KRudd - not the messiah.

[Rorschach]

Kevin kevin... fix the carbon tax...
kevin kevin fix the boat people....
cry the ALP hangers on.

When will they learn... for Rudd to do this he must own up and change his own policies which caused those problems in the first place...

I don't expect any mea culpas from KRudd.

[Rorschach]

Kevin Rudd urged to his fix boats mistake after being sworn in
Paul Maley and Sid Maher
The Australian June 28, 2013 12:00AM

KEVIN Rudd has told colleagues he will not "lurch to the Left" on asylum-seekers, with caucus members publicly urging him to toughen Labor's policy or risk seeing his government consigned to the "dustbin of political history".

Mr Rudd yesterday flagged a series of dramatic policy changes after being sworn in by Governor-General Quentin Bryce as the nation's 28th prime minister one day after he toppled Julia Gillard. Gee kevin did you get it wrong????

Key elements of Ms Gillard's carbon tax - including whether to fasttrack the shift from a fixed price to a floating price - will be examined as soon as Mr Rudd's new cabinet meets next week.

And senior Labor sources have told The Australian Mr Rudd will reverse some of the cuts to the welfare payments of single parents and commit to an in-principle pledge to increase Newstart, in a radical departure from the Gillard government's welfare agenda.

As Mr Rudd used his first day in office to recast his leadership, swearing off the "old politics" of division and conflict, Labor MPs' warned the resurrected Prime Minister that his efforts would count for nothing if he failed to tackle the "illegal immigrant problem".

Labor senator Glenn Sterle told The Australian Mr Rudd had assured him in the wake of Wednesday's leadership ballot that he would not soften Labor's stance on the issue, which has helped destroy Labor's standing in western Sydney. Not only in the West of sydney.

In a clear reference to Mr Rudd's 2010 warning to the party not to "lurch to the Right" on asylum-seekers, made at the time of his removal as prime minster, Senator Sterle said Mr Rudd promised not to "lurch to the Left" either. "Kevin said to me (after the ballot), he will not be taking a lurch to the Left," Mr Sterle told The Australian yesterday. "He understands that it is a major issue in Western Australia and in western Sydney."

Senator Sterle's comments are part of a wider hardening of rhetoric on the asylum issue within the Labor Party, spearheaded by Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who said after Ms Gillard's ousting that the refugee system was broken, with economic migrants, not refugees, now flooding Australia's shores.

Senator Carr said the asylum problem had changed "under our noses", with genuine refugee supplanted by opportunists. "They're not people fleeing persecution," Senator Carr told the ABC's Lateline program. "They're coming from majority religious or ethnic groups in the countries they're fleeing. They're coming as economic migrants."

In Mr Rudd's first term as prime minister, Labor unwound many of the Howard-era measures that had helped stem the flow of floats. Since he was elected in late 2007, more than 44,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Australia in more than 740 boats. With the arrival of three more boats yesterday, more than 12,807 asylum-seekers have arrived this year alone.

As Mr Rudd presented himself to parliament as Prime Minister, Tony Abbott demanded he explain to the Australian people the reasons Ms Gillard had been dumped. Mr Abbott also demanded Mr Rudd name the election date. But Mr Rudd said it was the prerogative of the prime minister to name the election date, signalling he had problems with Ms Gillard's September 14 poll date because it coincided with the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.

Mr Abbott said Mr Rudd's failure to name the date would create even more uncertainty than had been the case with Ms Gillard at the helm. "I think the Australian people are feeling bewildered and a bit ripped off," he said.

Mr Rudd's vow to rebuild bridges with the business community, made after he reclaimed the leadership, came under immediate pressure after the government pushed through a crackdown on 457 temporary work visas. The pro-union policy passed the House of Representatives yesterday and is expected to pass the Senate today.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the new Rudd government administration had missed a vital opportunity to act on its first day to restore business confidence by voting to pass the bill. "This is bad policy resulting from bad process and it needs to be stopped," she said.

Mr Rudd's targeting of the carbon tax has been on his agenda since he challenged for the leadership in February last year and indicated he would review the fixed-price period.

The clean energy package Ms Gillard negotiated with the Greens and the regional independents is designed to transition to a floating price, linked to the European emissions trading scheme, on July 1, 2015. The fixed price will increase to $24.15 for each tonne of carbon from Monday.

Mr Rudd's office last night confirmed he would be discussing the "implementation of the carbon price when cabinet meets next week".

It is expected the discussion will be broad and will canvass the design of the scheme, including its two-year fixed period.

But the issue of asylum-seeker arrivals remains the most contentious and politically damaging for the new Rudd government.

