Labor factions install Rudd
A lot of people around the country will be shaking their heads.
It seems that NSW Labor’s factional disease has now infected the whole of the country. It is now apparently permissible to sack a Prime Minister simply because of poor polls. Nothing to do with policy, just the power of opinion polls.
But this Parliament has delivered. As the country’s first woman Prime Minister, Julia Gillard has done a pretty good job of negotiating with the Greens, country independents, other independents and Labor to get people on the same page and progress some significant reforms.
She has never really been given a fair go by her own side. For the last couple of years, the NSW factional heavies in particular have been intent on undermining her and now they have got their way.
Labor’s decision to hack down another PM sends a clear message that opinion polls and the Labor factions run the country and that no matter what good things you get done you can be sacked at a moment’s notice. Not a good day for democracy and I think a lot of people will be very disappointed about that.
I would have thought that with a minority parliament and the country’s first woman Prime Minister, it would have been all shoulders to the wheel, Labor working together to ensure the project succeeded. Instead, two years’ of infighting and backstabbing has deprived a minority government of ‘clean air’ and made it impossible to communicate the great reforms we’ve achieved.
Of course the Greens had policy differences with the Prime Minister, but I think she deserved better treatment from her own team.
Sadly, the only winner from the infighting is Tony Abbott, who has been repeatedly handed a huge political gift.
I don’t want to see a an Abbott government, so last night Greens leader Christine Milne and I met with Kevin Rudd and Anthony Albanese and informed them we would support confidence in the government until an election is called. We have also written to the Governor-General informing her that I would guarantee confidence in the government, provided that we go to an election soon.
Adam Bandt
Download a copy of the Greens letter to the Governor-General