Beazley Calls Leadership Ballot.

Breaking news from the ABC:

"Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has called a leadership ballot for next week.

Mr Beazley made the announcement after arriving at the party's national executive meeting in Canberra this morning.

He says Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd has told him he intends to stand for the leader's position in the ballot."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1801716.htm


Julie Gillard is to make an announcement this afternoon on whether she'll run for Deputy - of course
she will, she must.

This is the best news I've heard out of Canberra for a long while.

It's fairly obvious what Windbag is trying to do, and thats to pre-empt the Rudd/Gillard move, by calling for the vote as soon as possible before the others are ready. If the challenge fails, then any more challengers before the federal election will be seen as 'sour grapes' and won't happen.

Beasley has to know he is about as popular as smallpox and getting worse, and is also probably trying to cash in on the tiny boost he gets from his IR policy (or at least his mouth movements regarding it), I think he may have underestimated exactly how pitiful the electorate think he is.

He went to Beazley and told him he intended to challenge him for the leadership, so he must be pretty
confident that he has the numbers.

Julia Gillard still hasn't announced her candidacy, but Macklin has said she will run again for
Deputy, God help us.

From the radio and so on I gather that Rudd saw beasley to 'talk about it' and then Beasley pretty much jumped up and said it would be voted on.

This just seems a bit out of character for Beasley - mostly he seems to sit around, pontificate, make some noises, and be generally clueless (ditto with Macklin). The sudden jump makes it seem like it was either prepared (the right wing labor coached him and were waiting for an excuse) or he has put his foot in his mouth yet again while trying to be 'strong and decisive).

At this point it is hard to say - about the only thing he is doing now seems to be walking around talking of his 'experience' (not mentioning his experience seems to be in losing the unloseable and mouthing vacuous phrases) and trying to play up the 'lovable buffoon' image. Rudd seems to be keeping his head down so I can't say anything with certainty.

But in either case I can bet both sides will be doing a lot of back door deals, threats, grovelling, etc. Not to mention you'll probably have the Liberals in there as well as a useless Beasley remaining in control is to their benefit.

They held a press conference half an hour ago to announce it.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1802260.htm


The right-wing of the Party won't be happy, but it's time they started thinking of winning elections
instead of just shoring up their own power.

This weekend is going to be very long!

Edit to add: This quote from Gillard: "The ... next election is going to be about .. predominantly
fairness and work and fairness beyond, and making sure that that part of being Australian - that
cares about a fair go - is protected and enhanced in Australia's future."

and deputy leader next week. Frankly, this whole saga has permanently damaged Beazley's leadership (sic). It would be political suicide to keep him.

Also, because this is a battle between two of the same faction, Rudd's supporters will want Rudd and are tired of Beazley (hot), whereas Beazley's supporters want to retain Beazley, but will be happy with Rudd (lukewarm.)

If Rudd has the numbers, Gillard will have the numbers too, as they are running together. (Also, some folks on the left might like the opportunity of having Gillard as the obvious successor, as she is the best candidate they have.)

I'm happy. As for Beazley, if he loses the ballot, there are only two words I can use to describe these events: poetic justice.

they don't deserve to win any elections ever. It would be just too
stupid for words.

I feel a sense of optimism in the air for the first time in ten years.

Whilst I want Blowhard Beazley relegated to the political wheelie bin, I'll wait until the results are in on Monday. I prefer to keep my sense of pessimism. After all a pessimist is rarely disappointed and if something good happens it's a pleasant surprise.

But one can bet the RW hacks will be out in force over the weekend to keep their clown in power regardless of the cost. It's not about who runs the show, but them keeping their power base intact. Oh and it does appear it was Rudd who initiated the challenge - my bad.

But even then listen to the stuff coming from Beazley's mouth (from SMH)

"He expressed confidence he would win, saying only he had the experience to challenge John Howard.
"I have done the hard yards in politics," he said, in a reference to Mr Rudd's inexperience."

Who the hell is he kidding? He couldn't challenge a 3 year old and hard yards seems to mean 'sitting back doing nothing' but that is to be expected in politics.

