Labor’s longest-serving premier, Mike Rann, is in deep trouble in South Australia, where the ALP’s primary vote has been overtaken by the state Liberals, leaving tied after preferences. Labor’s primary vote in Queensland dropped five percentage points to 38 per cent, against 41 per cent for the newly merged Liberal National Party.
The Republican presidential candidate says he will work with the Rudd Government to establish a global framework that would encourage China and India to become part of the solution to man-made climate change. Senator McCain says he is committed to a market-based cap-and-trade system aimed at reducing carbon emissions. And he wants a closer bilateral partnership on other key issues such as nuclear proliferation, trade liberalisation and combating terrorism.
The mixed result in the analysis of Australia’s tax and handout system shows how much further the Rudd Government has to go in order to achieve its stated goal of a simpler, fairer and more jobs-friendly regime. The analysis shows that 97,000 families in the top half of the income ladder lost family payments because of the budget. However, the clawback was offset by 53,000 new family payment recipients coming from the bottom half of the ladder, due to other tax changes.
The Rudd Government has bowed to pressure from the Greens and Independent Senator Nick Xenophon and slashed the proposed income thresholds for the Medicare surcharge to $75,000 for singles, although Health Minister Nicola Roxon wants to leave the proposed new threshold for couples unchanged at $150,000.
The Liberal leadership saga has overshadowed growing unrest within the Government over industrial relations, which the Prime Minister will again avoid this week. Some backbenchers fear Julia Gillard’s proposed industrial relations legislation is too similar to Work Choices. Last Tuesday, while Brendan Nelson was being dumped, New South Wales senator Steve Hutchins was telling a restive Labor caucus that the legislation was “Work Choices lite”.
Former Labor Opposition Leader Kim Beazley’s argument was that the pace of reform under Kevin Rudd had been slowed by the constipation of process. His speech was about the centralised control being exercised by a self-confessed anal prime minister. Beazley’s point of departure was the administrative style of Bob Hawke versus that of Kevin 24/7. And it was the Duracell Bunny that came off worse.
The Prime Minister today defended the trip as in the national interest, and received some unlikely support today from Independent Senator Nick Xenophon, who said now was the time to talk to world leaders in the wake of the global financial crisis. But Liberal frontbencher Eric Abetz said this morning: “Kevin747 seems to be a very good little tagline for him. It’s, unfortunately, indicative of what he’s been doing in recent times.”
Although the primary vote did not change outside the margin of error of the latest Newspoll survey, taken on the weekend, the Coalition did register its best performance since the election with a primary vote of 38 per cent, up one point, compared with Labor’s 42 per cent, down two points. The two-party-preferred support was back to the levels of mid-July, with the Coalition on 45 per cent and Labor on 55.
A dull, drone-like dependability masks the political and policy fire and brimstone within Kevin Rudd. He wanted to make the voter transition from the dull but reliable John Howard to himself seamless. Now, 10 months later, we are stuck with - you guessed it - dull but mostly reliable.
Kevin Rudd’s week-long visit to New York to address the UN General Assembly will mark his second visit to the US this year. Labor has been in office for about 300 days and the new Prime Minister has spent 50 of them overseas. Former prime minister John Howard spent 18 nights overseas in his first year.