Earlier I have been suggesting that the whole Push by Conroy to reshape the media landscape was a convenient smokescreen intended to distract attention form the leadership woes of Julia Gillard and now this morning we have Peter Harcher of the Age making precisely the same claim but with the added flavour of his contacts within the Labor party.
But there is another explanation, too. ”Conroy’s view has been that the media stuff isn’t the worst thing in the world, and it’ll distract from leadership speculation and get us through to the end of next week,” says a senior Labor figure. ”Gillard’s entire world is an inside game,” of how to hold the leadership against any Kevin Rudd recrudescence.
The end of next week? That’s the last time Parliament sits before the budget, the last time the caucus will be together in one place, the last time there will be a venue and opportunity for any leadership challenge before the budget.
But Rudd is resolutely sticking to his pledge that he will not challenge again. This is frustrating some of his more determined supporters, but he is proving immovable.
Without any challenge, the onus for change rests with the senior Labor members who, until now, have been Gillard supporters. A delegation to tell her to resign, like the one that gave the same message to Bob Hawke in 1991, is widely mooted. Messy, unpleasant, and, so far, no volunteers.
You can’t start a fire, you can’t start a fire without a spark
This gun’s for hire even if we’re just dancing in the dark
Related articles
- Gillard camp denies leadership spill (dailytelegraph.com.au)
- PM has to go, urges Rudd camp (smh.com.au)
- Without dignity all is lost for Labor (iainhall.wordpress.com)
- Gillard and Rudd camps deny leadership spill on the cards (3aw.com.au)
- ALP anarchy reaches breaking point (dailytelegraph.com.au)
- The great wall of Chinese Rudd fans (dailytelegraph.com.au)
- Rudd should be given ministry: Latham (abc.net.au)
- Gillard regains preferred PM title: Newspoll (abc.net.au)
- Labor and Gillard losing support: poll (news.theage.com.au)
- ALP ‘faces massacre under Julia Gillard’ (bigpondnews.com)
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 
I disagree Iain. Conroy already has form for his penchant for censorship/control of the media. His previous internet filter for example. It’s all very well to say that it’s a smokescreen, but should by chance, and by chance I mean the irrational behaviour of the independents. Should by chance this legislation get up, then Labor has bequeathed Australia with another toxic legacy.
The nation already has the toxic legacy of having to pay back Labor’s wasteful and irresponsible spending to the tune of millions of dollars a day in overseas interest payments. Money that could have well been spent on hospitals and education.
It is indeed adding insult to injury to have to to re-define laws of freedom of speech and a free press that have served us well, only to be usurped by this hapless and hopeless socialist wanna-be government.
Enough is enough.
And “enough is enough” from you too, GD. Your hysteria is as boring as it is predictable. Stop ranting like a kneejerking lunatic for a moment, will you? What’s happened to you, GD? You seem to have immersed yourself so much in your hateful anti-Labor gibberish that you’ve completely lost the ability to mount a coherent argument.
The simple reality is that Iain is 100% correct about Conroy’s so-called media reform proposal – it’s a ‘Clayton’s’.
And when Iain says this: “There is only one thing that Gillard is focused on and that (is) her personally remaining in the Lodge until September 14”, for once I totally agree with him.
What we’re now seeing is Gillard in her death throes – and it seems you’re the only one who, in your blind fury, can’t see it.
[…] Gillard is definitely not drunk… or Conroy’s zombie hordes shuffle in time to the beat o… (iainhall.wordpress.com) […]