And to pull the string on the Macklin doll...
Ms Macklin backed Mr Beazley to stay as leader. "Kim has the experience, the ideas and the commitment Australian's want in their alternative Prime Minister, and as a team we have done the hard work to keep Labor competitive," she said.

Beazley has ideas? Who would have known.

is that the party room is going to use the prospect of another Mark Latham (something Rudd is not) to scare themselves into "staying the course."

I must confess a (very) tiny part of me does want me to see Beazley fight the next election, not because I want Howard to win again or think Beazley has a chance, but so it will kill any thought of his stupid apologistic supporters thinking "if only Kim ran this thing" if Rudd loses next years election...

But I think Rudd must be confident that he has the numbers, or he
wouldn't move. He's innately cautious - a civil service background as
a diplomat - and I think he's moving only because he knows it's his time.

Maxine McKew summed up Labor's situation perfectly on Lateline last night, when she said to Lindsay Tanner that the Government was up to
its ears in the AWB scandal, but Labor hadn't said a word about it since
Tuesday. She asked why they hadn't been hitting Howard with this one,
and Tanner really had no answer.

And there's lots more they should be hitting Howard with, but it's just
no happening.

I believe every time Beazley has won a leadership election, he has done so unopposed. I know in '96 and '05 he was unopposed, and I don't recall any challenges against him after the '98 election. However, every time he has been pitted against someone else, he has lost out...

Which rather tells us that Beazley's the man when there's nobody else.

Beazley is ballast.

You shove him in when you want a harmless stabilising point, like putting more balast in the hull of a ship to stop it rocking.

Unfortunatly for Labor, ballast is also dead weight as is painfully obvious. Beazley doesn't do anything - thus not offending either side, he doesn't do policies beyond 'I'm not the Liberal party so I'll do it better' and hence doesn't step on special interest toes. I can't see why unions support him given how pitiful his performance has been on, well, _everything_, let alone IR laws.

And whilst I have a few concerns about Rudd, at least he appears to have a pulse as opposed to the inaminate bag of blubber Beazley is sucessfully imitating.

Of acting like the mature statesman who is taking the high road, while his goons are sneaking around spreading dirt about Rudd and leaking bullshit to the press.

Jesus, if only he'd use just a fraction of this cunning against the Liberals, Labor would've won years ago!

Maybe Kim likes the view from the Opposition leader's office...

and that's what people want. How about a functioning brain?

I think the Rudd-Gillard combination is a winning one - reminds me of the old saying about Fred
Astaire and Ginger Rogers - "he gave her class, and she gave him sex appeal."

But Beazley grew up in politics, and I don't doubt he knows every dirty trick in the book.

...and takes the party down a progressive road with Rudd/Gillard combo. If they win the challenge, it’s the first ray of hope I’ve seen for this country since 1996. I really think we stand a good chance of ditching the Libs stranglehold next election. So many people I speak to are excited about the prospect of a Rudd/Gillard leadership, especially younger people. Julia has done the youth entertainment/comedy circuit and has won a lot of support – smart move.

I used to quite like Kim – a long time ago back in the Crean era. But now he’s way past his use-by date. He seems to have lost something, that fire in the belly he once had (seems hard to believe now) has been extinguished. Totally uninspiring. I don’t think Kim ever got over losing the Latham challenge. Since he took over from Mark, he’s been a totally grumpy, dithering flop – a zeppelin dressed in a badly-fitting suit.

The ALP is ahead of The coalition no matter who is leader, but here's the great part, if Beazley is leading the party, the ALP has a lead of 2 points, whereas with Rudd it's 9.

I have a great feeling about tomorrow. I believe most of the right are gonna jump to Rudd, as they know he is much more likely to win, and that's why the right is a popular faction, because they believe in winning no matter what the cost is (look at Hawke)

..and if he does I think he'll breathe new life and energy into the ALP. If he doesn't I'm giving up on the ALP for good and going with the Greens...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1803291.htm

Rudd has defeated Beazley 49-39 for the leadership! Gillard has been elected unopposed as deputy leader!

This is great! I have a good feeling about next year now. Hopefully Beazley and his supporters can be mature about this, and not pull the shit they did with Latham.