Kevin and Julia

No doubt the blogosphere is teeming with angsty posts about Australian politics today.  It is inevitable after the latest leadership debacle (no other word quite encompasses the situation).   Only months from the federal election, Australian Labor have voted out the current PM, and chosen another.  The same man they tipped out of office 3 years ago, just before the last election. It is a last ditch effort to win back the voters, with a leader who is apparently 30% more popular than Ms Gillard, and it worked for them three years ago, so who knows what will happen come election time.  The Australian voter is a capricious creature, unpredictable, changeable as the wind.  I didn't think Ms Gillard would triumph three years ago, so my prophetic abilities are dubious, and I have no idea what will happen in September, I don't even know who I will be voting for.

The picture the Herald printed last night of Mr Rudd smirking looked undeniably smug.  I am sure I heard him interviewed on the radio in the last 12 months insisting he was committed to the current leadership and had no intention of challenging it.  This is a man unable to keep his word, and what will that mean to the electorate?  I think as a nation we have a problem with authority figures, and in three years, if Kevin gets in, he'll be equally unpopular.  He's only attractive now because of the weird under dog thing we have going, we like the losers until they succeed, then we ruthlessly cut them down and toss them in the trash. 

He does present an alternative to Tony Abbott, a politician I truly dislike.  Just an aside, but why can't we have a well dressed, smart looking head of state like in the days of Paul Keating? Now he knew how to dress.  He had polish.  Rudd looks like he's ready to get into a scrum on a footy field, maybe that's his appeal, though I think his major appeal to the common man is that he isn't that red headed woman.  I don't understand why red heads are so maligned, it's just a colour (and a pretty one).  As for maligning women, there is undeniable precedent for that.  

To the average Australian though, there is a degree of distaste at the bickering, and changing and ganging up.  I don't profess to know much about politics, but it really doesn't present well, however good the reasons behind the moves are.  I suspect it is all smoke and mirrors and we are being manipulated in some way to do something.  Maybe this is why we don't spend money on education, dumb down the population so we are easier to fool.  Maybe.