Senator Sterle said that in his home state of Western Australia, Labor's handling of the asylum issue had resulted in a "steady decline" in support for the party.

Labor senator and Rudd backer Mark Bishop praised Senator Carr for providing a "breath of fresh air" in a stale debate.

"He has a keen mind and it's a very, very invaluable job he has done by putting out in public that fresh interpretation of the illegal immigrant problem," Senator Bishop said. "My understanding from public and private briefings over the last three years leads me to the firm conclusion that Senator Carr is right on the money."

And, in a view shared by the Department of Foreign Affairs and border security agencies, Senator Carr blamed the high success rate for refugee claims in Australia for contributing to the problem. "We've reached the view that as a result of court and tribunal decisions, it's coming up wrong. We need a tougher, more hard-edged assessment," he said.

Senator Bishop said Senator Carr's assessment was representative of a wider view within the Labor caucus, which has become increasingly spooked by the electoral backlash facing the party over its handling of the issue. Senator Sterle said if the party could not find a solution to the issue "we'll be confined to the political dustbin of history".

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison yesterday accused Mr Rudd of causing the present crisis by dismantling the Howard-era Pacific Solution during his first stint as prime minister.

[Black Orchid]

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has sparked a row with the Coalition over asylum seekers by suggesting the Opposition's policy to turn back boats could risk "conflict with Indonesia".

Mr Rudd, who was grilled by journalists for the first time since he ousted Julia Gillard from the Labor leadership on Wednesday, touched on a wide range of major policy issues.

But when questioned about Labor's policy on asylum seekers, Mr Rudd quickly shifted the focus to the Coalition's plan to "stop the boats".

"If Mr Abbott were to become prime minister and continue that rhetoric and that posture and actually tries to translate that into reality, I really wonder whether he's trying to risk some sort of conflict with Indonesia," he said.

A diplomatic dispute with Indonesia in the 1960s led to what is now known as the "Confrontation", with 23 Australians killed.

Mr Rudd has suggested history could be repeated if Mr Abbott becomes prime minister and tries to implement his plan.

"Let me tell you, that if you are a student of the Australia-Indonesia relationship, which I have been, since the days of the late forties until now, there have been some pretty rough times in the relationship.

"I never want to see that happen again.

"I for one as Prime Minister of Australia will do everything within my power to continue to improve the relationship with Indonesia rather than to put it at risk.

Way to go Kev. Got to keep those Indos happy. The money we give them annually just isn't enough

"What happens on day one when Field Marshall Tony puts out the order to the captain of the naval frigate X to turn back a bunch of boats, and you have got a naval frigate from the Indonesian navy on the other side of the equation," Mr Rudd said.

So now we can't send them back for fear the Indonesian navy will be laying in wait and we might provoke a military clash and it will be our fault? Sure Kev, let's just keep them all ... in Queensland!

Then there's the 'Ruddisms' ...

"We'll be cooking with gas"

"Gotta zip"



Let's not forget his daughter encouraging his new stance on gay marriage. Apparently young people want it? She says so, so it must be true. Well that's not the consensus I get when I ask my kids' friends. I had forgotten what a complete smirking nitwit he really is.

[IQS.RLOW]

Senator Carr said the asylum problem had changed "under our noses", with genuine refugee supplanted by opportunists. "They're not people fleeing persecution," Senator Carr told the ABC's Lateline program. "They're coming from majority religious or ethnic groups in the countries they're fleeing. They're coming as economic migrants."

When are the rest of the leftists going to get this through their thick skulls?
Their main hand wringing and crocodile tears over the illegal immigrants was they are all 'granted asylum' so they must be genuine This is the first time I have seen the government admit that it is running a broken system.

[Mattus]

http://i.imgur.com/B1zH05A.png

[boxy]

Hahaha, our Prime Minister knows how to make a (n ironic) duck face

[Rorschach]

Myth man is back on his throne
July 1, 2013
Paul Sheehan
Sydney Morning Herald columnist

Nobody knows the date of the only poll that matters but based on the surreal question time in Parliament last week, when Kevin Rudd returned to the dispatch box as Prime Minister, looking as if he had never been away, don't expect him to be leaving The Lodge soon. Talk of an August poll is based on nothing.

Rudd is luxuriating in victory, in primacy, in saturation media coverage. He wants people to get used to him as Prime Minister again, and put distance between the bloodletting of last week and the lofty rhetoric of his election campaign.

The election can't be on September 7, because of the G20 summit in Moscow, which Rudd wants to attend. It can't be September 14, because it is Julia Gillard's election date. Oh, and it's Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of Atonement (which prompted laughter in sections of Rudd's own backbenches, when he mentioned it in Parliament). Can't be September 28 (AFL grand final). Can't be October 6 (NRL grand final).

