Rudd Awakening?

Want to know why our Prime Minister is struggling in the latest poll?

Have a look at the major policies Kevin Rudd promised at the 2007 election:

Sign Kyoto: Delivered.
Sorry Day: Delivered.
Both of those were symbolic acts that cost the Government nothing, but were popular with the electorate.
GroceryWatch website: Dropped.
FuelWatch website: Dropped.
Embarrassing but not terminal, they were a sign of things to come. Promises not delivered on because they proved hard to make happen.
The 2020 Summit: Lots of ideas, barely any adopted.
One that made the Government look a bit silly, but again, nothing too bad.
Softer line on asylum seekers: Rocketing numbers of illegal boats arriving in Australian waters, policy then reversed.
This was a bad look. Labor refused to acknowledge the policy change had anything to do with the massive increase in boats, but then had to change it again when the numbers proved too huge to pretend.
The Emissions Trading Scheme: Dropped.
"The greatest moral challenge of our time," Rudd said. Those who wanted to wait and see were "cowards". Dropping the ETS has not played well with Rudd's left-wing base. This was a major promise that he has gone back on.
Tax reform: Mainly ignored.
The Henry Tax review made more than 100 recommendations. The Government adopted four. It does not look like Rudd is prepared to make hard decisions that will make him unpopular with the electorate.

The stimulus spending has thrown up its share of problems too.
Insulation rebate: Expensively dropped.
The deaths of four insulation workers, the death-trap roofs across Australia, the explosion of shonky builders ripping off the system, the billions of dollars the scheme cost to set up and then dismantle... could a policy have failed worse? Peter Garrett's career is over, but he is protecting Rudd loyally. Garrett sent four letters to Rudd telling him of his concerns with the scheme but they were ignored.
School stimulus: Extensively rorted.
The Victorian and New South Wales school stimulus administrations have been negligent, but the Auditor-General said today that the Government had not allowed local schools to make decisions for themselves. Who knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on "management fees", "consultants' fees" and "really crap buildings schools don't need"?


You know things are bad when even The Age editoral columnists turn against you. Miranda Devine makes an interesting point:

Rudd seems to be one of those people whose self-belief never falters, even while everything is falling down around him. But he has few cheerleaders left, outside of the increasingly unhinged Crikey blog. Even the ABC's Chris Uhlmann was scathing this week: ''If you really believe that climate change is the greatest moral and economic challenge of our age, then you wouldn't retreat, would you, because if you did, people might begin to wonder what you actually believe in?''

Perhaps the best assessment of the Prime Minister this week comes from the Roman senator Tacitus, via letter writer Harry Gelber, of Hobart: ''Omnium consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset.''

Roughly, it means: everyone agrees he would have been thought capable of governing, if he had not already governed.

Shaun Carney argues a point that I tend to agree with - what does the Rudd Government stand for?

There is only one question that needs to be asked of any government: why are you there? The Rudd government right now wouldn't find it easy to come up with an answer.

Michelle Grattan's quote was interesting too:

In an interview but off-air, Abbott was overheard saying, ''If Rudd wins the election, he'll last about three months''.

Gerard Henderson is a conservative columnist, and he points out why there will be no double-dissolution election. He also asks what Rudd's agenda is:

It is too early to judge the Rudd government. Yet it is fair to say in its first term, Rudd Labor has not matched the reform determination of the governments led by Hawke, Keating and John Howard. So far Rudd Labor's one outstanding reform, which will benefit productivity and assist lower socio-economic groups, is Julia Gillard's My School initiative.

Interesting stuff, if you like politics. If not - read these instead!
- A really good article about what you'll regret doing.

As someone once said to me: "I see a woman with a tattoo and I think, OK, here's a chick who's capable of making a decision she'll regret in the future."

- And a show to look out for.