Kevin Rudd’s hard day at the office

Kevin Rudd found out the hard way this week that democracy moves in tough ways, particularly here in Australia. My opinion is that, regardless of what we think of the brutality of Rudd’s sacking, the Labor party factions saw the writing on the wall and made the move that the electorate would have given the chance. This was about Labor staying in power.

Personally I felt for Kevin Rudd the man, I could only imagine what would have been going through his mind when he found himself at home after a day like that. But, this is politics, and it’s a tough world. In my opinion Kevin Rudd may have been the first Prime Minister to be given such harsh treatment in his first term of office, but it demonstrates that in this day of rapid and immediate communications, independent (for now) of government control, and the government/corporate sponsored news media, the tide of public opinion and support, can and will continue to change much more immediately than any time in our history, this is a good thing, and so it should.

I’ve been considering my political position lately not because I want to, frankly i’d rather get on with running our business and spend the rest of the time with my family, and surfing, but I’m sure I’m not alone when I state that I’m tired of the same old two party preferred system where we have a Government too cowardly to admit that the efforts of the previous administration actually contributed positively to their management of the economic crisis, and an opposition who believe their role in life is to oppose everything. I’m suspicious of the Liberal, Labour and Green parties, and believe that politics in general has become too much about allegiances to the party, corporate lobbyists, religious and environmental fundamentalists, combined with the servicing of enormous debt where, if you followed the money trail it would show Australia as being beholden to a small number of private interests, and tax payers footing the massive interest payments that come with it. Yesterday’s events were about a Government that had lost it’s way – I contend that our political system has lost it’s way.

I don’t consider myself on the right or the left, I no sooner buy into the rob from the rich and give to the poor philosophy than I do the illusion the the free market economy will create trickle down wealth to the benefit of all society. I guess I’m a progressive in that regard. But I’m also a tax payer, in the top tax bracket and my political enquiry is what do I get for that? You can be assured that if you are going to demand more than a third of my salary I’m going to expect results that benefit all Australians whether I voted for you or not, and if you don’t deliver those results you should have a bad day at the office just like Kevin Rudd did yesterday.