What Tony Abbott didn't want voters to know about Kevin Rudd's evidence to the Royal Commission Into The Home Insulation Program

Example of redactions

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s sworn statement submitted to the Royal Commission Into The Home Insulation Program, as censored by the Commonwealth on the alleged grounds of Cabinet confidentiality:

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's redacted sworn statement to the Royal Commission Into Th...

The unredacted version released on 15 May 2014:

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's unredacted sworn statement to the Royal Commission Into The H...

Australian Federal Election 2013: Battle of the Worms

The first televised and transcribed Leaders Debate of the Australian 2013 election campaign occurred on Sunday night 11 August 2013 and by Monday morning there was barely a ripple to be seen on the electoral pond.

Both leader's had said it all before in one guise or another and the only novel aspect was the wide disparity between the behaviour of the 'worms' responding to different studio/viewer audiences.

On 11 August ABC News reported:

Australians sent more than 75,000 tweets during Sunday night's leaders' debate between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

The social networking service tracked 31 debate-related keywords and found the hottest topics in debate-related tweets were: energy and climate; the economy; and immigration….

The ABC conducted an experimental Twitter tug-o-war during the leaders' debate, asking people to vote for who they thought was winning using the hashtags #DebateRudd and #DebateAbbott.

More than 500 responses were received; half an hour after the debate ended 72 per cent of respondents said Mr Rudd had won, compared to 28 per cent for Mr Abbott.

That same night Channel 9 News reported:

Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd have faced off in the first leaders' debate of the 2013 election campaign with the prime minister declared the winner, according to Nine Network's 'Worm'. Prime Minister Rudd claimed a significant victory over Opposition Leader Mr Abbott, scoring 59 percent of votes from the live studio audience….

Channel 10 journalist Sandra Sully's live tweets appear to support these assessments:

CLIMATE CHANGE - RUDD SPEAKING 60% #BelieveRudd 40% #BelieveAbbott

AGED CARE - RUDD SPEAKING 58% #BelieveRudd 42% #BelieveAbbott

NBN - ABBOTT SPEAKING 56% #BelieveRudd 44% #BelieveAbbott

TAXES - ABBOTT SPEAKING 54% #BelieveRudd 46% #BelieveAbbott

ASYLUM SEEKERS 54% #BelieveRudd 46% #BelieveAbbott

The next morning 12 August The Sydney Morning Herald explained what many had puzzled over the night before – the behaviour of the Channel 7 worm:

Seven opened its audience meter to all comers, and was taken over by partisans.

Liberal partisans outnumbered Labor two to one. It didn't matter what the subject was, it didn't matter what was said, their response was always the same. When Abbott spoke, Seven's audience loved it by a 2-1 margin. Whatever Rudd said, they opposed it similarly. No swinging voters there…..

The Roy Morgan Research Reactor worm appears to have crashed on the night – perhaps in part because the Liberal Party's Federal Director Brian Loughnane reportedly sent out emails to the party faithful asking them to download and use the mobile app.

The last word must go to a tweeter from Perth WA:

James Williamson  ‏@jimi8117h

If I had to choose, I'd pick Rudd, but I'm going to be spending Sept 7th praying for a giant asteroid to crush us all #debate #lizardwars

Cartoon from 123RF

Australian Federal Election Leaders Debate 6.30pm-7.30pm 11 August 2013 - online links

LEADERS DEBATE 2013 RULES AND INFORMATION

The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will debate the Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott.

Location                National Press Club of Australia, Canberra

Broadcast Time      6:30 pm Sunday 11 August 2013

Duration                1 hour

The debate will be moderated by David Speers, Political Editor Sky News.

The leaders will be questioned by a panel of three (3) senior federal parliamentary journalists:

                               ·         Lyndal Curtis (ABC)

                               ·         Simon Benson (News Limited)

                               ·         Peter Hartcher (Fairfax)

The National Press Club National Room is being converted to a television studio for this event.

