Australian voters are not inclined to vote for political parties beset by divisions and rivalries, so the old saw goes. If this is indeed the case, then the federal parliamentary Labor Party may pay a high price for the leadership battle now being waged by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.
The vitriol and animosity directed at Mr Rudd after his resignation in Washington on Wednesday - principally by Treasurer Wayne Swan, but also by other ministers such as Simon Crean, Tony Burke, Brendan O'Connor and Stephen Conroy - was extraordinary. Mr Rudd's calculated attempt to antagonise and embarrass the parliamentary party for its impertinence in depriving him of the prime minister's job in June 2010 explains a large part of that anger. But the remarks also appear to have been shaped by a long list of grievances and resentments concerning Mr Rudd's autocratic and dysfunctional management style while prime minister, his arrogant attitude to colleagues and to Labor's collectivist traditions, his resort to tactics intended to embarrass Ms Gillard and undermine her policies while foreign minister, his unwillingness to accept that he will not be prime minister again, and perhaps most of all his unshakable belief that he will do just that.
Baleful comments might make Ms Gillard's supporters feel better, but no good will flow to the party - a fact that wiser heads ought to be pointing out to Mr Swan and the Prime Minister's other intemperate supporters.
Even if Labor closes ranks after the leadership ballot on Monday, the party will struggle to retrieve lost ground. For all his negativity, Tony Abbott has proved masterful at out-witting the government and controlling more of the political agenda than his situation would otherwise warrant, and this ALP leadership stoush (coming so soon after the last) will energise him further. Many members of what has otherwise been effective and productive government must be wondering how it ever got to this.
Limiting the damage to the party's electoral prospects, insofar as this is possible, will require that the leadership ballot, once settled, be accepted in good faith by all involved, but especially by the unsuccessful candidate. If there is any sense whatever that the loser is retiring to the backbench to continue to destabilise the leadership, then Labor's chances of winning the next election will evaporate entirely.
House of disrepute
H
aving served in the Legislative Assembly since 1998, and before that as a public servant for 29 years, John Hargreaves is doubtless looking forward to his impending retirement from public life - though probably not as much as his Labor colleagues.
A politician who has never been afraid to call a spade a spade, Mr Hargreaves has more than once embarrassed his party and himself with his occasional resort to politically incorrect language and behaviour. An instance of this occurred in the Assembly in August 2010 when Mr Hargreaves inexplicably handed a note containing an offensive joke (made at the expense of colleague Andrew Barr) to Canberra Liberals MLA Alistair Coe.
The note came to light on Wednesday, on the very day in fact when Mr Hargreaves had apologised to the Assembly for an outburst in which he compared the Tuggeranong Community Council to a self-help group for geriatrics. Admitting the note was an error of judgment, Mr Hargreaves resigned as government whip. The incident has embarrassed Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, and brought the Legislative Assembly into disrepute.
Mr Coe's part in the matter also warrants attention. Despite saying he found the note offensive and homophobic, Mr Coe chose not to do anything about it at the time it was handed to him, some 18 months ago. This week, he explained that his memory had been jogged by the injudicious remarks Mr Hargreaves had directed at the community council. Those with a more cynical turn of mind, however, believe he may have been motivated by a desire to deflect media attention away from the Canberra Liberals, currently the subject of controversy over employment practices in the office of Opposition Leader Zed Seselja.
This unedifying episode may not trouble Mr Hargreaves unduly, or even dent his electoral popularity. And his conduct has been overshadowed to some extent by the dubious circumstances in which the note was made public. But for his own sake and that of his party he should make an effort to be civil in his remaining months as an MLA.
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