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  • What was wrong with Kevin Rudd?
  • Earl
    Free Member

    I though he was very popular? What went wrong?

    corroded
    Free Member

    Autocratic, micro-managing flip-flopper who alienated his staff and wasn't cut out for the job he'd always wanted. Sort of rings a bell…

    alexathome
    Free Member

    He smelt of cabbage. Much better to have a ginger Welsh bird. 😀

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    fogliettaz
    Free Member

    [Welsh bird] Welsh Sheila mate!

    bristolbiker
    Free Member

    He shelved his "flagship" environmental policy. The Aussie public like a battler, took it as a sign of weakness and his approval rating went through the floor.

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    Big money sank him.

    Tried to tax the multi-national mining companies and by a HUGE co-incidence ends up with knives in his back.

    Looks like the Oz government has been bought and sold.

    The fact that he can be unpleasant is neither here nor there. His replacement is a silent assassin type 🙂

    shorts_in_winter
    Free Member

    He is a micromanaging, arrogant tool.

    He was popular with the voting public, less so with those in his party. As soon as they lost the emission trading scheme the decline began, and the plan to increase tax on an already heavily taxed industry was obviously very poorly received in the regions where mining is critical (WA and QLD).

    The final nail in the coffin was definitely pushing through the new Mining Tax without consulting his party!

    Good riddance i say, several large mining projects had already been shelved, and many more would have followed. I just hope the inevitable compromise on the mining tax ensures that the industry receives minimal impact.

    Earl
    Free Member

    I see.

    I remember his reaction to the Victoria fires a couple of years back and the fact that some of it was probably arson. He didn't mince his words.

    konabunny
    Free Member

    It's not (all) the mining companies/mining unions' fault, and it's not true that the mining tax is that onerous for the mining companies – but Labor failed to achieve consensus within the party and failed to push a consistent line to the electorate e.g. that by taxing profit instead of production, it actually lowers the risk of new investment. It was a rare case of an unpopular populist policy that burned through a lot of political capital.

    (And by the way if you want to talk about things that discourage investment in mining, you only have to look at the insane knee-jerk xenophobia that pops up whenever a foreign mining company that isn't owned by white people wants to invest in Australian mineral resources).

    The failure to pass the Emissions Trading Scheme was also a disaster that burned through a lot of political capital. Not only did Labor fail to get the scheme through, they also failed to rip apart and destroy the Liberal party who were completely divided over the scheme and lost their leader over it. It should have been a political bloodbath.

    And then they have failed to rip apart the opposition during the subsequent leadership contest, and then take Tony Abbott to pieces 'cos he's none too bright.

    The pink batts/dodgy insulation programme was a terrible idea that was done too quickly and was ripped off left, right and centre by chancers. The stupid Christmas Island immigration processing scheme is still in place, despite it costing 3 times more than onshore processing and achieving nothing extra.

    And not that the electorate cares but there has been zero progress in "closing the gap" between Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islanders and everyone else. There is a ton of money for ATSI housing that has been unspent while the living conditions of some villages are like shanty towns. The NT intervention has failed and nothing consistent has replaced it. Police and ATSIs are essentially warring parties in some towns. Plenty of towns are utterly segregated. ATSIs constitute a massively disproportionate number of people in prison, in care, falling out of education – all the usual indicators of something going terribly wrong.

    Meanwhile, Labor's performance in the States has been abysmal too: the utterly corrupt NSW government has been busy shooting itself in both feet simultaneously over and over again (e.g. Sydney metro – plans basically drawn up in the back of the cab on the way to the Treasury, like the Dog ASBO plans in The Thick of It, a ton of money spent on ludicrous prep work then cancelled; schools refurbishment – huge fraud and corruption in construction of portakabins on school grounds – construction = tradie unions = Labor donors; Kenneally saying she has full confidence in outed Police Minister, just after she sacked him).

    But for all of that, Rudd's government hasn't been all bad: ffs, the pain around the GFC has been minimal (thanks largely to the Chinese pumping millions of dollars into the economy buying "free stuff" i.e. minerals), there's been a real move away from the knuckle-dragging style of politics (which I think Gillard is very comfortable in), FAHSCIA funding for autistic parents has been a very powerful but undramatic policy that has paid off…

    hugorune
    Full Member

    Nothing at all. He just didn't have the support of the left or right wings of his party and paid the price for poor opinion poll ratings. Total horseshit to say any of his policies caused this – the unions just didn't like him.

    I don't know if I'm qualified to comment on this since I actually live in Australia 😉

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