There will be a limited live audience made up of representatives of the political parties, the federal parliamentary press gallery and the National Press Club ONLY.

DEBATE RULES HERE

Roy Morgan Research Debate Reactor ‘Worm’ here for the duration of the leaders debate.

Leader Debate live online at ABC News24 here.

Leaders Debate live on ABC Radio Australia online here.

Has the caravan moved on from Kevin?

A selection of tweets concerning former Oz Foreign Minister and once-more-with-feeling aspirant for the role of Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd MP. The level of sly mockery must give the number crunchers pause for thought. Áussies don't normally vote for the butt of their jokes

chrismurphys chris murphy

If Kevin Rudd is made Leader of the ALP I will be first Murphy since 1891 not to vote Labor. Grandfather Gallipoli, 6sons WW2. #auspol

annabelcrabb Annabel Crabb

Kevin Rudd: So difficult and chaotic that I put him in charge of Australia's foreign policy. #eeeek

toplitigator Mark J. Cohen

Possibly line of the day: 'Kevin Rudd is a self-made man, and he is devoted to his creator'. #auspol

PaulBongiorno Paul Bongiorno

Reality check: Kevin Rudd was rolled before the 2010 election, Julia Gillard then won the vote 2pp just over 50% and won the negotiation.

Wil_Anderson Wil Anderson

Kevin Rudd is challenging. Never has a truer sentence been typed...

latikambourke Latika Bourke

Now, Stephen Conroy on the #pokies story and Wilkie's revelations - says it's clear Kevin Rudd has been a 'complete and utter fraud.'

zozstar zoran

Break news:Kevin Rudd has said nothing in the last few hours #auspol

BreakfastNews ABC News Breakfast

Nicola Roxon: Kevin Rudd was "very difficult to work with"

@Joe_Hildebrand Joe Hildebrand

I like how Kevin Rudd launched his new staff-friendly persona by calling a press conference at 1.30am. #lateline

michellegrattan Michelle Grattan

And later today Wayne Swan might tell us what he really thinks of Kevin Rudd

vexnews vexnews

LIKE A BOSS: PM Gillard shows the strongest steel comes from the hottest fire #auspol #respill http://t.co/7bexSdDY

Now this is something you won't hear Tony Abbott be man enough to admit

http://youtu.be/dme0nyz0OgU

Yes, Kevin - you ARE the alpha male!

The body language, tone of voice and phrasing say it all - Kevin Rudd is strutting his stuff and making sure that the Australian electorate knows that he is the dominate male in the Gillard Government.

From his attempts to take over photo opportunities when he and the Prime Minister are together, the grooming of a child fellow minister when cameras were rolling, his insistence that the media realise he is in charge of the timetable during media conferences, making sure his version of his appointment as Foreign Minister was the one that dominated that day's news cycle and now jetting off to prance across the world stage before Julia Gillard even moves into The Lodge.

Sadly for Kevin, Kudelka's sharp whimsy has brough him undone and exposed the fact that (no matter how one cuts the cloth) his ministry exists at the pleasure of Prime Minister Gillard and Federal Treasurer Swan.

Once Rudd used to be almost likeable. If only Thérèse could convince him of the wisdom of humility......

The Hobart Mercury, 14 September 2010

2010 Election Campaign Day 21 - Kev comes out fighting for his team this week

Former Oz PM KEVIN RUDD speaking in a 4th August 2010 ABC Late Night Live radio interview comes out fighting for his Labor team:

"Well, the bottom line is I can't just stand idly by at the prospect of Mr Abbott sliding into office by default. I mean elections are really important things Phillip. They're about who governs the country affects the lives, in a very direct way of every one of your listeners, every family in the country, every business in the country, every community, every school, every hospital . I mean we've got too much at stake here, we spent a long time keeping the economy strong despite the global financial crisis, we've come through that. Mr Abbott opposed those measures. We spent a long time getting a deal for the future funding of our hospitals in place - Mr Abbott opposed that. We spent a long time negotiating a national broadband network in place and Mr Abbott says he's going to tear that down. And I think we do know where he stands on the reintroduction of Workchoices. So there's big stuff at stake for the country and I suppose my message more broadly is, the future of KM Rudd is one thing, the future of the country is actually much bigger because it affects 22 million of us, not just one........

