{"id":6508,"date":"2013-07-19T18:30:58","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T08:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=6508"},"modified":"2022-05-02T00:26:32","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T14:26:32","slug":"three-years-zipped-by-a-selfie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/three-years-zipped-by-a-selfie\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Gillard years zipped by a selfie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"387929-kevin-rudd-selfie\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Sarah Capper<\/a><\/p>\n

19 Juy 2013<\/p>\n

In the three short weeks since Kevin Rudd wrested the ALP leadership and title of Prime Minister from Julia Gillard, we\u2019ve all been catapulted (some kicking and screaming) into a parallel universe. That of Kevin\u2019s.<\/p>\n

National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce recently speculated what it was like to get inside Kevin\u2019s head, suggesting to Sky News it could be \u201ca scary place to go\u201d.<\/p>\n

What we do know is that there\u2019s a three year period between 2010 and 2013 that Kevin Rudd, like Opposition Leader Tony Abbott\u2019s take on the South Australian town of Whyalla following the introduction of the price on carbon, has \u201cwiped off the map\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his first address following the leadership ballot, Rudd paid tribute to his immediate predecessor\u2019s legacy \u2013 but not for the first female Prime Minister\u2019s holding together of a minority government in introducing a raft of big policy ticket items \u2013 like the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Gonski reforms, and the policy which didn\u2019t wipe Whyalla off the map (but one which will forever cement Craig Emerson in the embarrassingly amusing political footage stakes).<\/p>\n

No, the best Kevin Rudd could cough up to acknowledge Julia Gillard\u2019s political legacy was her implementation of the Fair Work Act, and in the education policies she introduced \u2013 not, ahem, as Prime Minister, but as Rudd\u2019s Deputy leader.<\/p>\n

Last week at the National Press Club, journalists were \u2018treated\u2019 to the spectacle of Kevin Rudd\u2019s \u2018quaint\u2019 ability to debate himself.<\/p>\n

Opposition leader Tony Abbott had been invited to debate the economy, but refused to show up after labelling it a \u201cstunt\u201d \u2013 said the man who dons a hardhat and a fluro vest for a photo opportunity a few times a week). Never mind, as\u00a0the ABC\u2019s Annabel Crabb reported<\/a>, \u00a0\u201cit turned out fine \u2026 because the PM \u2013 a practised self-interrogator \u2013 simply debated himself for an hour or so, and showed some bar charts.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Crabb also noted Rudd\u2019s black hole memory in terms of the period between mid 2010 and mid 2013:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave a potted history of his past speeches and remarks on economic policy, from the moment he was \u201celected prime minister\u201d in 2007 all the way through the global financial crisis until 2010. Of the period between 2010 and 2013, he did not speak.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If the last three weeks are anything to go by, expect to hear a lot more of Kevin Rudd 2.0\u2019s \u2018selective\u2019 memory recollection. And boldly so.<\/p>\n

Indeed he used his first parliamentary speech as Prime Minister to call for MPs to be a \u201dlittle kinder and gentler with each other<\/a><\/em>\u201d \u2013 in other words, to presumably be the exact opposite to how Kevin himself has behaved for the now-missing years of mid 2010-2013.<\/p>\n

And last week took the furious-frickin-irony cake, with his press conference\u00a0announcement<\/a>\u00a0arguing for changes to how the ALP leadership position is decided.<\/p>\n

Rudd, hand on his heart, was able to present an argument that the sort of sustained treachery he himself has engaged in over the last three years (yep, you guessed which three years), should never happen again. You see, it seems Kevin Rudd wants to be Prime Minister FOREVER.<\/p>\n

The proposal would give rank and file ALP members a 50% say in the leadership position. The changes would also see any leader who wins government guaranteed a full-term in office \u2013 unless 75% of caucus (a figure that has never been achieved) could force a spill based on the leader bringing the party into \u201cdisrepute\u201d. \u201cDisrepute\u201d is a very strong, serious allegation \u2013 one that it would be hard to imagine three quarters of caucus agreeing on.<\/p>\n

In other words, if the changes are agreed to, it would almost guarantee that any future elected leader of the ALP who wins government could not be replaced until they lose government.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Peter Van Onselen wrote<\/a>\u00a0(in one of the few critical pieces on the proposal) in the Australian newspaper:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would also reduce the chances of succession planning in government. It could even create a scenario whereby a leader continued to serve as PM without the support of a majority of their colleagues: a staggeringly dysfunctional way to run a government. In short, the reform proposal touted by Kevin Rudd and meekly adopted by his cabinet colleagues earlier this week would create a virtual elected dictatorship whenever Labor was in office.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What was that line about absolute power and absolute power corrupting absolutely?!<\/p>\n

While more democratic power to everyday members of the ALP should be encouraged, and that of party reform in general, the proposal is hard to swallow given the person who has introduced it \u2013 the same person who has spent the last three years hellbent on destabilizing his own party to take back the leadership. And democratic reform is vastly different from what sounds creepily similar to the creation of an autocracy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth reflecting on history. Such a proposal in retrospect would mean the Keating Government may never have existed. It would also potentially mean the same for the Gillard Government \u2013 that our 112 year federal political history would still be entirely dominated by a succession male leaders.<\/p>\n

During his announcement, Kevin Rudd said, \u201cthe mechanisms outlined in the proposal will prevent anyone from just wandering in, one day or one night, and saying \u201cOK sunshine it\u2019s over.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes sunshine, the \u201cnew paradigm\u201d of Kevin Rudd Rebooted has also seen a cringe-inducing resurgence in the hokey-dokey speak many of us thought we\u2019d thankfully seen the last of in 2010 \u2013 thrown out with a good shake of the sauce bottle.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Corrine Grant notes<\/a>, Rudd\u2019s latest \u201cyouf-speak\u201d is using the term \u201cselfie\u201d in relation to a mobile phone picture. Last Sunday\u2019sepisode of Insiders<\/a>\u00a0showed a cringe-worthy collection of Rudd-about-town embracing anyone and everyone with a mobile phone and exclaiming, \u201ctake a selfie!!\u201d, \u201cselfie, selfie!\u201d. Someone. Please. Make. It. Stop. Or in Rudd-speak, please ask him kindly to \u201czip it\u201d.<\/p>\n

As women and men who relished the chance of having Australia\u2019s first female prime minister, the last few weeks have been hard to digest. It\u2019s not been assisted by articles like that of Labor \u2018statesman\u2019, ahem, Graham Richardson telling readers \u201cGet over it, Girls<\/a>\u201d (and whenever Graham Richardson expresses an opinion on women, just\u00a0check out this picture<\/a>\u00a0in the Monthly in response. One. Thousand. Words.).<\/p>\n

The question lurking in the minds of many women and men since last month\u2019s leadership change remains \u2013 and for many it represents the most wicked of choices \u2013 can people unite behind rewarding a man who indulged in three years of egomania-fuelled treachery, or instead opt to elect a staunchly conservative man, not as \u201cinvisible\u201d as carbon dioxide, but possibly as dangerous?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 By Sarah Capper 19 Juy 2013 In the three short weeks since Kevin Rudd wrested the ALP leadership and title of Prime Minister from Julia Gillard, we\u2019ve all been catapulted (some kicking and screaming) into a parallel universe. That of Kevin\u2019s. National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce recently speculated what it was like to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,3546,585,757,43],"tags":[888,886,763,887,273,283,889,368,885],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-1GY","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56582,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508\/revisions\/56582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}