Rudd over wax, on the wane

ONE of the biggest problems faced by the political commentariat in this election is its lack of focus.

That's due in large part to the difficulty that even some of the most senior observers have experienced defining the character of Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd. After writing nearly 4000 words in a major profile of the Labor leader in The Australian's weekend magazine, Editor-at-Large Paul Kelly concluded: "Who is the real Kevin Rudd? The answer is that Kevin Rudd spans both identities. Rudd is a work in progress, a political identity still under construction. "Whether he can control the hubris generated by any political victory, and possesses the personal qualities needed to run a government, are unknown." So we don't know who Rudd is, or what his abilities are, but what is not in dispute is his single-minded ambition. Not that those talking to the pollsters are apparently that interested in searching for the real Rudd, they appear to have committed themselves to the concept produced by the ALP's creative marketing gurus at Hawker-Brittan, whose handiwork delivered us Bob Carr and his successor Morris Iemma. One wonders though whether those image makers factored in the gross vision now posted on the Y-Generation's digital notice board YouTube. Sensitive readers might like to skip the next sentence. The video depicts a bored Rudd picking wax from his left ear and proceeding to eat the detritus as colleague Anthony Albanese addresses Parliament. It is such a revolting vision that even the retelling can evoke a sense of revulsion but nevertheless, it has been viewed more than 188,000 times and there are pages of comments on this unusual habit. Or, whether the spin meisters have been too busy blustering through the interest rate discussion to pay much attention to their candidate's extraordinary diet. They certainly think they're on a winner with the interest rate story though, like almost all of the Rudd narrative, it is a fabrication. During last week's stem-winder of a debate, Rudd left the audience with the impression that mortgage interest rates had reached 22 per cent when John Howard was Treasurer in the Fraser government between 1977 and 1983. That was never the case. The highest mortgage interest rate on record is 17 per cent in 1989 under then treasurer Paul Keating. Mortgage rates under the Fraser government peaked at 13.5 per cent. The current home loan interest rate is 8.3 per cent, lower than it ever was under the 13-years of prime minister Bob Hawke's and prime minister Keating's Labor government. The lowest home loan rate under their administrations was 8.75 per cent, more than two percentage points higher than the current rate that Labor is using to fuel its fear campaign, and nearly two points lower than the 10.5 per cent it was at when the Howard Government was elected in 1996. Despite Labor's vigorous spinning, to find home mortgage rates as low as they have been since the election of the Howard Government, it is necessary to go back 33 years to June, 1974. As for the line Rudd trotted out yesterday about Howard making a promise he could not keep with the quote "keeping interest rates low, keeping them at 30-year lows", the ABC should have pulled the file from its own archives and asked Rudd what he was talking about. According to that October 7, 2004, file, Howard was asked by ABC interviewer Ian Cameron to nominate his "biggest challenge over the next 12 months"? He replied: ". . . keeping the Budget in surplus, keeping interest rates low, keeping them at 30-year lows and keeping employment levels very high." As it happened, home loan rates were at 30-year lows then, they were still at 30-year lows 12-months on and they remain within that range of 30-year lows now. The figures to support that statement show the standard variable home loan rate in October, 2004, was 7.05 per cent, in October 2005, it was 7.3 per cent and it is now 8.3 per cent. Howard described the challenge he faced, he met that challenge a year later, and his Government is still meeting that challenge today. Rudd's campaign handlers are relying on the media not to look closely at what the Dear Leader says and, largely, they've been right. He has had a dream run. But as it is now apparent that almost his every statement contains a major flaw hiding in plain sight, the level of scrutiny may increase. If voters are steeled sufficiently to view Rudd eating his own ear wax in public, they may yet see the other drawbacks he daily parades before them.