Look I think it's pretty important that the team comes, ah comes first. I'm always concerned about being some sort of side show to the main event because the main even tis what's important. The main event is the country's future and that will be what the Prime Minister has to say. But look, what's my predisposition? I will be there but on the condition that I don't have a major relapse before then and secondly, that I'm not a distraction from what I think is a pretty serious debate about what sort of future we want for our country and I don't think it's a debate which we can allow - with only two and half weeks to go before D Day, that we can't allow to be trivialised. It's too important.....

No government's perfect, no Prime Minister's perfect, I wasn't, Keating wasn't, Hawke wasn't, Gillard's not. But you know something? When it comes to the fundamentals of economic policy settings, general policy settings, the country's heading in the right direction and if anyone doubts that just for one moment, think about what's going on the moment throughout Europe and North America. And what I do know for a fact is that it's hard to build things up, it's very easy for people like Mr Abbott to tear things down."

Over at 'Pollytics' Possum poses a political puzzle. At 'The Sydney Morning Herald' Hartcher supplies one explanation.

I have to admit that I wasn't exactly crying tears as Kevin Rudd was taken down by his own party.

The best thing about his prime ministership was his Apology to the Stolen Generation and his leadership during the global financial crisis.
As well as his earlier support (during the 2007 election campaign) of Northern Rivers communities in their fight against that mindless water grab attempt by Howard and Turnbull and, his determination to lift pensioners out of the poverty trap in which the far right of the Liberal and National parties had kept them.

However, that silly 2020 Summit clearly showed a man out of touch with the ordinary voters who had backed him at the polls and one who really had no idea why he had been elected.
While his failure to sell a national emissions trading scheme to the Australian electorate was the real tragedy of his federal political career and his support of the Howard Government sedition and certain anti-terrorism laws his constant disgrace.

Possum Comitatus addresses that strange political puzzle within the leadership change in his Spill post on 24 June 2020:

the first PM to ever be removed from office while having a strong election winning lead, and possibly the first in any western democracy for decades

NewsPoll pdf showing three month comparisons.

This was Peter Hartcher in The Sydney Morning Herald on 26 June 2010 - two days after Gillard ousted Rudd as Australia's prime minister - with an alternative explanation of the puzzle:

Each word is printed in a typesize to reflect how commonly it came up. The dominant word glaring from the "cloud" was ''arrogant'', followed by ''weak''. Never mind that these seem to convey wildly different conceptions of the man. The Labor powerbrokers who commissioned the poll were only concerned that both are bad qualities for a prime minister.
But asked the word that best described Julia Gillard, the dominant word in her cloud was strong, followed by capable. This was the poll on which factional bosses based their case for replacing Rudd with Gillard.
The poll was commissioned by Sussex Street, shorthand for the head office of the NSW branch of the Labor Party, to test the validity of the Herald's Nielsen poll published on June 7.

Surely this wasn't the internal Labor Party polling the media was talking about in the days before leadership change?

However, if it was then Sussex Street has a problem or three.
Firstly, simple Internet access across the country carries no demographic weight suitable for use in polling. Patchy doesn't begin to describe it.
Secondly, if one were to post a comment which stated "I don't believe that Kevin Rudd is arrogant and weak" the cloud would show "arrogant" and "weak" without the qualifier.
Depending on cloud parameters the results probably said more about how original polling data were collated or, if the cloud was generated from Internet items, more about the mainstream media and blogosphere than it did about voter opinion/intentions.

The cloud is in fact worthless as an opinion poll and, reliance on it is a measure of the level of panic among Labpor Party powerbrokers.

