Friday, February 24, 2012

Kevin Rudd Media Announcement 2.30pm Today 24/12/12


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

Thursday, February 23, 2012

RUDD VERSUS GILLARD

The stand off between Gillard and Rudd has been coming to a head in the last few weeks.  Yesterday Rudd made his move with his surprise announcement from Washington of his resignation as Foreign Minister because as he stated

 " The truth is I can only serve as Foreign Minister if I have the confidence of Prime Minister Gillard and her senior ministers. In recent days, Minister Crean and a number of other faceless men have publicly attacked my integrity and therefore my fitness to serve as a minister in the government. When challenged today on these attacks, Prime Minister Gillard chose not to repudiate them. I can only reluctantly conclude that she therefore shares these views. The simple truth is that I cannot continue to serve as Foreign Minister if I do not have Prime Minister Gillard's support."

Then another annoucement this morning from Washington shortly before boarding a flight back to Australia  Rudd sounded like he was on an election campaign . He indicated that he would contest the leadership but would not make an annoucement about this until he was back in Australia. He spoke of attacks on him yesterday by Wayne Swan and others and asked his supporters not to retaliate and act in the same way as he felt it was unaustralian.  Rudd outlined his achievements while he was Prime Minister and he asked Australians to contact their local members and representative and tell them who they wanted for Prime Minister (seen as bold and unusual move by commentators later). Also to his caucus colleages "There is one overriding question to my caucus collegues who is best placed to defeat Tony Abbot at the next election".  (Food for thought!).



Julia Gillard media announcement this morning from Adelaide.

She stated I have decided at 10 am Monday morning to call a ballot for the leadership.  Gillard said we need a leadership ballot to settle this once and for all. For all to long we have seen squabbling within the party. That this has moved to a distraction and Australians are rightly sick of this and they want it brought to an end so that Labor can proceed with unity and determination.  She stated "But let me be very clear about this if I lose" she would go to the backbench and make no further leadership claims and act in the benefit of the party and nation and she said she would invite Kevin Rudd to the ballot and ask him to give the same undertaking. She spoke of how before she took over from Rudd in 2010 how she tried to hold the Rudd governemnt together to end the paralisys.



 Laurie Oakes, Political Journalist when asked by Carl Stefanovic on the Today show this morning who would win the ballot on Monday said he thought that Julia Gillard would as it was clear that Kevin Rudd did not have the numbers but now it is out in the open he can campaign. Laurie said he was "not sure he will accept Julia Gillard's timing for Monday it's got a few problems with it apart from the fact that it is to advantage her so no one has a chance to campaign. It also means that if Kevin Rudd did happen to win the ballot on Monday morning parliament sits in the afternoon". Therefore not giving Kevin Rudd time to negotiate with anyone and the possibility of a no confidence motion. Peter Beattie has ruled out Friday but as there is no parliament sitting that day would be a better day to give the winner of the ballot a chance to do what has to be done. Laurie spoke of a comment to him recently from a member of the Liberal Party" if we don't win this election they will have to do a boat people in reverse"

I can imagine the scurrying around the corridors and the phone calls and meetings behind closed doors in the lead up to the ballot which may or may not be on Monday.  In the meantime Kevin Rudd has tweeted @KRuddMP
"Heading back home to Brissie. Not exactly the visit I had planned to Washington! A big thank you for all the support. KRudd"

"My resignation speech is here - thanks to everyone in the twitterverse for your kind words. Much appreciated. KRudd"

Who will  win who's campaign will reign supreme!!

 



Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Links for Free Family History Research

Hi Everyone,

Well a little late to wish you Happy New Year but is my first post for the year .  So back at it and hope to bring you all some interesting Tit Bits about historical people and events, Family Trees and healthy tips.  I have been on a diet and details are on my web page at How I lost 12 kilo's .

To start with this year some freebies - a few links that are free to research. Hope they are of some help and interest. So many wonderful sites out there now that are free to access not just to research but results as well are free.  These are a little more unusual I thought and will try to find some more during the weeks ahead.

Until tomorrow



1911 Irish Census
1841 to 1891 UK Census
UK Chronological Table of Public and Private Acts
England Genealogy Forum
Migration Histories and Resources-Caribbean, Irish, Jewish, South Asian
Norwich Census of the Poor 1570
Victoria County History




More Free Scottish Records

Below are extracts from OPR’s purchased mostly from LDS who were additional entries on pages I ordered. Free to search and cop...