Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivers a lesson on how his government tackled the global financial crisis in this video of his appearance at Wellers Hill State School in Brisbane.
The relevant section begins around the two-minute mark.
Kevin Rudd: Building An Asia-Literate Australia
Apr 17, 2012
Queensland Labor backbencher Kevin Rudd says Australia is failing to do enough to become China-literate and Asia-literate in the 21st century.
Launching a paper, “Finding a Place on the Asia Stage”, by Carillo Gantner and Allison Carol, at the University of Melbourne’s ASIALINK centre, Rudd said there has been a decline in the teaching of the four principal languages of Asia: Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and Korean.
As “an outpost of the Occidental world”, Rudd said Australia needs to “do more work in understanding the minds..of Asia”. Despite a belief that English is now the universal language, Rudd said the truth is “the bulk of the intellectual discourse, political and policy debate as well as economic exchange within Asia occurs in languages other than English.”
Rudd posed the question: “How much is literally being ‘lost in translation’ in straightforward transactions between individuals, corporations and governments, not to mention the media, everyday around China, Asia and the world.” [Read more...]
The Death Of Margaret Whitlam
Mar 23, 2012
Margaret Whitlam died, aged 92, on March 17, 2012.
Parliamentary tributes were delivered on March 19. A memorial service was held on March 23.
- Mar 17: Prime Minister Julia Gillard comments on the death of Margaret Whitlam
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- Mar 17: Remembering Margaret Whitlam
- Mar 17: Margaret Whitlam Dies, 92
- Mar 19-20: House of Representatives & Senate Condolence Motion Speeches:
- Julia Gillard (ALP)
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- Tony Abbott (Lib)
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- Tanya Plibersek (ALP>
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- Julie Bishop (Lib)
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- Kevin Rudd (ALP)
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- Malcolm Turnbull (Lib)
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- Senator John Faulker (ALP)
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- Senator Marise Payne (Lib)
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- Senator Bob Brown (Greens)
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- Josh Frydenberg (Lib)
- Natasha Griggs (CLP)
- Julia Gillard (ALP)
- Mar 23: Tony Whitlam’s eulogy for his mother
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- Mar 23 Catherine Dovey’s eulogy for her mother
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Gillard And Her Caucus: Sink Or Swim Together
Feb 27, 2012
The Labor caucus has bound itself to Julia Gillard. It is impossible to imagine a Rudd revival.
Whilst disquiet will arise again if Gillard stumbles, it is equally difficult to imagine a so-called third candidate emerging.
The caucus and Gillard will sink or swim together.
The 71-31 vote in favour of Gillard is a handy reminder of the culture and prerogatives of the parliamentary party room.
“You need to target the right constituency,” Mark Latham said on television this morning, arguing that Rudd lost votes by campaigning in the media instead of concentrating on the caucus.
The message to the electorate is also stark and direct. Forget Kevin Rudd, he’s not coming back. June 2010 was then. Now it’s Gillard or Abbott. Make your choice. [Read more...]
Liberal Ad: Lemons Never Change Their Spots
Feb 24, 2012
The Liberal Party has released another update of their “Kevin O’Lemon” advertisement.
The update coincides with Kevin Rudd’s resignation as Foreign Minister and his challenge to Julia Gillard’s leadership next Monday.
Will Labor Keep Marching Off The Cliff?
Feb 23, 2012
I was leaning on the counter of a well-known department store at 5.20pm last night when I became aware of Kevin Rudd’s face on about 50 television sets along one wall.
The strap with “Rudd Resigns” suddenly jumped out at me and I involuntarily blurted the news to the young salesman opposite.
His instant, unsolicited response?
“I hoped it was going to be her.”
And therein lies the dilemma that only the ALP’s wilfully blind will not concede.
Julia Gillard may treat the other 102 caucus members respectfully, as Wayne Swan claimed last night. She may smile at them and make them feel consulted. She may master her brief and get on well with the public servants in Canberra. She may navigate the hung parliament with skill.