Gillard will naturally have an opinion poll honeymoon period which will see the Labor lead in the polls lengthen. However, neither Federal Labor nor Sussex Street should rely on this surge being either a strong or long one.

UPDATE:

Labor now leading the Coalition on primary votes by two percentage points as of 25-27 June 2010.


Published in
The Australian
on 28 June 2010

Click on images to enlarge

YET ANOTHER POLL.

This time from the Essential Report published on 28 June 2010 with a 1,803 sample size:

Q. If there was a Federal election held today, to which party would you probably give your first preference? Q. If you ‘don’t know’ on the above question, which party are you currently leaning to?












An additional question Do you approve or disapprove of Julia Gillard replacing Kevin Rudd as leader of the Labor Party and Prime Minister? resulted in:
47% approved the change from Kevin Rudd to Julia Gillard as Prime Minister and 40% disapproved. Opinions reflected political party preferences.
Labor voters strongly approved the change by 68% to 23% while 60% of Liberal/National voters disapproved and 36% approved.
There were no significant differences by gender.
However, older respondents were more likely to approve than younger respondents – 55% of those aged 55+ approved and 37% disapproved.

Ned the Bear does national emergencies

It's always a bridesmaid and never the bride for Kevin Rudd when it comes to hosting a visit Down Under from U.S. President Barack Obama and naughty Ned the Bear takes full advantage of the situation. :-D
"He's cranky. He's orange. He's a cartoon bear." And he's here.

Demanding, arrogant, out of touch, superficial, narrow-minded. How many Australians see federal political leaders

Image from ABC's The Drum

With a curious dissonance developing between general support for the policies Labor is taking to the 2010 election and level of support shown for the Prime Minister in recent opinion polls, perhaps it isn't really about policy at this point but more about personality as seen filtered through a media lens.

According to the Essential Research weekly report on 10 May 2010:

There was majority approval of all recent changes to Australia’s taxation.
The most popular proposal was to increase superannuation contributions from 9% to 12% ‐ 74% approved and 17% disapproved.
63% approved increasing taxes on cigarettes and alcohol.
More than half approved cutting company tax rates (54%) and higher taxes on the profits of large mining companies (52%).
78% of Labor voters approved higher taxes on mining company profits (11% disapprove) and 56% of Liberal/National voters disapproved (35% approve).
Increasing superannuation contributions received high support from both Labor (85%) and Liberal/National voters (72%).
61% of both Labor and Liberal/National voters supported cutting company tax rates.
63% of Labor voters and 69% of Liberal/National voters approved increasing taxes on cigarettes and alcohol.

However Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott are not so clearly differentiated on personal attributes in the table below:

Kevin Rudd has only slightly better ratings than Tony Abbott across key positive attributes such as hard‐working (+5%), a capable leader (+5%) and trustworthy (+2%).
The main differences were that Kevin Rudd is perceived as more demanding (69%/52%), less narrow‐minded (43%/53%), more superficial (52%/44%)and more complacent (38%/30%).

Comparison of Leader Attributes

Click on image to enlarge

Two Australian Leaders: popularity polling and that polygraph worm

Well, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott can't say that he wasn't warned. Talking heads from the medical fraternity, at least one well-known journalist and even ordinary voters told him before he went into today's televised Leaders' Debate that he would be wise to present Coalition policy and not indulge in politicking.

Instead Abbott lead with his jaw and the Channel 7/Morgan Research handpicked audience with their fingers on the polygraph worm obliged by landing a blow on that jaw at almost every opportunity.

I had made myself a coffee which almost stood to attention on the amount of caffeine it contained, in anticipation of a nail bitingly tense debate.

Halfway through I abandoned the coffee and took up my knitting, as the worm spent most of its time on the middle line or in positive territory when Kevin Rudd was speaking and, on the middle line or in negative territory when Tony Abbott had the floor.