If there is a betting market, my horse is mid-October. Constitutionally, the Prime Minister has until November 30.

Whatever he decides will be a risk, so he will be watching the polls, but such is his ego he believes he can sway the public and move history. The design of his revival is obvious: he is going to be Mr Positive against Mr Negative. He made this very clear in his first question time on Thursday: ''Positive plans, not slogans … '' let the lies begin...

And: ''I believe that what the Australian people are looking for is a positive vision for the nation's future … ''

And: ''What they want is positive politics, not negative politics. They want us to build the House up, not tear it down … ''

And: ''It is time for the old politics of negativity to be dead and buried.''

Julia Gillard cut a poignant figure as she sat in the back row of the government benches. During this day after the drama of her removal, there was a general laying down of arms in the Parliament. Before question time, one of the independents who would not be coming back, Robert Oakeshott, delivering his valedictory address, spoke glowingly of the former prime minister, and it was Oakeshott who finally caused her to break.

When he turned to address her directly and said, ''Your father would be proud of you,'' he was in tears. Gillard looked back at him with affection, and she, too, broke. It was a touching moment. No room for cynicism.

At the end of question time, when the Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, announced he would be leaving the Parliament, the entire Coalition benches remained in respectful silence for Smith's valedictory address. The Leader of the Opposition then rose to praise him, and Julie Bishop walked round from her seat to give her fellow West Australian a hug. Gillard, too, walked from her seat to do the same. There is heart behind the heat.

The reassessment of Gillard's legacy has already begun and begun to soften. She had power without glory, now she can have glory without power.

On Monday, a new book, The Stalking Of Julia Gillard, by former Canberra press gallery journalist Kerry-Anne Walsh, gives a brutal portrayal of Rudd as a vindictive, bullying, self-aggrandising narcissist whose monomania created a dysfunctional government. There is no question as to who is the stalker. Gillard, by contrast, is portrayed as the real leader who inherited Rudd's failures and could never get out from under them.

Some preposterous analysis has been put about that the underlying cause of Gillard's demise was widespread misogyny. Yet none of the woman closest to Gillard politically, the other women in the ministry, followed her out the door, unlike a slew of male colleagues. Two of these women put their hands up for leadership, and were rewarded. Penny Wong, a former union official, is now leader of the government in the Senate. Jacinta Collins, a former union official, is now deputy leader of the Senate. Solidarity forever eh...

These women rightly did not vote on gender and emotion and feminist ideology but on real-world pragmatism. Their party was heading for disaster with Gillard as leader. Another former Labor federal MP, Maxine McKew, wrote an unflattering portrait of Gillard, with her stalking Rudd, in her book, Tales From the Political Trenches.

Having exacted his revenge, the restored Rudd is now busy peddling the myth that he represents a positive break from negative politics. The electorate already has enough contrasts to make a choice. The Coalition vows to stop the people smugglers, repeal the carbon tax, oppose gay marriage and curb union excesses. All that is needed is the election. Don't hold your breath.

yes scaremongering about war with indonesia is certainly not negative kevvy

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/myth-man- ... z2Xl5hSoa2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Black Orchid]

Kev's taken to sending out spam mail. I have never received political spam before. This is a first for me and they are coming thick and fast.

In recent years, politics has failed the Australian people. There has just been too much negativity all round. There’s been an erosion of trust.

Negative personal politics has done much to bring dishonour to our parliament but done nothing to address the urgent challenges facing our country, our communities and our families.

In fact it has been holding our country back.

This must stop, and with all my heart that is the purpose that I intend to pursue as Prime Minister.

I want to acknowledge the achievements of my predecessor, Julia Gillard. She is a woman of extraordinary intelligence, of great strength and energy. She has achieved much under the difficult circumstances of minority government.

Every effort I have in my being will be dedicated to uniting the Australian Labor Party. No retributions, no pay backs, none of that stuff. It is pointless, it is old politics.

Together, we can win and defend all that Labor has achieved in the past six years. Join the campaign today or click here to donate.

Thanks,

Kevin

donate.icon.png

Pppfffttt. No he's not the messiah and he won't be getting a donation from me either.

[Neferti]

So far no spam mail in my In Box but got a snail mail spam thing from my local MP today, telling me how horrible Mr Abbott is. Geeze, this is Canberra a Leftard Town, they must be really worried.

Actually a neighbour popped in on Saturday afternoon about other things and as she was leaving she asked "Do you think changing to Kevin Rudd will help Labor win" and I said "No" and added that I vote Liberal. I figured this woman would be a Greenie, so asked her and she is. Liberals are few and far between around here.

[Rorschach]

I keep getting emails to help them door knock locally.