Plibersek pussyfoots around CFMEU as she hits back at Rudd

Kevin Rudd speaks to The Australian, yesterday:

If you have an industrial organisation that systematically breaches the laws, then there is a question that arises as to what role they should have in a political party. My historical relationship with the CFMEU, and its various divisions and the people I had ­expelled from the party, I think speaks volumes.

And Tanya Plibersek is not happy. The deputy Labor leader on Sky News, yesterday:

I’m very proud of some of the things that Kevin did … So I think he’s got every right to tell that story, but going after people in his memoir, you mentioned the CFMEU … that doesn’t sit well with me.

How about Bob Hawke saying it, Tanya? The ex-Labor prime minister in The Australian, January 1 last year:

It just is appalling. I mean, I wouldn’t tolerate it. You know what I did with the Builders Labourers Federation — I would throw them out.

The Rudd-Gillard war will never end. Plibersek on the Nine Network’s Today, June 14, 2013:

Lisa Wilkinson: Are you confident that Julia Gillard will lead Labor to the next election?

Plibersek: Yes.

Wilkinson: Absolutely confident?

Plibersek: Yes. Yep.

So why won’t Plibersek support kicking out the CFMEU? The deputy Labor leader on Sky, continued:

If someone in a union has been accused of doing the wrong thing, that’s a different matter, but as for unions standing up for better pay and conditions for their workforce, that’s an absolutely fundamental part of our democracy and of our Labor Party.

Because there are no systemic problems at the CFMEU. The Australian, September 21:

The Federal Court has found a CFMEU official breached the Fair Work Act by abusing and threatening workers on the Gorgon LNG Project in Western Australia …

None at all. The Australian, October 18:

The owner of a Queensland crane hire company felt pressured into signing an agreement with the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union so that he could access work on union-controlled inner-city construction sites, a court has heard.

After Friday, the government finally may have the time to fight Labor on unions. The Australian online, yesterday:

The “citizenship seven”, including Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, will learn their fate … on Friday.

We’ve been on this ride for almost three months, guys. Ex-Greens deputy leader Scott Ludlam in Fremantle, July 13:

It never occurred to me as someone who left the country (New Zealand) as a three-year-old, (as someone who) has never really considered it home.

It has been pretty bumpy for everyone. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce in parliament, August 14:

The New Zealand High Commission contacted me to advise … I may be a citizen by descent of New Zealand.

But where one adventure ends, another begins. The Australian, yesterday:

The Nationals are stepping up their support for Barnaby Joyce in the political storm over his citizenship, amid growing anxiety over a grubby by-election if the High Court rules he is disqualified from parliament.