Updated
Senior Labor ministers are hoping today's resignations and yesterday's spill will give the Prime Minister clear air to sell the party's message. Many in Labor are hopeful that will happen but some supporters say uniting the party will be extremely difficult this close to an election. Political analysts are also predicting more leadership woes if the party slips further in the polls.
James Glenday
Source: PM | Duration: 3min 27sec
Topics: alp, leadership, canberra-2600
SALLY SARA: Senior Labor ministers are hoping today's resignations and yesterday's spill will give the Prime Minister clean air to sell the party's message.
But some Labor supporters say uniting a divided party will be extremely difficult this close to an election, and analysts are predicting more leadership troubles, if the party slips further in the polls.
From Canberra, James Glenday reports.
JAMES GLENDAY: Earlier today, senior Cabinet ministers such as Greg Combet were out selling a clear message about clear air.
GREG COMBET: It's imperative that the Prime Minister has clear air to be able to articulate Labor's position to the community and take Labor to the election in September. She deserves that.
JAMES GLENDAY: Many in the party agree.
Former New South Wales minister John Della Bosca says today's resignations, while difficult, are the best thing for Labor.
JOHN DELLA BOSCA: They're doing the right thing by the party in some respects. In fact in most respects I think and certainly by the Government by removing the opportunity for the media to say, "But you're here as the parliamentary secretary for XYZ, or the minister for ABC, or as the chief government whip, and you're not supporting the Prime Minister because only two days ago you were supporting Kevin Rudd in a ballot". Well that's gone now. There's no possibility of that.
So I think they're doing the right thing. The Government is settling down.
JAMES GLENDAY: But do leadership spills and the purging of a party actually create so-called clear air or a fresh start for a leader?
NICK ECONOMOU: Well they haven't got a very good track record. I mean there has been some pretty famous ones in recent memory.
JAMES GLENDAY: Senior politics lecturer at Monash University, Nick Economou, says the tensions between Hawke and Keating, Costello and Howard, and Gorton and McMahon all hurt their parties badly in the long run. He says history shows leadership speculation is highly unlikely to end.
NICK ECONOMOU: No I don't think so because I think the conditions that have been causing all this leadership speculation are still in place.
Now that Mr Rudd has said that he is not going to contest at all, whilst at first blush this looks like an improvement in Ms Gillard's position, it does open up the possibility for a third candidate and that's something that the Caucus may have to embrace when the next set of opinion polls come out showing that the Labor primary vote's dipping into the twenties.
JAMES GLENDAY: Outspoken Labor historian and former New South Wales minister Rodney Cavalier says the party has no chance of winning the election in September.
RODNEY CAVALIER: Well the two words that one heard all of yesterday from ordinary people as well as commentators were shambles and farcical and it's hard to counter with either description.
JAMES GLENDAY: He's renewed his call for widespread reform of the party and predicts Labor's primary vote will drop dramatically over the next few weeks.
RODNEY CAVALIER: I think they'll go to 23. In my view it doesn't much matter once you're below 35. You can't win from 32 and you can't win from 35.
JAMES GLENDAY: If the election result in September was that bad, Labor would lose many of its seats in western Sydney.
The former Labor mayor of Liverpool, Wendy Waller, concedes the events of the past two days will cost the party votes in areas where it can least afford to lose them.
WENDY WALLER: I think people will be very confused and not understand what really took place and that was, I think, someone trying to fix a problem and unfortunately it just got out of context.
JAMES GLENDAY: She says the spill has been frustrating and says it will be very hard, but not impossible, for Labor to turn things around before September.
WENDY WALLER: Well they've genuinely got a lot of runs on the board and I think what they've got to do is focus on the message and focus on their deeds rather than focus on what's going on between each individual.
SALLY SARA: Former Liverpool mayor Wendy Waller ending that report from James Glenday in Canberra.
No comments:
Post a Comment