Lagging Australia PM calls truce with knifed ex-leader
SYDNEY, Aug 7, AFP Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard
buried the hatchet with former leader Kevin Rudd in a strategy meeting
Saturday as the ruling Labor party battles a dangerous lag in the
election race.
It was the first time the pair have seen each other since the brutal
backroom coup which saw Gillard snatch the top job from Rudd, and
follows his blistering return to the scene with a promise to join her
campaign.
Both wearing black and grimly determined, the duo reconciled over
maps of Queensland, Rudd’s home state, where Labor is suffering an angry
backlash about the coup which could see them lose office after just one
term.
Gillard is bleeding support in must-win Queensland seats and Rudd’s
explosive return to the scene and vow of support for his former deputy
is seen as a potential boost for Labor’s badly flagging campaign.
Polling published Saturday showed a one-point shift to Labor following
Rudd’s promise to tour Queensland with Gillard, but the Nielsen survey
put Labor’s vote at 49 percent to rival Tony Abbott’s 51 percent.
The meeting was a tightly-controlled affair, with just one cameraman
and one photographer granted access and no reporters allowed, and only
snippets of their conversation audible.
The reunion was palpably uncomfortable, with Rudd unable to meet
Gillard’s eye as they discussed a health-focussed strategy to win over
voters in Queensland, which the ex-leader said was of chief concern in
his home state. The pair will hit the hustings together in the vast
mining, farming and tourism state Sunday in a bid to steal the thunder
from Abbott’s chief campaign rally, a glitzy show of his policies to the
conservative party faithful.
But managing Rudd will be a delicate balancing act, with Gillard
desperate to cash in on his popularity with voters but anxious that he
doesn’t overshadow her authority as leader or distract from her message.
In another bizarre and unwelcome turn for Gillard, short-lived Labor
leader Mark Latham entered the fray Saturday to report on the campaign
for a commercial television network. |
