Coup d'etat in Australia

thread drift/ This used to be the Canadian model a la Abbott, Thompson, Bowell and Tupper in the 1890s. I suppose I could look it up but I'm not sure off the top of my head when we switched to delegated conventions/end thread drift

THis was also the model in the UK up until very recently. Thatcher was dumped in 1990 when it became clear that she was going to lose a vote by the Tory caucus - and back in 1974, Thatcher became Tory leader in the UK after a caucus vote to get rid of Edward Heath.

FYI: In 1919, the Liberals held a convention (a first time for a Canadian party and considered a bit of a novelty) to pick a successor to Laurier as their leader - it was won narrowly by a little known corporate lawyer named Mackenzie King!  

Well a very Australian coup might be a pleasant antidote to A Very British Coup.

N.Beltov wrote:

Well a very Australian coup might be a pleasant antidote to A Very British Coup.

I have that video. Someone here on rabble recommended it. I still have to view it as my player was busted for a while. Lesson to the wise: Never let Orangutans loose in your home.

I was off of Rudd after reading Pilger's criticisms of the way Aborigines continue to be treated down under. Hit the road, Kevin, you smarmy bugga.

It's over: 'Gillard takes power in bloodless coup.'

Quote:

Kevin Rudd has decided not to stand in this morning's ALP leadership ballot, relinquishing the Prime Ministership and handing power to his deputy Julia Gillard in a bloodless Parliament House coup.

Mr Rudd had called for a leadership ballot to be held at 9:00am AEST today but has decided not to contest the ballot after it became clear he would be soundly defeated.

Ms Gillard now has the task of leading a party traumatised and divided by the recent dramatic events to the federal election which could be held in a matter of weeks.

Gillard is a lawyer by training and seems to have pretty decent 'left' credentials: former head of the Australian Union of Students, former secretary of the Socialist Forum, is associated with the 'Socialist Left' faction of the ALP, and drafted the affirmative action rules used in the Victoria ALP.

Australia might be the only Westminster-style Parliamentary democracy where the leaders of the main parties are elected exclusively by the parliamentary party. The UK Tories have a hybrid system where the parliamentary party votes to narrow the field to two candidates, who are then submitted to the membership for a vote.

Congratulations Julia Gillard! Now your job is to avoid becoming the Australian Kim Campbell.

All of this goes back to the proposed mining tax on the multinationals like BHP, Anglo-American and Xstrata. After Rudd was targeted in a smear campaign, and resigned, the government re-wrote the tax. Check for further info at: http://www.kitcometals.com/

The international significance of the political coup in Australia
7 July 2010

quote:
The manner of Gillard’s elevation is without precedent in Australian politics. Previously, leadership changes within Labor governments have involved open challenges to the incumbent, protracted lobbying, both publicly and behind the scenes, by the various contenders, discussion and votes within caucus (made up of all the party’s parliamentary representatives) and generally lengthy transition periods from one prime minister to the next. Rudd’s political execution, on the contrary, was conducted without notice, and without any parliamentarian raising a single public criticism of Rudd, on any issue, before it was carried out. Instead, a handful of faceless factional leaders, acting at the direct behest of the major transnational mining corporations and other sections of business and finance capital, simply installed Gillard in a matter of 24 hours.

The Labor caucus, let alone the party’s general membership, played no role in the process. Even Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner—who alongside Rudd, Gillard, and Treasurer Wayne Swan, was one of the government’s supposedly all-powerful “Gang of Four”—watched the leadership challenge unfold on television, without any prior knowledge of what was happening. The next morning, no-one, including Rudd himself, made any protest as Gillard was crowned leader. Not even a caucus vote was held.

One of the key factors in these extraordinary events was hostility, on the part of multi-national mining companies, to Rudd’s proposed Resource Super Profits Tax. The Labor Party apparatus is bound to the resource giants by a thousand threads, including campaign donations, personal connections, and employee exchanges. Within a week of Rudd’s ousting, Gillard had met the mining magnates’ deadline for a back down on the new tax, by awarding them a multi-billion dollar windfall through various concessions....

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/pers-j07.shtml

Almost too late for that.

Doug wrote:

Congratulations Julia Gillard! Now your job is to avoid becoming the Australian Kim Campbell.

The thread title is unintentionally insulting to the memory of Gough Whitlam, the last genuinely progressive Australian prime minister, who was, in fact, the victim of a bloodless coup in 1975:   http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-forgotten-coup-how-america-and-britai...