Attacks on the Prime Minister, mention of that so-called 'great big new tax' and even talk of the failed national roof insulation scheme did not move Abbott out from under the wrong side of that visual opinion line - in fact he was a distinct medical flatline when he refused to talk about any Coalition health policy he intends to take to the federal election.

All this merely confirms what Essential Media has been saying for some time, Kevin Rudd is still popular with the electorate and currently 'owns' health policy.

Excerpt from the Essential Report survey results (based on an estimated 1,000 respondents) taken between 16-21 March 2010:

Better Prime Minister – Rudd or Abbott

Q. Regardless of your likely party choice for the next election, which of the leaders – Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott – do you think overall would be the best Prime Minister?

21 Dec 09 - 22 March 10

Kevin Rudd 51% - 50%

Tony Abbott 25% - 30%

Don't know 24% - 19%

When it comes to a choice between Rudd and Abbott as better Prime Minister, 50% selected Rudd and 30% selected Abbott. The results for Rudd shifted slightly (-1%) since we last asked this question in December 2009. However, there has been a five percent increase in the number of people that prefer Abbott and a decrease in the number of people that don't know (-5%).

Results followed party lines – 92% of Labor voters chose Rudd and 74% of Coalition voters chose Abbott. 64% of Green voters selected Rudd and 11% of Green voters selected Abbott.

People aged 65 years and over were more likely to think Abbott would make a better Prime Minister (42%) while 18 – 24 year olds were more likely to indicate they don't know who would make a better Prime Minister out of Rudd and Abbott (28%).

Federal takeover of hospitals and health services

Q. Do you support or oppose the Federal Government's plan to take over the responsibility for funding hospitals and health services from the State Governments?

%

Total support 58%

Total oppose 12%

Strongly support 25%

Support 33%

Neither support nor oppose 21%

Oppose 7%

Strongly oppose 5%

Don't know 9%

Over half (58%) of those surveyed support the Federal Government's plan to take over responsibility for funding hospitals and health services from the State Governments, 12% oppose, 21% neither support nor oppose and 9% don't know.

79% of Labor voters, 46% of Coalition voters and 55% of Green voters support a Federal takeover for funding of hospitals and health services. 27% of Coalition voters neither support nor oppose the plan and 22% oppose it.

People in NSW were more likely than those in other states to support a Federal takeover (64%). 55% of people in Queensland and 52% in Victoria support the plan.

Males were more likely than females to support the plan (61% v 56%). Support for a Federal takeover was highest amongst 55 – 64 year olds (67%).

In February this year we asked the Australian public whether they support or oppose a Federal takeover of hospitals. The results showed that 58% supported a Federal takeover, 10% opposed it, 19% neither supported nor opposed and 13% didn't know.

Our Kev not so bright and shiny anymore

Being an Aussie prime minister must be a b*gger of a job, but compared to some others who've been at the top of the pollie pile Kevin Rudd has had a dream run in the public opinion polls since November 2007.
The UN shenanigans in Copenhagen this month have put a bit of a dent in that bright and shiny image......

ABC The Drum poll results at 6am on 21st December 2009

Poor Bolta - he can't even get up a good snark anymore

Early on a Monday morning Andrew Bolt sent a weak and feeble snark down the digital highway which ended up as a Herald Sun post at 7.21am on 26th October 2009.
He'd obviously only recently noticed how many times the Australian Prime Minister makes no apology for this and that and he listed 7 instances of 'no apology' from June 2008 until this month.
It must have been a hard weekend at the Bolt house because he obviously hadn't anything decent prepared for publication and hurriedly cast a short net.

