Michael Kroger on the authentic Kevin Rudd
Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger on ABC1’s Lateline last night assessed the “real Kevin Rudd”. Note how presenter Leigh Sales will not let Mr Kroger remind Paul Howes (and viewers) what Kevin Rudd said about Mark Latham in 2004. It is hard to recall Labor figures ever being pulled up when they wish to refer to the past statements of Liberal Party figures.
MICHAEL KROGER: The thing that Paul [Howes] mentions about the Prime Minister showing a level of decorum, what we know is that this is all a facade, this is a front, this is not the real Kevin Rudd.
The smiling, happy Kevin shaking – you know, linking arms and holding hands with his wife outside church on Sunday mornings: that’s not the real Kevin Rudd. The real Kevin Rudd is abusive, he swears at his staff, treats his ministers with contempt, is abusive of union leaders, abusive of his colleagues and this is why Kevin Rudd has no friends at all in the federal parliamentary Labor Party or within the Labor movement generally.
He is a friendless leader who is only still Prime Minister because his polls are still reasonable, even though they’re at 49 per cent and because Julia Gillard won’t challenge him. But there’s never been a more friendless Labor leader in history than Kevin Rudd and these attacks he’s now launching on Mark Latham will actually do him a lot more damage than good. I mean, this is the first time in Labor history in 120 years that we’ve seen a Labor leader going out constantly deriding one of his predecessors.
I mean, Hawke criticised Keating and vice versa from time to time, pot shots, but here’s a man ridiculing Latham, who is far more Labor than Kevin Rudd will ever be.
MICHAEL KROGER: Leigh, we haven’t seen a one-term federal government for 80 years and I never thought I’d see one in my lifetime for the reason that everyone gets two terms. I mean, the Australian electorate’s very generous. They even gave Gough two terms – I mean, how generous is that?
But this man is in trouble. He will start to bring down the Labor vote shortly. He has no friends in the Labor Party. Why would the electorate love a man that the people closest to him don’t like? And the answer is they’re starting to realise that this is just appearance publicly – “Hi, I’m Kevin.” This is all a facade.
He’s not a real Labor figure. And if I were his staff members, if six backbenchers ring to say they want to come and see the Prime Minister, I wouldn’t see them because they might be carrying a message from Julia Gillard.
PAUL HOWES: This is just fantasy land, Michael, just fantasy land.
LEIGH SALES: Alright.
MICHAEL KROGER: It’s not fantasy land at all. You read Michelle Grattan in the paper this morning, read Dennis Shanahan in the paper this morning, read Paul Kelly’s articles in The Australian in the last few weeks, listen to Laurie Oakes …
PAUL HOWES: All you’re telling me there is that the journos want a fight. The journos want a fight and …
MICHAEL KROGER: No, all I’m telling you is that the senior correspondents in this country, who have had more than 100 years of experience between them, are starting to see something they’ve never seen before and they’re writing about it.
So malcolm is still here being a smart arse i see. Have you no friends of your own to play with or what?
oh really krudd is a a#$hole? wow thats is a real revelation… nemesis your kidding right? Unless Kev cancel’s bathurst 1000 … I think the welfare leaches, pinko’s, red/greens and the sheeple will get him across the line…
Who cares what Rudd says or does to those who work for him, let those who don’t like his manner of doing things get out of the kitchen!
Rudd’s a dead duck come the next election and regardless of whether the Labor Party retain office or not, Rudd won’t retain the Prime Ministership.
This seems like a guy just gossiping. Why dpoesnt the Liberal Party come up with some policy and actually show it is better than the Labor Party’s instead of sitting on the other side of Parliament whining and groaning about everything the Labor Party does. I don’t like the Labor Party but seriously the Liberals aren’t offering anything different – ‘we’ll fix Kevin Rudd’s big tax by bringing our own special and betterer big tax’. – What was that Mr. Abbott cant come up with anything worthwhile?
Macca….both the Liberal and Labor parties are now heavily influenced by Progressives, which is just another name for Socialists which are the new Communists! That is why there is little if any policy differences. If you feel let down by the current system then vote for the APP.
A vote for the APP? Simply cut out the middleman and vote for the Liberals as that’s where the APP preferences will ultimately be directed.
To paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies “well he would say that, wouldn’t he”.
Let me see what is surprising and earth shattering about this. Hmmmm…….. an election year and a leading Liberal attacks the Labour PM by announcing that the PM is not loved by his party and they are ready to ditch him hmmmm ….. surprising? Nah just par for the course and designed to create in the mind of the electorate a suspicion that the government is divided.
It’s a a bit like the comment about the Archbishop of Canterbury. If the Archbishop says he believes in God well that is just in the line of business, but if he says he doesn’t then that is news.
Good try Michael but easy to see through – you should have stuck to trying to get your mate Peter to stay on and accept the Liberal leadership.
Michael,
Have been listening to you this morning – nothing much has been convincing. We all need more! On the stimulous package, why doesn’t the liberal party take on the fact that if it wasn’t for Peter Costello’s good management that had us in the black (from the serious red), the Labor Party would not have had the money to spend and waste, and we would have not ridden the recession.