Where next for brutalised Rudd?
Will Monday's vote solve Labor's leadership fight? Political writers talk about how the caucus meeting in Canberra will play out.
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Julia Gillard has directly accused Kevin Rudd of sabotaging her 2010 election campaign — a claim dismissed by Mr Rudd’s supporters, who say her bid for The Lodge went awry because of bad judgment and a series of blunders.
An intensification of the Labor leadership crisis yesterday saw both camps squabbling over history, with each blaming the other for the campaign disaster, in which Labor failed to win a majority of seats in its own right.
A defiant Ms Gillard angrily claimed ‘‘the 2010 election was sabotaged’’.
‘‘We were in a winning position in that campaign until the sabotage that knocked that campaign very, very solidly.’’
The sabotage referred to by Ms Gillard included a series of leaks early in the campaign, including damaging claims that she argued in cabinet against paid parental leave and questioned the size of a pension rise because ‘‘old people never vote for us’’.
At the time, Mr Rudd denied he was the source, but yesterday senior ministers rallied around Ms Gillard to declare that she had been the victim of a campaign of destabilisation run by Mr Rudd.
Senior Rudd supporter Kim Carr publicly lashed out at his colleagues, declaring he wouldn’t be intimidated by a campaign of vilification and wouldn’t be contributing comments that aid the Liberal Party.
Senator Carr, from the Victorian Labor Left, strenuously denied that Ms Gillard’s 2010 election campaign had been derailed by an underhanded campaign by Mr Rudd.
‘‘The 2010 campaign was characterised by many examples of miscalculations and poor judgments,’’ Mr Carr told The Age.
Senator Carr, who was demoted by Ms Gillard in a recent reshuffle, urged Labor’s National Executive to release the full version of its analysis of the campaign ‘‘not just the leaked version’’, which he said had been sanitised to protect Ms Gillard.
‘‘I’m not going to be intimidated by this campaign of vilification,’’ Senator Carr said. ‘‘We need decent rules of engagement because we all have to live together with each other after this event. I won’t be in the business of making ads for the Liberal Party.’’
Arguing it was the leaks against her, not her campaign itself, which derailed Labor in 2010, Ms Gillard said that during the early part of her campaign public and private polling showed Labor was in front until the sabotage during the second week.
‘‘Now I had to come out ... and deal with that sabotage of the campaign and get the campaign back up and going, pull myself and pull the team through, so that we could create a government and I did do that.’’
While the leaks undoubtedly had a negative impact, Ms Gillard also faced criticism during the campaign for what many saw as a wooden and scripted performance, followed by her declaration that the public would get the see the ‘‘real Julia’’.
Ms Gillard was also plagued by a bizarre confrontation during the campaign with former Labor leader Mark Latham, while receiving strong criticism for her much-derided citizens’ assembly on climate change, and a promise to a build a rail line in western Sydney.
Martin Ferguson was the first cabinet minister to yesterday declare support for Mr Rudd.
‘‘Should Kevin Rudd choose to [run] then I will vote for Kevin Rudd as the prime minister of Australia,’’ the Resources Minister said.
He was soon joined by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, who said if Mr Rudd was to run there would be a choice between ‘‘two very good candidates’’.
‘‘I’m encouraging him to run,’’ he told ABC TV. ‘‘I think that would be the best thing for the Labor party. I do believe Kevin Rudd has a lot to continue to offer.’’
Robert McClelland, the Minister for Emergency Management, Housing and Homelessness, also added his support to the prime ministerial challenge, but declined to say if he would resign from his ministerial post if Ms Gillard won.
‘‘I think unquestionably he’s best equipped to win the next election,’’ Mr McClelland told ABC TV last night. ‘‘We have an obligation to put forth our best candidate.’’
With AAP
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