Rats abandon the sinking SS Gillard

[IQS.RLOW]

I see Burke and Conroy have been caught taking graft from Obeid. One can only imagine what else they stuffed into their jocks that hasn't been found out.

Now members of 'Young Labor' have slammed Faulkner, one of the only members of the ALP who has an ounce of respect and dignity outside the party of 'backhanders'

The corruption and dirt through the ALP goes through the whole organization from the young ground moles to the top of the tree. Even the young corrupt little tards don't want to give up their hard fought positions brought about by sucking the right cocks in the ALP.

What hope for the rest of the party where the elder members have been sucking cock for years to get to where they are?

[IQS.RLOW]

Interesting the wording Kevvy used eh? Definitely going for it....

"I supported the Prime Minister, I challenged the Prime Minister, that remains my position"

http://www.news.com.au/national/take-a- ... 6570317321" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rorschach]

[Neferti]

http://pickeringpost.com/

[Mattus]

Well fuck me! Is this a spill?

More like an ALP purge, or exorcism even?

I wonder when Billy Short-on-brains (Shorten) will assume poll position.

Before or after the election?




See, cold or not, Billy wants his pie and wants to eat it too.

Because anytimes a good time for pie, eh Bill?



Pink lips sink ships. ...blurting to journo's.... just cant help themselves.

The right factional ALP vampires are coming in for the kill.

Whats it called when you eat your own kind again?



Liberals wont have to do or say a thing, the ALP is imploding.

Will you stop talking in single sentence paragraphs? That is so annoying.

[Neferti]

Agree +1

[Rorschach]

Face it behind the bravado, Gillard is rattled... she's all about propping up her leadership. PM "whatever it takes" is only there for herself, she'll do or say anything, anything to maintain the status quo. Her party smells, she has no credibility, there are enemies within and without.

Parliament's air of uncertainty as nerves are rattled
February 8, 2013
Michelle Grattan
Political editor of The Age

A peculiar atmosphere of limbo has hung over this first parliamentary week. After Julia Gillard said she was putting certainty into the election timing by announcing the date months ahead of time, an odd feeling of uncertainty has descended.

It's as if everyone is waiting for something. But what? More polls? A leadership blow-up? Even a big opposition policy? We are in the ellipsis of a political sentence.

No one can have missed that Gillard has had a bad start to the year. Except the rusted-ons. Some things she could have done much better, while others, notably the arrest and court appearance of Craig Thomson and the NSW corruption hearings, with their shocking revelations, have landed on her.

Parliament began with a repeat of 2012; Kevin Rudd facing questions about leadership when he attended the pre-sitting church service. Now, as then, he had a sort of who, me? reaction. Twelve months ago the Gillard forces neatly manoeuvred him into a premature challenge in which he was battered to near political death. He's pledged he won't challenge again, but he wants his job back as much as he ever did.

He doesn't have the numbers. But his followers are running a classic destabilisation campaign, with constant criticism of Gillard. She can only plough on, but they have got under her skin. At Monday's caucus she was defensive, with a long explanation of her decision to name the election date and a bitch about colleagues who leak. Journalists had told her, she said, that when they returned from holidays there were messages from Labor MPs wanting to say negative things about the government. Even members of the government have nothing good to say about it... surely not.

Gillard's nerve never breaks, but her lecture was a sign of a hairline crack. Her shrill, aggressive negative behaviour continually points this out. It is not as though she could think her critics will stop bagging her, however much she upbraids them; her lecture made her appear rattled. She can't afford to let a circling Rudd drive her into misjudgments; she has made enough of those on her own. This from a Gillard ALP supporter.

As some of the Rudd people stir wherever they can, a new line of Labor chatter has also emerged, saying Rudd is an asset whose popularity should be mobilised in a supportive role to help Gillard and the government. True in theory of course, but remember when the two got together for the sake of the party in the 2010 campaign. The pictures were poisonous (and in those weeks, the Rudd camp's leaks did immeasurable harm to the government).

Monday's Newspoll, with a six-point drop in Labor's primary vote, worse personal ratings for Gillard and improved ones for Tony Abbott, has added to a feeling of things being unsettled for Labor. At a meeting last weekend, ALP national secretary George Wright urged candidates in marginal seats (both ALP and Coalition-held) not to let the polls make them feel it was all too hard. But the polls shape political perception, and many if not most Labor MPs feel it is too hard. In particular, they know Labor is politically burning in the key area of western Sydney.

Abbott opened the year promising to be Mr Positive, and the opposition has kept the heat turned down in question time. Even apart from the Mr Positive push, why wouldn't it, when government MPs are privately sniping, and Craig Thomson and the Sydney corruption hearings are providing plenty of TV footage that is devastating for Labor.

Mr Positive didn't produce any new detailed policy, but one leak did put out some bold ideas. The Daily Telegraph report of a discussion paper on developing northern Australia carried the unfortunate (but clever) headline ''TONY GOES TROPPO''. Typical of the Tony bashing that goes on... and on... and on... and on. The plan, Vision 2030, aimed at boosting the north's population, would include the use of tax incentives, immigration policy, and the relocation of sections of federal departments and defence facilities. A lump of foreign aid money would be redirected to build a tropical medicine centre.

The draft - still a long way from a policy - had been circulated by shadow finance minister Andrew Robb to relevant state and territory leaders and business people, but the leak was embarrassing. Actually the reaction from the Left has been more embarrassing IMO.

The government, desperate for anything to use against the Coalition in battler-land, is saying the policy would increase taxes on people in western Sydney to finance white elephants in the north. But if the rough edges of the discussion paper are rubbed off such a policy has the potential to appeal in some regional seats. Typical of the ALP who are the real Dr Nos.

The first big ticket opposition policy of the year is expected to be the broadband blueprint. Selling this policy will be a challenge for shadow communications minister Malcolm Turnbull. The Coalition's alternative must incorporate what an Abbott government would inherit (not to do so would be wasteful) well they've already said time and time again they will use what is built Michelle. while setting out a future scheme that is credible without so much government involvement. We could see the policy unveiled in April. You mean those of us who aren't aware of it already and have been pushing the ALP lie of no policies?

With the election date set, the opposition can plan its policy agenda quite precisely. Well, that's assuming the numbers stay with Gillard. Like government MPs, the opposition's attention is focused on Rudd. Julie Bishop predicted this week that Rudd had one more tilt in him. Independent Tony Windsor said if Rudd returned, the election would probably be earlier. ''No one can guarantee the September 14 date anyway; that's a preferred option in a sense. Those things can change quite dramatically.'' That's limbo land for you.

This is Michelle Grattan's final column as The Age's political editor.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politi ... z2KG3FyplP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;