KEVIN Rudd will want to put distance between the Julia Gillard prime ministership and his own renewed leadership in the lead-up to the federal election.
There are 10 ways he can do this:
1. Dump the September 14 election date. Mr Rudd will be under pressure to take his new leadership to the people as quickly as possible and scrap Ms Gillard’s election schedule.
2. Support gay marriage. He declared his support for same-sex marriage from the back bench when it seemed there would be a vote on it in the House of Representatives, and will be held to that during the election campaign.
LIVE COVERAGE: Kevin Rudd sworn in as Prime Minister
3. Move to a floating carbon price by ending the fixed price before the 2015 schedule set by his predecessor. The Greens might object but Mr Rudd will be aiming for government without needing them, and will want to send a message to households who blame carbon pricing for extra expenses.
4. Produce a new asylum seeker policy. The Opposition’s Stop the Boats offensive has hurt Labor but the Opposition’s policies also are problematic. Mr Rudd, who three years ago pleaded for the Gillard government not to be heartless towards asylum seekers, might change his mind to help his western Sydney MPs, part of his support base.
5. Reshape school funding. Mr Rudd is likely to make a clear break from the Gonski reforms promoted by Peter Garrett, who has refused to serve under him. For one thing, he is likely to ban the word Gonski.
Kevin Rudd needs to move away from the gender warfare, sparked by the country’s first female prime minister. Picture: AFP
6. Call a truce in the class warfare rhetoric. Mr Rudd has already indicated he wants closer relations with business and his backers have been critical of the class warfare theme of former treasurer Wayne Swan.
7. Scrap the mining tax. It doesn’t work, it doesn’t resemble what he wanted when PM – it’s no use to him.
8. Shut down the gender warfare front. As a man it wouldn’t work as it did for Ms Gillard, and it might reclaim some voters who were put off by her stances. But there are many women voters furious he has removed Australia’s first female PM, and we can expect many appearances with Mr Rudd’s wife Therese Rein and his other female relatives to strengthen his feminine side.
9. End the white-anting. Mr Rudd last night and today called for peace. «We all have families we all have emotions,» he said today, urging MPs to be kinder and gentler with each other – apparently unaware others might see irony in this.
10. Take a ‘normal’ family to The Lodge. The residents will be a church-going married couple and the PM’s spouse will have a full-time job, to the satisfaction of voters who objected to Ms Gillard’s domestic arrangements.
Kevin Rudd with his granddaughter Josephine and wife Therese Rein.
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There are 10 ways he can do this:
1. Dump the September 14 election date. Mr Rudd will be under pressure to take his new leadership to the people as quickly as possible and scrap Ms Gillard’s election schedule.
2. Support gay marriage. He declared his support for same-sex marriage from the back bench when it seemed there would be a vote on it in the House of Representatives, and will be held to that during the election campaign.
LIVE COVERAGE: Kevin Rudd sworn in as Prime Minister
3. Move to a floating carbon price by ending the fixed price before the 2015 schedule set by his predecessor. The Greens might object but Mr Rudd will be aiming for government without needing them, and will want to send a message to households who blame carbon pricing for extra expenses.
4. Produce a new asylum seeker policy. The Opposition’s Stop the Boats offensive has hurt Labor but the Opposition’s policies also are problematic. Mr Rudd, who three years ago pleaded for the Gillard government not to be heartless towards asylum seekers, might change his mind to help his western Sydney MPs, part of his support base.
5. Reshape school funding. Mr Rudd is likely to make a clear break from the Gonski reforms promoted by Peter Garrett, who has refused to serve under him. For one thing, he is likely to ban the word Gonski.
Kevin Rudd needs to move away from the gender warfare, sparked by the country’s first female prime minister. Picture: AFP
6. Call a truce in the class warfare rhetoric. Mr Rudd has already indicated he wants closer relations with business and his backers have been critical of the class warfare theme of former treasurer Wayne Swan.
7. Scrap the mining tax. It doesn’t work, it doesn’t resemble what he wanted when PM – it’s no use to him.
8. Shut down the gender warfare front. As a man it wouldn’t work as it did for Ms Gillard, and it might reclaim some voters who were put off by her stances. But there are many women voters furious he has removed Australia’s first female PM, and we can expect many appearances with Mr Rudd’s wife Therese Rein and his other female relatives to strengthen his feminine side.
9. End the white-anting. Mr Rudd last night and today called for peace. «We all have families we all have emotions,» he said today, urging MPs to be kinder and gentler with each other – apparently unaware others might see irony in this.
10. Take a ‘normal’ family to The Lodge. The residents will be a church-going married couple and the PM’s spouse will have a full-time job, to the satisfaction of voters who objected to Ms Gillard’s domestic arrangements.
Kevin Rudd with his granddaughter Josephine and wife Therese Rein.
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