The Bosses are back.
Who the hell is Mark Arbib? The first news of a change of PM on the ABC last night was that Mark Arbib had swung his support to Julia Gillard. If the name seems familiar it's because he's one of the geniuses of the NSW right that gave us first Nathan Rees and then Kristina Hairspray.
In retrospect the most significant recent indicator that things were getting close was the story about Simon Crean asking his departmental officials to keep their ears to the ground about government policy because he didn't know what was going on. He knew very well that the story would be out within minutes and he knew what harm it would do, if Julia thinks he's going to be loyal to her she's nowhere near as smart as people think she is. Crean reminds me of a Whitlam saying, referring I think to Sam Jones, "the trouble with Sam is that he's stricken with a conflict of disloyalties". Anyway Crean's a sideshow.
The real show is that the unions and the faction bosses have given up on the Rudd experiment and gone back to the business of running things. It won't be the Rudd kitchen cabinet anymore, it will be the machine as it was in the Hawke days. Big deals done at the top and the rest of us will just go along.
It's sad because I think Kim Beazley is the best Prime Minister we never had (as was his father). Julia Gillard is going to have to do an awful lot to win my vote and that's not even counting the speech therapy to get rid of that awful voice, as melodious as the sound of cutting up a corrugated iron dunny with a chainsaw. I wonder if those backers of hers on the left noticed the strong support she has among the writers of the Australian edition of The Spectator. They like her because she stands up to the evil teacher unions and possibly because she's also not Kevin Rudd.
The jury's probably still out but for my money if she doesn't make a move in the right direction on emissions trading and she doesn't stick to the resource super profits tax that everyone from Ross Gittins to the IMF thinks is a rational and necessary move then I'm not voting for the clowns. I'll vote Green or Independent and give no preferences.
The voters will probably give her a fair go, and she'll exploit that by going early if she can. Interesting times but I can't see anything inspiring anywhere in any direction. Is Malcom Fraser too old at 80 to make a comeback??