Kroger: if Rudd stays, coalition can win
Michael Kroger If Rudd manages to hang on to the Labor leadership and goes to the election, Michael Kroger believes he will probably lose.
Discussing federal politics with Steve Price and Andrew Bolt on MTR 1377 today, Kroger said:
“There’s two seats in Victoria I think the coalition will win. There’s probably five in Queensland. There’s at least two, probably four, in Western Australia. Stephen Smith will probably lose his seat. He’s on six and a bit per cent. Gary Gray will probably lose his seat. He’s in Brand, he’ll lose his seat. He’s on six and a bit per cent.
Next week’s Newspoll will be defining for Kevin Rudd, former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger told MTR 1377’s morning program today.
“I would think that if it’s a very bad poll then the dam will have to break.
“You can’t just keep supporting a leader who’s taking these people to very dark electoral places and pretend nothing’s happening.
“If the Newspoll is as bad as last week, he’s probably got a month.”
Steve price asked Michael Kroger if he seriously thought that the Labor Party would remove Kevin Rudd from the leadership before the election.
“There is a very big chance they’re going to remove him,” Kroger said.
“Look at it this way, Steve, who is keeping Kevin Rudd in his job? One person. It’s one person.”
Bolt jumped in to answer: “It’s Abbott.”
“It’s Julia Gillard, Andrew,” Price said.
“Julia Gillard is keeping Kevin Rudd in his job,” Kroger continued. “And if you are in politics, there’s a golden rule. If the person you’re relying on for support, if the person wants your job, you are in trouble.
“What is surprising to date is that there’s been so much public discipline around this man. And, even though there have been these minor breakouts, what it requires is some of the more senior people from the past, like a Richardson, like a Ray to come out, John Faulkner. This show is over.”
Kroger described as “utterly bizarre” the revelation today that Simon Crean has asked bureaucrats to tell him what the Prime Minister Rudd won’t tell him, Kroger said:
“We’re finding that ministers hear announcements on the television, they read them in the newspapers. They don’t know what’s going on.
“Nor are they inexperienced ministers. You look at people like Simon Crean. He’s been around. His father was a minister in the Whitlam Government.
“I mean, like him or not, he’s in many ways an icon of the Labor Party over the last 30 years, as a former leader, a senior Victorian, a minister in the Hawke Government. I mean, the Crean family are royalty in the Labor Party.
“Now he is just being treated like an outsider by the gang of four.
“One of his [Rudd's] greatest failings is he doesn’t respect his opponents. And I remember early on the attacks by the Democratic Party in America on Ronald Reagan. They treated Reagan as a twit, a B grade actor. You know, a dummy. A man of no intelligence. And, of course, Reagan was one of the most successful presidents America ever had. And I learned in those days if you don’t respect your opponents, no matter how much you dislike them, you have to respect your opponents in politics. And Kevin Rudd does not respect Abbott. He does not respect the opposition.”
