Rob Burgess of BS has a scary take on Labor politics today:
When Prime Minister Kevin Rudd unequivocally stated yesterday that Labor would oppose any attempt by an Abbott government to repeal the carbon tax, he was subtly shifting voter attention beyond this election, and on to the next.
Rudd had admitted earlier in the week that abandoning Labor’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2009 was a mistake, and that he would never again walk away from carbon pricing.
These two statements together serve to diffuse Abbott’s assertion that the 2013 election is a “referendum on the carbon tax”. Rudd is now effectively saying, “we’ll have a referendum on this issue, but it will be a double dissolution election next year”; and, most importantly, “I will fight that election all the way”.
This is very bad news for leadership aspirant Bill Shorten. Back in May, Business Spectatorreported rumours from within parliament that Shorten was lobbying Caucus members to get ready to walk away from carbon pricing after the expected defeat of Julia Gillard at a September election.
Burgess goes on to argue that Shorten and the faceless men wanted Rudd to return:
because the only sure-fire way to get rid of Rudd was to have him contest the election and lose.
He continues by suggesting that Rudd will be in position to defend himself as Opposition leader because the economy will be deteriorating and the media will have turned on the Abbott agenda (whatever that is).
It’s all possible I suppose, though having met many of thee characters I think it’s more plausible to see such machinations as an expression of disordered personalities rather than the fruits of Machiavellian genius. If Labor really had any strategic brains this campaign, and the messages from Gillard government before it (which the faceless men backed), would have been very different indeed.
If I may says so, the one guy who has come through the last few months with raised stocks in Chris Bowen. Although he clearly succumbed to Treasury’s poisonous optimism, he handled the task well and made Joe Hockey look like a gas bag much of the time.
Not much good if loses his seat.