Here is what a quick squiz at Open Australia throws up with a simple search through Hansard records:

As I said in response to a question in this place yesterday, this government makes no apology whatsoever for the fact that it is expanding its cooperation with the Indonesian government in the area of people smuggling. {Hansard 22nd October '09}

This government makes no apology whatsoever for the fact that we have a tough line on asylum seekers when it comes to dealing with the challenges of people smugglers around the world—tough but humane.
{Hansard 21st October '09}

That is the right way to proceed. It is called a rational policy debate. That is what we on this side of the House are engaged in. We do not apologise for one element of it. {Hansard 18th August '09}

I make no apology whatsoever for being conservative about the projections we have made about the impact of the global recession on Australia. {Hansard 3rd June '09}

I would say to the barracking new Leader of the Opposition, the member for Wentworth, this: on the question of terrorism, this government makes no apology for taking a hard line. It makes no apology for making clear-cut statements to the Australian community that we will not brook— ..........
We take a hard line. We make no apology for it. {Hansard 17th September '08}

We are a party and a government of nation-building and we are so without apology. {Hansard 3rd September '08}

We make no apology at all for the fact that we have commissioned Ken Henry of the Treasury to undertake the Henry commission of inquiry. {Hansard 26th June '08}

Families across the country are dealing with real challenges, so we make no apology—while those opposite giggle and guffaw about the financial pressures faced by families today—for delivering $47 billion of tax cuts to those families, no apology for ensuring that we deliver an education tax refund of $4.4 billion, no apology for ensuring that we increase the childcare tax rebate... {Hansard 15th March '08}

Since the snark was posted there have been other mentions, which include this blockbuster later on that same Monday:

Our policy is unapologetically tough but humane.....
is unapologetically tough when it comes to people smugglers and unapologetically
humane when it comes to dealing with asylum seekers. It is a tough but humane approach......
We, the government, make no apology for this regional approach.....
Our policy is also unapologetically humane. We have ended mandatory detention for children.......
It is a balanced approach, a mainstream approach; one which unapologetically also engages our friends and partners in the region, {Hansard Proof 26th October '09}

But even raising the score to 23 versions of what is almost a prime ministerial verbal tic doesn't make Bolt's paid 'professional' MSM post worth the effort. So far that's only roughly one non-apology uttered every month since Rudd was elected. Bolt's post tastes of FAIL. Try again.

A bit of Australian leaders trivia from the Internetz

Our Kev has now racked up at least 338 tweets on his Twitter account, KevinRuddPM.
He has about 444 pics up on the account's photostream at Flickr and around 661,787 Twitter followers listed.

By comparison Truffles has a credit of around 665 tweets on his own Twitter account, TurnbullMalcolm.

He's uploaded about 23 pics to Twitpic and somewhere in the vicinity of 16,514 Twitter followers are recorded.

Sorta mirrors the divide between percentage points in the opinion polls - Kev winning just by being in the chair and Truffles running furiously on the spot trying to catch up.

Oh, Mr. KRudd! Case of the missing punctuation mark and the body in the library

Sometimes Twitter gives everyone a bit of a laugh at the expense of those pollies who use it.
This is Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday last when (with a missing full stop the culprit) he accidentally told all that climate change and global economic recovery were critical for his personal future:

KevinRuddPM Melb last night spoke 2 US leadership dialogue. Working w Obama Admin on climate change & global economic recovery critical for future KRudd
about 11 hours ago from web

{I know, I know - little things amuse little minds!}

However, Twitter was the last of a working week's worries for the Libs and Nats.
It is getting harder and harder for them to ignore the cadaver sprawled behind the chesterfield in the library, as each new poll keeps pointing to a politically deceased Malcolm Truffles Turnbull.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, in the 13th to 15th August AC Nielsen poll the Leader of the Opposition's approval rating sank to 31% and his disapproval rating is a graveyard 60%.
In June 2009 his Nielsen poll approval rating was a lowly 32% and his disapproval score was already running at 60% - which rather indicates that Aussie voters are well and truly ready to plant him in the ground.
Something I'm sure KRudd will point out all week long, with careful attention to punctuation.

