Couldn't believe we had Latham sound bytes again!
Barnaby is on horse as part of a cattle muster. At one point he says 'Tony told me that if I got my arse in a saddle at least it would keep the coalition out of trouble. Well just watch me, Tony.
Anyone see the David Barker stuff? Lib sitting member for Longman? Saying that the ALP's Bosnian born candidate was planning for a muslim takeover Australia and that Tony Abbott was 'God's mouthpiece'? Oh my FSM.
)No 'Labor' in Rudd's campaign posters
July 27, 2010/the AGE
Party-free politics ... A Kevin Rudd campaign sign in the Brisbane suburb of Hawthorne today with something missing from the Labor logo. Photo: Daniel Hurst
The ghost of Kevin Rudd continues to stalk Julia Gillard's campaign.
With the Labor leader touring the crucial state of Queensland today, Mr Rudd has so far failed to publicly support his former deputy, who knifed him last month to secure the top job in the face of bad party polling.
Mr Rudd has not even mentioned the Prime Minister by name since the election was called 10 days ago - dodging repeated questions from journalists last week on a much-publicised day of campaigning in his electorate of Griffith.
:Who's the rat in Gillard's ranks?
July 28, 2010 - 4:48PM
ANALYSIS:
Julia Gillard did a credible job this morning of trying to limit the damage of continuing leaks.
But the paranoia within her party about who is doing the leaking - and more to the point, why - remains at fever pitch.
Who is the shadowy figure whose damaging leaks are derailing Julia Gillard's campaign? Graphic: Liam Phillips
While many suspect an embittered Kevin Rudd or his supporters are somehow behind the leaks, senior Labor MPs and officials privately believe this is far too neat and convenient.
Rudd would be pulling so much ire on his head that he may as well kiss goodbye to his political career within Labor.
More complicated and Machiavellian motives by others are suspected.
One theory is that enemies of Rudd are working far behind the scenes to place him in the frame - and thus destroy any chance he might have of returning to a senior frontbench position, as promised by Gillard. The theory continues that two or more ambitious Labor MPs are planting leaks that would appear to come from Rudd.
Under this scenario, Gillard and her senior allies would be infuriated by the belief that the former PM was prepared to wreck her campaign and reputation: so infuriated that Rudd would never be considered for the foreign affairs ministry he so desires.
The result of that would be that a desirable frontbench seat would be freed up for an ambitious plotter.
One current minister and one less senior Labor MP are suspected by those who place credence in this theory.
The problem with it is that such plotters would risk blowing their entire party's chances of retaining government.
They would need to believe that Gillard was going to lead Labor to victory whatever damage she might sustain, or to have such a narrow focus on trying to destroy Rudd that they were prepared to ignore the bigger picture.
The other conspiracy theory under quiet inquiry is that a very senior minister wants to expose Gillard as hypocritical, arguing positions behind closed doors that are far from her old leftist views, and then publicly embracing social policies that others fought for.
The strength of this theory is that only a very senior minister would be privy to conversations during high-level decision-making on such issues as paid parental leave and pension increases.
Its weakness is that such a figure would hardly put in jeopardy the government they serve.
It could destroy their own career.
But what if such a figure was so unimpressed by Gillard - and perhaps didn't mind if Rudd got the blame - that they had decided their political career was no longer worth pursuing, anyway?
The fact that such thinking is occurring among a number of well-placed Labor government figures makes clear that the content of the leaks are not the biggest problem facing Julia Gillard.
Suspicion and Byzantine conspiracy theories swirling within the party itself have the ability to do greater damage.
) :Rudd is unmanly, like a snake: Latham
July 29, 2010/the AGE
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd is unmanly and like a snake for leaking a damaging story about his successor Julia Gillard, a former Labor leader says. ...<cont>
