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Articles on ALP leadership spill

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In most of our workplaces and institutions there are subtle, cumulative, insidious judgements and responses that serve to reinforce the powerful status quo of leadership. Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com

Is this the end of the gender wars?

Accounts in the media over the past week explain, or rather rationalise, the downfall of our first female Prime Minister. One-time feminist warrior Eva Cox found that Julia Gillard failed to communicate…
The problem for Gillard has always been the ‘Rudd-factor’, and arguably her prime ministership never got off the ground. AAP/Alan Porritt

The leadership war is over – where to from here for the ALP?

Australia’s 43rd federal parliament has proven that politics is anything but boring. Capping off a day when the two independent kingmakers, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, announced that they would not…
Reducing carbon pollution has bi-partisan support. It wouldn’t hurt to re-open debate on the method. takver/flickr

Switching carbon from fixed price to ETS: should Rudd do it?

Carbon pricing has helped to destroy three political leaders - Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard - since 2009. Why would a re-minted Prime Minister Rudd want to touch such a poisoned chalice…
How much of a role did the media play in the political demise of Julia Gillard as prime minister? AAP/Tony McDonough

Ethical lapses by journalists contributed to Gillard’s demise

An integral power of the media is that of portrayal: the act of determining how people, events, ideas and organisations are described to the public, and therefore how they are perceived by the public…
Rudd needs to rebuild a relationship with the business community. AAP

What can Rudd do to win back business?

The relationship between the former Gillard government and business reached a very low point when last March, a peak business body complained that the business community was being treated with “a complete…
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced changes to the ALP’s education reforms. AAP

Change the name but ‘Gonski’ has a future under Rudd

Newly reinstated prime minister Kevin Rudd has publicly committed to Labor’s school reform agenda and extended the deadline for states and territories to sign up to the National Plan for School Improvement…
Is the decision to re-install Kevin Rudd as leader of the ALP and of the country an affront to Australian democracy? AAP/Alan Porritt

Once bitten, twice shy: Labor again betrays the Australian people

The decision by the Labor caucus to minimise the electoral damage in September and return Kevin Rudd to the party leadership was short-sighted and ultimately self-destructive. More importantly, it operated…
While she may look elsewhere, ultimately Julia Gillard has no-one to blame for her political demise but herself. AAP/Lukas Coch

The political tragedy of Julia Gillard

In the middle of the 2012 winter, an influential supporter of Julia Gillard laid out for me the intricacies of the Labor caucus’ power structures, the labour movement’s web of personal antagonisms and…
Kevin Rudd wants to mess with Tony Abbott’s head. AAP/Alan Porritt

Grattan on Friday: Kevin Rudd and the narrative of the house

In March 2010 PM Kevin Rudd faced off against opposition leader Tony Abbott at the National Press Club in a debate about health policy. Three months later Rudd would be deposed by his own party. One criticism…
Sixties style - Mad Men characters Roger Sterling and Don Draper still show men how it’s done in business and politics. AAP

Men at the helm – mad, bad and dangerous to know

Labor may have “ditched the witch”, but does the ejection of Julia Gillard from her seat of power close the book on the debate about sexism that she championed and the role of women in leadership? Our…
Ultimately, it was Julia Gillard’s failure to find a ‘narrative’ to weave her policies together that cost her the Labor leadership to a more opportunistic Kevin Rudd. AAP/Alan Porritt

Rudd’s return marks the victory of opportunist politics

The morning Julia Gillard was deposed as Australia’s prime minister many of the British newspapers carried a picture of her knitting a present for the future heir to the British (and presumably) Australian…
The key question is whether the new prime minister regards the hospital system as having been fixed. AAP Image/David Crosling

Will the buck stop with Rudd on fixing the hospital system?

One of the key platforms of the first Rudd government was to reform the health and hospital system. The key message from then-prime minister Kevin Rudd was that the health, and particularly hospitals…
Julius Caesar is slain in Rome by his erstwhile allies: any parallels for Australian politics? 'Death of Julius Caesar' by Vincenzo Camuccini, 1798

Et tu, Shorten? Rudd, Caesar and the lessons of political assassination

Political commentary on the return of Kevin Rudd to the federal Labor leadership will overwhelmingly focus on the present. Why did Rudd refuse to challenge for so long? And what awaits him now that he…
Now that the Labor leadership issue has been resolved once and for all, the attention will soon turn to the opposition’s attempts to win government at the election. AAP/Alan Porritt

Back to the opposition: bring on the policies

With such unprecedented turmoil inside the Labor Party over leadership it is not surprising that we have all forgotten about the opposition. You know, the government-in-waiting, the other mob, the Coalition…
Now that he’s deposed Julia Gillard, what lies ahead for Kevin Rudd in the election campaign? Alan Porritt / AAP

Rudd brings Labor disaster relief, hopes of better

The federal Labor caucus has decided to put aside its disdain for former leader Kevin Rudd and return him to the Labor leadership. The reason for this is simple: with Julia Gillard as leader, Labor was…
Kevin Rudd is once again the Prime Minister of Australia. AAP/Alan Porritt

Rudd wins the game of thrones

Labor has finally made the decision it ought to have taken long ago, but the counter-revolution has been extremely bloody and there are bodies all over the place. Not only is there a new Prime Minister…
Kevin Rudd has returned as leader of the ALP three years and three days after he was deposed by Julia Gillard. AAP/Alan Porritt

Kevin Rudd defeats Julia Gillard: expert reaction

Kevin Rudd has completed one the great political comebacks in Australian history by reclaiming the prime ministership from Julia Gillard in a party room vote in Canberra tonight, 57 votes to 45. Earlier…
Now that the curtain has come down on Julia Gillard’s prime ministership, it should be asked: was she truly a female prime minister or a prime minister who was female? AAP/Alan Porritt

Was Julia Gillard a ‘real’ female prime minister, or a leader who was female?

By the time the sun set over Parliament House, and took Julia Gillard’s prime ministership with it in a party room vote, the dissection of her legacy as Australia’s first female prime minister had already…
Kevin Rudd returns to be Prime Minister, but where did the Gillard government go wrong? Lukas Coch / AAP

Rudd returns, but where did it go so wrong for Gillard?

Kevin Rudd has made a Lazarus-like return to the prime ministership after winning a party room ballot this evening by a vote of 57-45. Rudd, who led the party to success at the 2007 election, replaces…

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