Post by ppyenews on Mar 14, 2007 6:38:54 GMT -5
Welcome to ‘Talkback Topic’ – I’m Phillip Pye.
Just the other day I was approached in the street by a couple of Journalists from my local daily newspaper gathering comments regarding the Rudd, Burke affair for their reader’s opinions section. The question was – ‘did I think Kevin Rudd should be sacked as leader of the opposition for his meeting with disgraced ex politician, Brian Burke’. My reply was that if we adhered to that scenario we would be having a lot of Politicians sacked, and that’s about it in a nutshell. Despite repeated attacks from some Federal Liberal Members the Rudd Labor team is gathering impressive momentum in the Polls. Fairfax newspapers reported that the ‘AC Nielsen poll’ has Labor leading 61 to 39 on a two-party preferred basis in fact, Labor leader Kevin Rudd's rating as preferred prime minister is up five points to 53 per cent, while Prime Minister John Howard's rating has dropped to 39 per cent. According to reports the majority of people polled said they did not care about the Brian Burke affair, despite nearly two thirds saying they believed Mr Rudd had not been totally truthful about his meetings with the disgraced former Western Australian premier.
If that has not been enough for Kevin Rudd to bear Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and Treasurer Peter Costello have made a series of attacks on the ALP over the Kelvin Thomson reference affair. Shadow Federal Attorney-General Kelvin Thomson was forced to resign last week after it was revealed he had written a character reference for the gangster Tony Mokbel seven years ago. Mr Downer has told media that Mr Thomson showed a serious lack of judgement. Mr Downer said “I've always thought Kelvin Thomson is a pretty grubby sort of character if I could say so and be, for a foreign minister, rather undiplomatic about him’. He also said “Well look what he's been up to; he's one of those people who's been happy to make pretty base allegations against people in the Government." Treasurer Peter Costello has told media that “the affair speaks volumes about Kevin Rudd's judgement”. "Of all the people he could've made first law officer of the crown he chose a bloke who'd given a reference to drug fugitive Tony Mokbel," Mr Costello said.
To add further insult to injury, earlier this week, Mr Downer questioned the Labor leader’s integrity, claiming it was "very interesting" that he had different versions of the truth regarding an issue from Mr Rudd's childhood. A newspaper report quoted the relatives of a man Mr Rudd said evicted his family from a Sunshine Coast farm when he was eleven years old although such allegations have been denied by the man's children. Shadow Treasurer Wayne Swan said the Prime Minister should pull Mr Downer into line as his behaviour on television was conduct unbecoming of a senior Minister in a Howard Government and, that he wondered how low the dirty attacks would become. Wayne Swan is indeed correct, Prime Minister Howard should have his senior ministers cease this petty mudslinging and remember that there is plenty of dirty laundry in the Liberal closet. If he doesn’t, the general public will continue to be abhorred by these distasteful methods of polling and only further increase Labors chances.
I’m Phillip Pye.
Just the other day I was approached in the street by a couple of Journalists from my local daily newspaper gathering comments regarding the Rudd, Burke affair for their reader’s opinions section. The question was – ‘did I think Kevin Rudd should be sacked as leader of the opposition for his meeting with disgraced ex politician, Brian Burke’. My reply was that if we adhered to that scenario we would be having a lot of Politicians sacked, and that’s about it in a nutshell. Despite repeated attacks from some Federal Liberal Members the Rudd Labor team is gathering impressive momentum in the Polls. Fairfax newspapers reported that the ‘AC Nielsen poll’ has Labor leading 61 to 39 on a two-party preferred basis in fact, Labor leader Kevin Rudd's rating as preferred prime minister is up five points to 53 per cent, while Prime Minister John Howard's rating has dropped to 39 per cent. According to reports the majority of people polled said they did not care about the Brian Burke affair, despite nearly two thirds saying they believed Mr Rudd had not been totally truthful about his meetings with the disgraced former Western Australian premier.
If that has not been enough for Kevin Rudd to bear Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and Treasurer Peter Costello have made a series of attacks on the ALP over the Kelvin Thomson reference affair. Shadow Federal Attorney-General Kelvin Thomson was forced to resign last week after it was revealed he had written a character reference for the gangster Tony Mokbel seven years ago. Mr Downer has told media that Mr Thomson showed a serious lack of judgement. Mr Downer said “I've always thought Kelvin Thomson is a pretty grubby sort of character if I could say so and be, for a foreign minister, rather undiplomatic about him’. He also said “Well look what he's been up to; he's one of those people who's been happy to make pretty base allegations against people in the Government." Treasurer Peter Costello has told media that “the affair speaks volumes about Kevin Rudd's judgement”. "Of all the people he could've made first law officer of the crown he chose a bloke who'd given a reference to drug fugitive Tony Mokbel," Mr Costello said.
To add further insult to injury, earlier this week, Mr Downer questioned the Labor leader’s integrity, claiming it was "very interesting" that he had different versions of the truth regarding an issue from Mr Rudd's childhood. A newspaper report quoted the relatives of a man Mr Rudd said evicted his family from a Sunshine Coast farm when he was eleven years old although such allegations have been denied by the man's children. Shadow Treasurer Wayne Swan said the Prime Minister should pull Mr Downer into line as his behaviour on television was conduct unbecoming of a senior Minister in a Howard Government and, that he wondered how low the dirty attacks would become. Wayne Swan is indeed correct, Prime Minister Howard should have his senior ministers cease this petty mudslinging and remember that there is plenty of dirty laundry in the Liberal closet. If he doesn’t, the general public will continue to be abhorred by these distasteful methods of polling and only further increase Labors chances.
I’m Phillip Pye.