Note: My thesis on the changing relationship between unions and the ALP has passed 1750 reads on Scribd.
From Alan Stokes at Fairfax:
It was telling on Tuesday when she(Gillard) said: ''I am the best person to lead the Labor Party.''
That is a party run by factions, apparatchiks and unions irrelevant to most people.
Notwithstanding her talents, Gillard capitalised on those party insiders to oust Rudd from the top job. Most voters have not forgiven her. They don't trust her.
Yet she still believes she is the best person to lead the party.
So, too, do the faceless men who helped get her there, as do those within Labor who have disproportionate power thanks to the party's rigged structure.
But voters do not like the party. And they do not think Gillard is the best person to lead their country.
Never has the gap been so wide between what Labor is and what the nation wants it to be. How does Australia reconcile this?
Rudd as Labor leader would be competitive with Tony Abbott; he may even save Gonski.
Crucially, Rudd would also have a popular mandate to fight the unions, apparatchiks and factions.
That's why they do not want him back.
The sad truth is Rudd is the best chance to fix Labor for democracy's sake.
If Gillard does not step down, the party will not change for yonks.
And a Third Way will have to emerge. Can't wait.
Mark Kenny describes the nightmare scenario confronting Shorten and the other faceless men who put Gillard in the Lodge:
Right now the dominant males (they are always male) are busy preparing for a severe electoral winter - in this case, a winter substantially of their own making.
And none more so than the ''faceless men'' from the 2010 palace coup: Bill Shorten, the Workplace Relations Minister; Don Farrell, a South Australian senator largely unseen despite his public capacities as Science and Research Minister; and David Feeney, a Victorian Right figure of limited profile.
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