Kevin 07 re-election gig gossip

PS News had this little snippet of gossip:

"PS-sssst...!
Ad hocked!
Even geniuses have their day – at least in the advertising industry.
Accomplished adman Neil Lawrence must be wondering what it takes to keep a service contract after being overlooked by the Australian Labor Party for its next big re-election gig.
You see, Neil was the whizz-kid who ran the vote-winning “Kevin 07” campaign that so endeared our then-plucky PM-wannabe (and former Public Servant) K. Rudd into the election winning Prime Ministerial seat of power. Spurned by Labor, Mr Lawrence is now free to make his way into the Coalition camp to pay back the favour and put his undoubted talents to work for them. Could that be a “Welcome Malcolm” slogan I see bubbling up?"

Update:
Seems that public service gossip is not all it's cracked up to be.
Apparently Neil withdrew from the fray rather than got the push.

There aren't any jobs on a dead planet**

By the time Kevin Rudd had closed comment on the inaugural Focus on Climate Change post at PM's Blog last week there were 939 published comments listed.

This was a fairly respectable response given that all participants had to register, comment was moderated and, comment publication was restricted to business hours which meant that there was limited debate on opinions put forward.

This week it appears that the Prime Minister via his second post wants a very brief snapshot of the nation's reaction to the NHHC report on health care reform, because there are less than four full days allotted for comment.

By 12.45pm on Tuesday 28 July 2009 there were a mere 20 comments on his health post, which worked out at only 1.1 comments per hour since that post went online.

Oh, and by the way, the Prime Minster's second post is erroneously tagged as a health blog when in fact it is a post on the PM's Blog - a mildly annoying little error.

** Line from a comment on Australian Prime Minister's first post on his new official blog.

Update:

no_filter_YambaPM's Blog a fail with only 97 comments on his health reform post? Or too early to tell? http://bit.ly/2K2Hzbless than 5 seconds ago from web

Australian PM says no comments supporting the Opposition on my blog thankyou

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is prepared to have a limited dialogue with others on his new blog at PM Connect starting off with the question; How do you think we can make Australians more aware that we need to act on climate change now?

But only between 2pm 16 July 2009 and 5pm 22 July 2009 and only if you restrict yourself to 300 words or less.

Don't think that you'll be able to anonymously offer a comment or two either in this mini debate as you have to register a legitimate email address, but pen names for publication are O.K. apparently.
Due to comment moderation only occurring during business hours be prepared for a long time lag until your own after-hours comment is published.

Oh, and don't dare include a link in your comment or indicate that you support a particular political party or you'll be binned!

do not include internet addresses, videos, images or links to websites, or any email addresses, in your contribution; and

do not post overtly party political comment (eg. reference to candidates, fundraisers, support for political parties).

Here are the 55 moderated comments published on the first day.

Spontaneity is definitely missing from this blog and it seems that the Prime Minister's minders have learnt nothing from Stephen Conroy's abortive attempt at an official blog.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g the truth for a dubious laugh

The Daily Examiner, 6 May 2009

Is it just me - or does this cartoon figure look suspiciously like Kevin 07 supposedly receiving that $900 cheque from the last economic stimulus package?

Someone needs to remind the cartoonist that Rudd's parliamentary salary alone precludes him from receiving this cheque.

South Park's ignorance of Australian politics only refects the rest of the world

There have been a number of mentions of a recent episode of the animated comedy South Park which depicted the Australian Prime Minister as John Howard instead of Kevin Rudd.

I honestly don't think the issue rates much attention, because it only reflects the real level of the world's knowledge of Australia and this lack of depth has been well-known for years.

Kevin Rudd and Labor coming to power in 2007 may have created a wave of interest across the nation but in general the world shrugged, yawned and rolled over.

Here are Google Trends for the terms Kevin Rudd and Prime Minister Rudd (January 2007 to date) showing the spatial distribution of Internet searches using that search engine.

"kevin rudd"

"prime minister rudd"

It is evident that only in Australia is there enough interest in Kevin Rudd to drive high volume search traffic.

If anyone thought otherwise then they have been reading too much into national mainstream media reports since Kevin 07 and his team contested the last federal election.