Yes, Kevin Rudd disappointed us.
Where is our ETS, our computers in classrooms? Why was the pink batts scheme such a schemozzle? Why does he talk like a robot, do a funny cat’s bum thing with his mouth, lose his shit on the 7.30 Report at the oddest times and stay up till 4am looking over everyone else’s work to the detriment of his own?
And now, the opinion polls and the pundits have spoken. Caucus has decided they have no confidence in Rudd. He’s done for.
But when Julia Gillard sails confidently out of the caucus room the new leader of the Labor Party and Australia’s first female prime minister, everyone who loathes the thought of Tony Abbott as PM has a big job to do.
We can’t focus on the instability. If you have to throw over a sitting PM, is there any better way than being disciplined for months, calling a meeting at 7pm and having a spill at 9am? Labor’s a tight as a drum. The Liberals mustn’t be allowed to say “if they can’t govern themselves, how can they govern the country?”
We can’t focus on the manner in which we got our first woman PM, as extraordinary as it is. We can’t even spend to long patting Julia on the back because she broke the glass ceiling and - sure, with no kids herself- just taught every Australian woman and their daughters that we can do anything. The Libs will say she’s a puppet of the factions or a backstabber. But Julia will become Prime Minister today because she’s the smartest, hardest working woman in the parliament.
Lastly, we can’t forget the good stuff Kevin has done for us. The Liberals will want to paint Kevin Rudd as a complete failure. Rudd the Dudd. All talk no action. What little he did, he messed up. They’ll taint the whole Government with how Rudd left the Prime Ministership, and hurt Julia because she stood by and let him do it.
But think of what he achieved in his two years and seven months. The Apology. Killing WorkChoices stone dead so we can do our jobs without the uncertainty that haunted everyone under John Howard. Signing Kyoto. And - with Wayne Swan, Lindsay Tanner, and Julia- getting us through the global financial crisis. Our economy’s not perfect, but we’re okay and getting better.
Today I will be following the #spill, refreshing my browser with my heart in my mouth. A woman Prime Minister. What a day.
But I also want to say, just quietly, thank you Kevin.
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Thank you Kevin
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