Gillard's selfish hold on high office is destroying the Labor brand

THERE is a reason why the word oxymoron fits neatly when the word progressive is applied to members of the Left. Sometimes, more moron than oxy. Take this fantastical conspiracy theory following the bloodless coup-less events in Canberra last Thursday.

In search of fingerprints on Simon Crean's call for a spill on that fateful day, forget Kevin Rudd's pudgyhands. Instead, the "talon-marks of Australia's dark overlord, Rupert Murdoch, are etched all over this announcement", wrote David Donovan last Thursday.

"With media reform laws looking likely to have been passed today, it is almost certain he, or his local minions, overnight whispered beguiling words mixed with threats to Crean and others to force a spill today," raged the managing editor of "progressive" online journal Independent Australia. In the end, common sense, not claws, defeated the media laws.

Now to debunk more serious bunkum. The claim that Julia Gillard's supporters put Crean up to demanding a leadership spill, to flush out and finish off Rudd, is as fanciful as Donovan's theory. Crean acted entirely honourably. Here was a disappointed man watching in horror as his party faced electoral destruction.

It pays to remember that the Crean family -- Simon, his brother and father -- have devoted 68 years to representing the ALP in parliament, state and federal. The former minister for regional development is a proud part of the Hawke-Keating legacy. His Labor credentials are beyond challenge.

Martin Ferguson, who resigned on Friday after also signalling the need for a leadership change, falls into the same camp. The Ferguson family -- Martin, his brother and father -- have given 71 years of service to the Labor Party in parliaments, state and federal.

These two men, Ferguson and Crean, from families who together have represented Labor for 139 years, represent the centrist and sensible Labor brand under Hawke and Keating. That's why Crean and Ferguson could no longer support Gillard.

Remember, too, that these two Labor men, both former presidents of the ACTU, threw their lot in with Rudd, a man famously described as having "no Labor values", who is loathed by the union movement. This is how dire things are now in the Labor camp.

Ferguson and Crean are standouts because they are among the few adults of the federal parliamentary Labor Party. Yet the adults now sit on the backbench while too many children, some known best for throwing stones at miners, the rich and the media, sit in cabinet.

High-calibre businessmen are not in the habit of praising politicians. Yet Leigh Clifford, chairman of Qantas and former chief executive of Rio Tinto, said Ferguson gave some of the wisest counsel when Clifford was at Rio. Indeed, Ferguson has been widely and uniformly praised by the business community as someone who understands business, has a sense of integrity and is prepared to deal with business in an open and transparent way. How many current members of Gillard's cabinet would business say this about? Wayne Swan? Communications Minister Stephen Conroy? Industrial Relations Minister Bill Shorten? What about the PM? That union leaders have tried, in recent days, to blacken Ferguson's name is another clue as to why the Labor brand has gone badly awry.

Let's set straight another more stubborn myth. This is the one fast emerging that Gillard's great virtue is her toughness. Gillard was "as tough as they make them", tweeted the Treasurer on Thursday. Tony Windsor said she was the "toughest person" he had met. Even members of the media have gone gaga over Gillard's tenacity. Let's try other words. A person with convictions? Good political judgments? Understands sensible policy? Competent? Notice how Gillard's fondest supporters never say these things about her. All she is left with is tough like "Aussie" Joe Bugner at the back end of his boxing career.

It's tiresome and it's baloney to suggest toughness is a virtue. When coupled with conviction, toughness is certainly a powerful political virtue. However, Gillard's robustness applies to one matter only: her own political survival. She has become a symbol of what happens to a grand political party with once fine values when raw political ambition is decoupled from convictions.

Author Jane Caro said it best yesterday: "Labor have become the needy boyfriend, never with a conviction, never willing to stand for themselves."

Gillard picked some choice words to describe last week. "I was appalled," she said on Monday. We must show self-belief, not self-indulgence, she said. A more accurate word for Gillard is selfish. To be sure, all political leaders are egotistical, over-confident and selfish, and let us admit too we are all selfish, some more, some less.

But Gillard represents the worst kind of selfishness. Hers is not self-interest combined with vision.

When Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard pursued their own self-interest to lead the nation it was fuelled by a genuine vision based on a set of convictions they fought for, often in difficult political circumstances.

These leaders followed in the tradition of rational selfishness best described by philosopher Ayn Rand. It's productive, rather than destructiveself-interest, that caters to something bigger than a person's ego.

Gillard's selfish hold on high office has led to the destruction of the Labor brand. No conviction won't be sacrificed for her survival. First, a promise there would be no carbon tax. Then, a carbon tax to please the Greens. Gillard was passionately opposed to offshore processing. Until she wasn't -- when the boats arrived and the politics turned even worse for her. And on it goes.

Almost daily Gillard says she is "working hard" during these "days of governing". Such ridiculous language has become a necessity to hide her fatal flaw. But not even her incessant talk of "Labor values" can hide her greatest political vice: a selfishness so visionless yet so deep she stubbornly holds on to the leadership while the ALP vote continues to plummet and Tony Abbott's chances of winning a landslide election increase.

At present rates, come September 15, the "hard working" Gillard will have plenty of time to read Atlas Shrugged, Rand's most famous treatise about selfishness that is rational and productive rather than Gillard's irrational, destructive variety.