and spoke in a dignified manner that was highly impressive and she deserves to be applauded for that.

With so much of internal strife and quest for power within the Labor party, the worst party to lose out is us, the general public. It’s such a pity that our top politicians spend a lot of their time squabbling instead of working together towards improving the many issues such as poverty, infrastructure, lack of basic necessities, escalating bills, education etc., this country is confronted with.