Gillard takes on Rudd in leadership ballot today
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced last night that a ballot will be conducted for the Labor leadership at 9.00 am this morning.
Making the announcement, Rudd played to the left. He implied softer treatment of asylum seekers and promised to set a price on carbon.
Deputy prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that she will contest the leadership. Sky News reported that Gillard appeared stressed, after a long meeting with Rudd and key ministers …
If Gillard is successful this morning she can expect an outpouring of goodwill from the Canberra press gallery.
But former Howard chief of staff Grahame Morris told Sky News that the transition may not be as easy as some seem to think.The leadership may change but the polcies are the issue:
The difficulty will be for Julia – what [policy] does she put in the bin and what does she replace it with? And it’s all going to have to be done very quickly. If she is to become leader, I don’t think she can just say, “Look, I supported all these policies. All we’re doing is changing the figurehead. We’re not going to change the policies.” So she’s going to junk the policies. But replace them with what?
Read the story at The Australian.
