Vindicated?

71-31 is a convincing win in anybody’s language, with the exception of Tony Abbott (who defeated Malcolm Turnbull by one vote for his party’s leadership). What has, for all intents and purpose, been a lead weight around the government’s neck has been removed. Kevin Rudd or as he likes to refer to himself, K-Rudd (I have a serious aversion to people who refer to themselves in the third person), was that lead weight. The so-called coup of 2010 has now been explained to the public (readLaurie Oaks article ) and government members no longer need to walk on egg shells. Today’s vote was a massive blow to K-Rudd.

Kevin Rudd’s ego is massive and his need to control everything is legendary. However as I found out in an article posted on MichaelDanby’s website he was a famously faceless man as far back as 1992 who pedalled influence and showed his tendency to be a control freak. Since the 2010 election Rudd has carefully avoided two things: Firstly he never refused to rule out a leadership challenge and secondly he could never pledge loyalty to the Prime Minister. In the wake of today’s vote, he ruled out a challenge and promised to loyally work towards the re-election of the Prime Minister. He said he accepts the judgement with “no rancour and bearing no grudges”. It must be said that he was gracious, if not a little bit long-winded, in defeat.

Tony Abbott proved that he is a man with a very selective memory. In his press conference immediately before question time he said that Australians want an election, because they want a chance to vote for their Prime Minister. He seems to forget that there was an election in 2010 that voted in Julia Gillard. Maybe he forgot, because he lost that election. As the master of the sound bite or slogan Abbott came up with a reasonably good one during this press conference when he said “This was not a good government being hampered by a rotten apple, but a bad government exposed by a whistle-blower”.  Unfortunately for him it is not one he can use again, because the rest of us have already moved on. He will try though and this prompted one ABC journalist to say that he needed to come up with a “big new slogan”.

Now there is 18 months to the next election and the public will once again be faced with the choice of Gillard or Abbott for Prime Minister, but this time Julia won’t be undermined from within. The Coalition will be doing their own polling trying to find out why despite the malaise that been eating Labour they can’t surge ahead in the polls. The conclusion will be a possible leadership spill for them. If they want to have half a chance to be elected they have to remove the unelectable Abbott. Newspolls still show Malcolm Turnbull as their preferred candidate.

How much of a bad taste has the last 18 months left in the minds of the voters will be the major concern for the Labour party. There is no doubt that it did, but a few little sweeteners should be able to turn that around. My personal opinion is that come July with the beginning of the Carbon tax and the increase in the minimum taxable income and increase in the pensions, we will see a surge of Labour in the polls. But of course, only time will tell.