Julia less red and Kevin cautious

HAVE you noticed anything different about Julia Gillard these days?

HAVE you noticed anything different about Julia Gillard these days?

When she fronted ABC1's Q&A on Thursday evening it dawned on me. She looks damn good. Don't get me wrong. She never looked bad. And, no, I haven't fallen under the spell she has apparently cast over some right-wing chaps. The Sydney Morning Herald's Annabel Crabb wrote recently that some conservative media and political types were experiencing "turbulent and unpredictable urges" towards the Deputy Prime Minister. No, nothing so primal here.

This is a purely political observation that other women in my circle also have noted with interest. Could it be that the more Gillard pays attention to the way she looks, applying a little more blush to her cheeks and a splash of colour to her lips, the more Kevin Rudd can becertain that his deputy is aiming her ambition one step higher sooner than he may have imagined?

Julia today is a world away from the grey-suited, you won't catch me wearing make-up woman of yesteryear. It's the hair you notice first. Gone is the "I'm a radical leftie" red hair, replaced with a softer -- more centrist, if you like -- hue and carefully coiffed 'do. On Thursday, the studio lights showed off some remarkably blonde -- yes, blonde -- streaks. Then look at her make-up. She's wearing a great deal of it these days, perfectly applied, even her eyelids are coated in colour.

And the once highly grating Gillard voice is different: not plummy or polished but the edge has gone, leaving a measured and authoritative confidence.

Granted, Gillard still looked out of her depth stuffing a chook in Melbourne last week for the cameras. But her make-over has softened the edges of the woman who, only a few years ago, sat proudly in her bachelor-bare kitchen and would not have dreamed of picking up a pair of barbecue tongs, let alone having a close and intimate encounter with the insides of a dead chicken, even with gloveson.

More important, Gillard's more feminine make-over has coincided with some equally centrist policy moves that not so long ago would have been unthinkable from someone who once relished being "of the Left". Right across her high-profile and politically important portfolios, Gillard has become the essence of mainstream sweet reasonableness.

As Education Minister, she has offended teachers unions by taking up Coalition policy to introduce greater transparency and accountability into schools. In early June, as Employment and Workplace Relations Minister, Gillard made headlines for staring down unionists at the ACTU congress with her talk of "keeping a strong cop on the beat" in the construction industry. Likewise, she has rejected calls for a second wave of industrial relations reforms, disappointing union demands for pattern bargaining. Infuriating the unions even more was her intervention in May when she directed the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to establish a different penalty rate and overtime regime for restaurants and cafes. By acting on employer concerns about high wages under Labor's modernisation of employment awards, Gillard sided with small business over union heavies.

As John Maynard Keynes famously quipped, "When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?" Well, disgruntled unionists waved "Thatchard" posters to register their disgust at the recent ALP national conference. Sections of the broader community are also changing their minds about Gillard, in her favour. She is no Margaret Thatcher. But she is no longer the radical union activist.

Speak to any business leader who has met, listened to and engaged with Gillard. Most will tell you they are mightily impressed by her intellect, drive and ability to listen genuinely to stakeholders. Oh, and her charm helps too. Then ask them about the Prime Minister. To put it politely, you won't get the same answer.

The December 2006 coupling of the Rudd-Gillard leadership team was described by one Labor insider as a case of "the spider and the fly". Perhaps a better allusion would be to the redback spider: the poisonous female arachnid eats its smaller male partner after mating.

To be sure, Rudd is riding high in the opinion polls, shielded by voter caution in a global financial crisis and hardly threatened by an opposition still reeling from, and still remaking itself after, the 2007 election loss. The recent ALP national conference may have been a display of soporific unity, with senior Rudd ministers snoozing or playing Sudoku. But when circumstances change -- and they will -- the former bureaucrat with no factional support will be vulnerable. Those within the NSW Right who swung their support behind Rudd will withdraw it in a second when it suits their purpose.

Beyond his own factional frailties, Rudd's deeper political weakness is largely his own doing. For all of the "light on the hill" praise heaped on Rudd at the national conference by Gillard, the Labor love-in is not even skin deep if you look closely enough. Rudd's central control and command tendencies as Prime Minister have resulted in senior ministers being sidelined and, one imagines, quietly seething. Rudd's jealous hold on foreign affairs, for example, has led opposition members to refer to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith as "the clerk".

And Rudd's penchant for making policy announcements on the run, without consulting, let alone briefing, senior ministers is hardly a case of clever leadership. It is possible that Employment Participation Minister Mark Arbib's public humiliation on Sky News when he appeared not to have the details of Rudd's Green Jobs announcement is just the most recent example of Rudd's rushed, megalomaniac style of governing.

Many predict there will be turbulent times ahead for Rudd. Treasury official Godwin Grech's statement to the Australian National Audit Office revealed a dangerously racy style of policy-making that will lead to mistakes. With Rudd assuming central control of every decision, responsibility will be duly sheeted home to the PM. And as the global financial crisis recedes, the pile of debt from Rudd's stimulus spending packages will begin to bite with voters. When polls turn, Rudd will have few to turn to for support within his government. When that happens, the smiling, charming, capable Gillard will be ready.

It is possible that her transformation from radical union activist to the epitome of centrist sweet reasonableness is a complete con. Nonetheless, it is working, positioning her perfectly for leadership after the next election.

Rudd will be the only one who did not laugh at the hilarious animated comedy skit at the end of Gillard's polished performance on Q&A where a make-up-less, grey-suited Julia re-emerges, morphs into a snake and swallows up her tediously boring leader.

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