Kevin Rudd says ‘faceless men’ to blame, not poll losses
Kevin Rudd has declared factional ‘faceless men’ sabotaged the NSW ALP in 2010 and used the disastrous state Penrith by-election loss to remove him as PM.
Kevin Rudd has declared factional “faceless men” sabotaged the NSW ALP in 2010 and used the disastrous state Penrith by-election loss to remove him as prime minister in favour of the more “factionally compliant” Julia Gillard.
Buying into the argument over the importance of a state by-election for federal Labor and the destabilisation of the NSW ALP, Mr Rudd said “the faceless men’s handiwork is plain for all to see”.
The Penrith by-election loss on June 19, 2010, was raised in the federal Labor caucus the following Tuesday, because of concerns about illegal boat arrivals, and Ms Gillard issued a leadership challenge the very next day.
Mr Rudd, in a letter to The Australian, said assertions that the Penrith by-election loss was driven by “hostility towards my government are completely unfounded”. He said NSW right-wing Labor powerbrokers Karl Bitar and Mark Arbib cited the record by-election loss with a swing of more than 25 per cent against Labor as they campaigned to replace him with his then deputy.
“They also circulated manufactured market research. When they struck in the June coup, this newspaper’s Newspoll had Labor ahead 52-48 – a vast cry from the Penrith result,” Mr Rudd said.
Anthony Albanese has dismissed the significance of a swing against Labor in the NSW Upper Hunter by-election on Saturday, but concerns have been raised in the caucus about voters’ attitudes to Labor expressed in the ballot.
Mr Rudd said “federal conservatives” had opportunistically claimed the result reflected on him but the bottom line was that the NSW Labor government of Kristina Keneally was crippled by scandals on the watch of “factional warlords”.
On the day of the by-election The Weekend Australian reported that mutineers were circling Mr Rudd and could move against him as early as the following week if the by-election went badly and the polls did not improve.
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