Back to work
Having already assigned his MPs post-election homework 鈥 which demanded of them visits to at least two schools and a homeless shelter 鈥 it is not hard to imagine Australia鈥檚 school mamish prime minister asking them to pen that post-vacation staple for returning schoolchildren: 鈥淲hat I did on my holidays?鈥
For mere variety alone, Kevin Rudd鈥檚 manuscript on the subject would no doubt earn him a gold star. Since winning the election last November, he has journeyed to Bali for the , called in on East Timor and made surprise visits to Australian 鈥渄iggers鈥 based in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Along with watching the New Years鈥 Sydney fireworks from the lawn of Kirribilli House (he footed the bill for the party himself, for the tax-payer-expense-minded among you), he has also sprinkled upon his incoming administration the glitter of Australian celebrity. The most sparkling glitter at that, having invited a, her husband, the country singer Keith Urban, and Hugh Jackman to dinner at his harbourside official Sydney residence.
Jackman has become something of a recurring theme, for he joined the prime minister in the Cricket Australia box at the New Years鈥 test in Sydney. The always funny of the Sydney Morning Herald suspects that Mr Rudd might have a developed a 鈥渕ild man crush鈥 on this 鈥淴-man鈥, while also suggesting that his star-studded shindig at Kirribilli offered proof that the 鈥渘erds have never had such a revenge鈥.
Now, after all the partying, holidaying, cricketing and global glad-handing comes the bit that the workaholic prime minister no doubt relishes the most: the unforgiving task of actually governing.
As he returns to the determinedly unglamorous setting of the Lodge, his Canberra official residence, he will know that much of the plump, low-hanging fruit left over from the Howard era has already been plucked from the trees.
Of course, his was to start the process through which Australia will ultimately ratify Kyoto. Low-hanging fruit does not come much riper. Then, he jetted off to Bali where his new climate change minister, the Malaysian-born Penny Wong, took the lead in the negotiations, adding even a brighter sheen to his country鈥檚 newly-burnished green credentials.
In Iraq, he told the troops they would be home by next Christmas.
On reconciliation, his government has promised to apologise to Aborigines for past injustices - even if this mea culpa is going to be extremely carefully worded, so as not to expose the federal government to compensation claims or expensive litigation.
On immigration, his British-born minister, Chris Evans, has signalled an the system under which asylum seekers were detained in ghastly detention camps on dreamy Pacific islands; and said that Dr Mohamed Haneef, the Indian physician held in connection with the British terror plot, can work in Australia again.
On the box marked 鈥渄efinitive break with the past鈥, Mr Rudd can add a neat cross.
Now comes the trickier test. His deputy, Julia Gillard, has to deliver an 鈥渆ducation revolution鈥, while at the same time mitigating the worst effects of the Howard government鈥檚 WorkChoices labour laws. His treasurer, Wayne Swan, has to identify cuts in government spending in the hope of heading off another interest rate hike. On this potentially troublesome front, the major banks have already angered the incoming government by raising the cost of borrowing independently of any official rise from Australia鈥檚 central bank. His health secretary Nicola Roxon has to fix the country鈥檚 increasingly dysfunctional health system, and can no longer lay the blame at the door of the states and territories since all of them are now in Labor hands.
Then, there are those unforeseen events which can test the mettle of even the most steely of politicians. Within weeks of becoming Prime Minister in 1996, John Howard had to deal with the , when Martin Bryant killed 35 people at the site of the colonial prison ruins in Tasmania.
His bold decision afterwards to explain his government鈥檚 new gun laws to a hostile crowd of farmers, hunters and gun collectors, wearing a bullet-proof vest underneath his blazer jacket, helped him make the leap in public mind from North Sydney solicitor to national leader. A bungled crisis can have an equal and opposite effect.
Kevin Rudd knows that Australian voters are a fairly patient bunch. In modern times they have granted every government at least two terms in charge.
Journalists, on the other hand, prefer a much speedier rush to judgment. Soon they will be setting a question of their own of the new prime minister: 鈥淲hat did you do with your first 100 days in office?鈥
I'm 
颁辞尘尘别苍迟蝉听听 Post your comment
Thanks for a well thought out and well written article. Please get the North American editor Justin to read your report and read his own before he posts. Thanks
Reading through your blog Nick, it is obvious to the bias towards socialism. Have you mentioned the Labor Party's "Education Revolution" that has gone form it's promise of a "Lap Top for every school child" to "access to a computer for school children between years 9 - 12"? The Pacific Soultion has resulted in a reduction of Illegal Immigrants to Australia, how is that a bad thing?
Unlike Mickstar, I do not see a bias towards anything, another well rounded piece. I think Rudd faces a massive challenge with Aboriginal reconciliation. If compensation is not offered then the apology may be rejected (leaving the shadow and shame lurking for another 20yrs). If granted then it will create a minefield in how to disperse and control the funds.
Compensation could have massive social and health consequences in some of the communities/families that would be involved. If the money is controlled too tightly people would cry it is an empty gesture, if it is not controlled tightly enough there will be cries that the government has given some troubled individuals money but no support - with possibly devastating consequences.
Australia has now turned back to the political correctness of the Hawke/Keating years. It's Ok to fight in Afghanistan, but not Iraq (not sure why). Global Warming words make evryone feel warm and fuzzy. Say that you will prosecute the Japanese for whaling, but then try and slide out from that with weisel words when in government. Let in asylum seekers who could just as easily settled in booming economies of S-E Asia much closer to their own departure point, but who prefer a western way of life.
An excellent summary of the challenges ahead. I find a British perspective on the realities of Australia (beyond Kylie, Neighbours, and Summer Bay) compelling.
Let's be honest, aside from some extremely well stage-managed appearances in Bali, East Timor, and Iraq (quite the stomping grounds for Australian Prime Minister) the new government really hasn't done much yet (still no new Prime Minister's website).
I must ask Nick: have you ever actually been to the Lodge?
It's actually rather nice and somewhat bigger than what you'd imagine.
I was a Liberal voter, but they have done or suggested, just too many daft things.
Re-creating pre-revolutionary conditions in the workplace was one, planning to plaster the sunburnt country with nuclear power stations another. The idea to have hospitals managed by community committees was quite frightening, because it was setting them up for failure, so they could all be privatised. Privatisation is for chocolate factories, not core necessities.
Through this and other things they turned themselves 'unelectable'. And then, John Howard spoke of ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl as his friend, an insult to everyone who knows Germany like this ex-German does. The designated successor Peter Costello made some really stupid comments - voting Liberal ceased to be an option for me, and obviously for many others as well.
The idea there can be a 'neo-conservative' agenda is actually laughable, which is why it does not exist now and will probably never emerge. Once everything is privatised, what could we be voting for? For Company X to build the toll road or for Company Z? For company A to run prisons and company B to be police? We could not vote for a new train service - it happens when it is deemed profitable, regardless of our votes for or against. Can we vote to have the toxic diesel trains electrified? No, not viable. Even schools come in public/private partnerships - no use voting for or against. The one thing that we'd really like to influence through our vote is water; e.g. we'd like to vote for preventing the upstream syphoning off by cotton growers. That is not listed on the agenda because it would mean reversing privatisation of water resources. Desertification is okay, but reversing privatisation is forbidden.
The conservative agenda has been nearly fulfilled, what issue could there be that is neo-conservative and worth voting for? The Liberals will have a long wait now, only a Keating type personality will deal them a better number.