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Monday February 13, 2012

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  • Troy on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' I have seen this family fighting day after day for months trying to get their kids/siblings back home. The dedication and ... more
  • Pauline on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' DHS have destroyed my own family. They failed in their duty of care to provide a baby moniter for the deaf , thousands of ... more
  • Christine on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' isn't it funny how DHS don't recognise the psychological effects of domestic violence on children and continue to allow ... more
  • Warrior princess on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' There is a family In the Cairns Area who are Foster Carers.Atherton Child Safety have threatened the carers and own ... more
  • duncan on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' i have spent time with this family. it is a house full of love. "mum", grandfather and older sblings.this cannot be an issue ... more
  • Tracey on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Family Law is different from the rest of the law in this country.. Ie. Family Law is based on probability: ie if it might ... more
  • carol annetta on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' having known this family for some time i am disgusted with the treatment she has received. it seems more of a witch hunt ... more
  • Maureen Hillary on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Derryn,I have counselled traumatized parents as a result of DHS staff.There are great staff workers who care but they ... more
  • Janet Tavener on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' I am a visitor to this country.My attention was drawn to the case of these children and their foster mother by a relative of ... more
  • sam on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Happening in Tasmania also.Wewon a court case over 8 months ago and due process still hasn't been done.We spent 17,000 ... more
  • Anne Glover on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' I just cannot believe what the DHS has put the Foster Mother, and the children through - I thought the DHS was supposed to ... more
  • Tracey on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' DHS are the most disgraceful organization I have ever had the displeasure of becoming involved with. They are so ... more
  • Vicki on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Hi Derryn,I have known this carer since primary school, she has always put others above herself. Being a carer myself I know ... more
  • Gran'ma Pam on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' As any of us with any sense know, these children should NEVER have been taken from this lady (mum) in the first place, they ... more
  • Dominic Lombardo on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' I see my daughter every six months DHS are conducting a vendetta against me I have not been told why I can only see her ... more
  • cassy houghton on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Hello Derryn,Firstly i would like to thankyou for your support and the willingness to help this beautiful family.I ... more
  • Warrior princess on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Im a carer also in Qld. I see this happen way too much from our Government. They are starting to use Carers own children as ... more
  • paul on "I'll pay the fee," says Hinch I believe what Liberal Party has done is stupid. But I feel for candidates like Joh Bauch and James Buonopane who want to ... more
  • Andrea on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Why are these public servants allowed to blatantly flout the law without the same consequences the rest of society faces? I ... more
  • birth mother on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' i am the birth morther of these 4 children and i just want to say dhs dont care they just want the kids in care so they can ... more

'They all have blood on their hands'

Posted by: Derryn Hinch | 24 June, 2010 - 2:58 PM
Wayne Swan

Funny isn’t it - in this savage, cruel, take no prisoners, world of politics - that you sometimes only see the best, most human, part of a leader, at the raw moment  of defeat.

We saw it with Malcolm Fraser when that stone-faced Easter Island statue couldn’t stop his lip from quivering as he conceded defeat to Bob Hawke. Saw it in John Howard after he not only lost an election but was humiliated when he lost his own seat. His concession speech was style and dignity personified.

And we saw it today with Kevin Rudd. Shafted by his two closest members of the Gang of Four, he still fronted the media less than two hours later to make his final appearance in the prime ministerial garden.

Flanked by his wife, Therese, and his children, He started in typical Rudd-speak: ‘I am proud of the fact...’ about this achievement and ‘ I’m proud of the fact...’ about that.

But the silences got longer, the gasps for breath got harder. Then he apologised because, in his words, he ‘blubbered’. And his eyes showed that the full import of the past 24 hours was still sinking in.

He’d been hit by a political truck and Kevin ’07, the most popular leader in the polls only a few months ago, was suddenly ex-Kev.  Why? How? Because Labor panicked.

They can dress it up any way they like.  That the Government, according to Julia Gillard, had ‘lost its way’. But the truth is they got scared. Scared they were staring at an election defeat. They believed the polls. Believed that their savior who led them out of the wilderness in 2007 was unelectable.

The marginal seat holders were nervous. And the union heavies and the party faction chiefs decided a brutal political execution was necessary. The speed of their success proved, what Kevin Rudd must have known all along: that his one-man band, stuff the rest of you, my way or the highway style, would be tolerated as long as he was a winner.

As soon as the voters started to desert him, as soon as they started to think the emperor had no clothes, he was on a slippery slope to oblivion. The speed with which Labor politicians jumped ship overnight to deny their savior was mind-boggling.

Gillard said only 10 days ago that the idea of a challenge was ‘absurd’. More chance of her becoming full forward for the Bulldogs. More chance of her appearing with Brad Pitt in a Spielberg movie.

But when confronted with the ‘now or never’ option, with the possibility of going  down with the ship and never getting the chance to be captain, she drew the knife.

And so did Wayne Swan.

As the late Richard Carleton would say … they all have blood on their hands.

Remember too: Gillard and Swan and Lindsay Tanner (who seems the invisible man today) were all involved in those unpopular Rudd decisions over pink batts and, school rorts and canning the ETS.  Now it remains to be seen if ‘shooting the salesman’ was enough.

