At 2.30pm EST Kevin Rudd announced to the media that he
would contest the ballot for Prime Minister.
He again gave an account of what he had achieved while he
was Prime Minister and said he was proud of each and everyone of those achievements.
He spoke about democracy and the secret ballot known around
the world as the Australian ballot. He asked that the Prime Minister ensure that the ballot on Monday was a secret ballot. And also asked that she confirm the
preselections of all candidates regardless of how they vote.
Kevin Rudd stressed the importance of beating Mr Abbot – he stated
that Australia
could do better than Mr Abbot. He said
beating Mr Abbot was vital and beating Mr Abbot was possible. He said of Abbot that he was the single most
negative force in politics he had ever seen.
Rudd stated that the ballot on Monday would be tough. That if he lost he would go to the back bench
and not challenge a second time.
Rudd took questions after his speech and in reply to the
last question he took he said that there have been problems in the government
that he was in no way responsible for, that everyone seemed to be blaming him
when in fact he took no part in many of these decisions like the Malaysia
solution. That he was also sometimes out of the country. Rudd said if
he was not around that they would be looking for someone to replace Julia Gillard.
KRudd as he referred to himself a number of times would not
discuss the numbers, just said the ballot would be tough. He called on the public again to contact
their MP's or the media and let them know who they wanted as Prime Minister. He said it was their country and they had
more influence than they perhaps thought.
Julia Gillard will address the media at 4pm. The fight is on. Can KRudd win? I don’t think he has the numbers but maybe
enough not to feel disgraced if he loses plus he has the rest of today and the weekend to hit the phone. A lot can happen in a day of
Politics. Will this once and for all fix
this crisis in the labour party and allow them to lick their wounds and start repairing the damage to this labour party. Personally, I don’t think Julia Gillard would
win the next election so I wonder if by asking the public to lobby their labour MP's will this be enough to get KRudd over the line. Time will tell
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