But in the broader community she is electoral poison: disliked, distrusted and dismissed.
That is why Kevin Rudd is on a plane flying home to Australia today. He is the anti-Gillard. If she was any good, he wouldn’t even matter. [Read more...]
Rudd Has No Labor Values, Says Swan
Feb 22, 2012
8.40pm – Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan has excoriated Kevin Rudd in a statement released just hours after the Foreign Minister’s resignation.
Swan’s statement, issued on plain paper, says Rudd has never been a “loyal or selfless example” of the ALP’s “values and objectives”. Swan says Rudd “has been putting his own self-interest ahead of the interests of the broader labour movement and the country as a whole”.
According to Swan, Julia Gillard has “the overwhelming support of our colleagues”. He says Gillard has always known in her heart that “the Labor Party is not about a person, it’s about a purpose”, but that “Kevin Rudd has never understood”.
The statement is one of the most vicious attacks ever seen by a senior cabinet minister on a former prime minister and colleague. It signals that the Gillard camp is determined to cripple Rudd’s leadership prospects.
Text of statement released by Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan.
Prime Minister Gillard and I and the overwhelming majority of our colleagues have been applying our Labor values to the policy challenges in front of us and we’re succeeding despite tremendous political obstacles.
For the sake of the labour movement, the Government and the Australians which it represents, we have refrained from criticism to date. [Read more...]
The Labor Leadership: A Time Of Peril And Opportunity
Feb 20, 2012
I blame John Gorton and Malcolm Fraser. I was a young schoolboy in 1971 when their brawling inside the decaying coalition government awakened me to politics.
Their struggle culminated in a leadership challenge. William McMahon fought Gorton to a draw, so Gorton plucked a casting ballot out of thin air to vote himself out of the prime ministership. The ridiculous and treacherous McMahon became prime minister, and the Liberals compensated Gorton by making him deputy leader. I was hooked. Who wouldn’t be?
Since then, one of life’s little pleasures has been the surprisingly regular parade of state and federal leadership challenges.
These contests are politics in the open, raw, visceral and unadorned. Electorate, party, factional and personal factors come together. Interests compete. The noble and brave collide with the base and cowardly. Policy meets electoral reality. Conviction and ambition take a good look at each other. Purity withers and survival usually wins.
It is the individual us writ large. [Read more...]
Steve Gibbons Statement On Labor Leadership
Feb 19, 2012
The Federal Labor member for Bendigo, Steve Gibbons, released a statement early today on the party’s leadership in which he condemned Kevin Rudd’s “chaotic and deeply offensive style of leadership”.
Gibbons said the loss of confidence in Rudd’s leadership resulted in him “failing to even nominate for leader once the leadership was declared vacant in 2010″. He said there was no place in government “for prima donnas who have had their chance”.
At 7.48am this morning, Gibbons posted this tweet: “Only a psychopath with a giant ego would line up again after being comprehensively rejected by the overwhelming majority of colleagues.”
Gibbons has been the member for Bendigo since 1998. He is retiring at the next election.
Statement on Labor Leadership
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Any political organisation is bigger than the individual and the Australian Labor Party is certainly bigger than Kevin Rudd.
Rudd took us to a magnificent victory in 2007 on a well established policy platform after the caucus rejected Kim Beazley as leader.
However, his chaotic and deeply offensive style of leadership since then gradually eroded the goodwill that caucus had awarded him.
This loss of confidence resulted in Rudd failing to even nominate for leader once the leadership was declared vacant in 2010.
Federal Labor cannot afford to adopt the strategies of the NSW branch of the party in regularly changing leaders just because the going gets a bit rough.
Being in Government especially under the current circumstance is extremely difficult and no place for prima donnas who have had their chance.
YouTube Video: “Kevin Rudd Is A Happy Little Vegemite”
Feb 18, 2012
This video was posted on YouTube sometime on Friday 17th February. It gained widespread exposure on the evening of Saturday 18th February.