There’ll be a poll-enhancing fascination with the swearing in of Australia’s first female Prime Minister.  Will that honeymoon last? I’m not so sure.

An ironic note: Kevin Rudd was accused of breaking his promises. Not keeping his word. Well, last night he said ‘I was elected by the people of Australia as Prime Minister of Australia. I was elected to do that job.  I intend to continue to do that job.’

He would stand for his job today. He didn’t. Even the King of Spin knew the vote would be a rout. He went without a fight presumably for the good of the party.

Footnote:  One of Prime Minister Gillard’s first announcements was that she would not live in The Lodge until elected by the people. A magnanimous gesture. It won’t last. For security reasons she will eventually be forced to move into the official residence. Our first Welsh-born, migrant, female, single, leftie PM.  And we also now have a male hairdresser as Australia’s First Lady.

'Hairdresser is Australia's first lady'

Derryn Hinch 3AW Drive host Derryn Hinch is holidaying Hawaii, but he is sending through a few bits and pieces to share his viewson our new Prime Minister - Julia Gillard.

Blog comments Your Say

  • What goes around comes around Judas Gillard. Your backers will fight to elect you as PM then you can watch them knife you in the back as well.

    Josie Wednesday 30 June, 2010 - 4:21 PM

  • I love the way Labour voters like Lenny always make excuses for the incompetent fools they call their politicians.

    Carlton crew Tuesday 29 June, 2010 - 11:44 AM

  • I LOVE the way lib voters always conveniently forget their history of back stabbing & key power brokers in the Liberal Party deciding the fate of party elections~! Typical Liberal Party double standards~!

    Lenny Monday 28 June, 2010 - 5:27 PM

  • So this is the new prime minister who has been reborn with such new vision that she expects us "THE EVERY DAY WORKING AUSTRALIANS" to forget that she not only was a HUGE part of the big 4 who were responsible for all the decisions that have impacted on our lives, she had the sole responsibility for the execution of the "Education revolution" worth some $450 million that she is now ducking & weaving wanting us to believe that she was doing as she was told by "THE CAPTIN" that she was vice captin & had no strength to stop it but just do as she was told when time & time again it was brought to her attention the level of wastage in the scheme just like the pink bats but all she wantd to then was investigate WHY OH WHY didn't she step up then to help stop the waste that "us ordinary hard working australians" were & still are paying for at the rate of $2million dollars for a 600sq.ft. hall. If any 1 believes in her load of CROC. then we will have the government we deserve.
    I hope all hard working people remember this is not about "gender" but about policy & the effect long lasting on our children to pay & clean up the mess.
    What people need to know is very ploicy re-chuffle or re- worded means a WHOLE lot of shredding of paper & all the stationary that goes with it the phamplets the ADVERTISING MATERIAL etc. to be re-printed & glossed over again.
    IT'S YOUR MONEY RALPH
    for those who can remember the phrase & content

    Kamahl Haddad Sunday 27 June, 2010 - 9:32 AM

  • Gillard was not elected by Australian voters. She has no cause to be proud of herself. If the idiotic inane media had not stupidly kept putting the question, her henchmen probably would not have thought of putting her up for leadership. What a disgusting back-stabbing lot of hypocrites. The worst of it is that probably a lot of very stupid females will vote for her simply because she is a woman. Makes me ashamed to be female. We could possibly now have a PM who is a puppet of the hatchet boys, the unions and the greedy whining multi-millionnaire mining bosses and the whining West Australian Premier. Rudd probably would have started recovering before the election if he had been given a chance but the bully boys were too scared to wait and now have the breathtaking audacity to say that they don't take any notice of the opinion polls. Maybe people should be reminded of some of Rudd's achievements. He was very popular when he was doling out the dosh and getting us through the GFC with far less damage than the rest of the world. Gillard's school building program was not without its problems and the MySchool website is a useless farce. Gillard and her cronies and the media all have blood on their hands and should be ashamed of themselves. But, look out Julia, the same thing could happen to you in the future if the bully boys get scared.

    Laura Saturday 26 June, 2010 - 11:05 PM

  • Listen up people, we are supposed to be a democracy in Australia, or so I thought. How is it then that Kevin Rudd's fate was sealed by the ALP and not the people of Australia who elected him in the first place? Why was he not given the opportunity that any elected Prime Minister deserves, that is to go to the polls and let the people decide if they wish to reelect him? What has occurred from within the ranks of the ALP is morally and ethically wrong. Opinion polls should not decide if a Prime Minister elect deserves to go to the polls. It is Kevin Rudd's right and obligation, to go to the polls. He was ready, willing and certainly able to go to the people. I am truly shocked at the way a head of state has been treated in our supposed democratic country. Shame on the Australian Labour Party. Like many Australian women of course I would be proud to have a female prime minister. But, not under these circumstances. Rather, I feel ashamed, and speechless as to how to explain this to new Australians who are still grappling with our supposed democracy.

    Elizabeth Smythe Saturday 26 June, 2010 - 12:25 PM

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