Julia Gillard Better than Rudd

Ministers inside the Australian Labor Party were slowly realising that ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard is much better than Kevin Rudd in holding campaigns for the Australian Election 2013.

As reported by News.com.au, one minister from the ALP said that Mr Rudd's campaign was disappointedly anchored on Mr Rudd's popularity alone; hence, it lacked depth and character. Some MPs said that Mr Rudd's campaign was "off message", "not sticking with the theme each week" and "the PM seems rattled, disorganised."

"The mythology of Kevin that is contradicted by fact is that his popularity will lift all votes. The notion that it could just be about Kevin was complete and utter nonsense," the minister said.

Other ministers second the motion saying that Ms Gillard can slowly but surely improve ALP's vote while Mr Rudd "soared and plummeted" the votes.

"One of the questions that will be asked is would Gillard have met Rudd on the way down? In the end, we'll never know. She made mistakes, no doubt, and she made mistakes under pressure. But she was much cooler under pressure and she coped with a greater intensity."

Another minister said that those Labor Mps who favoured Mr Rudd over Ms Gillard should be thinking by now if they made the right decision.

A senior MP said that it was Mr Rudd and adviser Bruce Hawker's poor decision that led to the demise of ALP's campaign efforts.

"Kevin wakes up with a bright idea. Bruce agrees with him and it happens. The rest of the party is left in the wake of a decision made by Kevin. That is not the way you should run an election campaign, " the senior MP said.

Complaints against Mr Rudd - from announcing policies without consulting the party, negative attack to Tony Abbott and wasting time on media - led the MPs to think that they are better off without mr Rudd.

"The dream outcome would be for us to marginally win and for Kevin to lose."

The Rooty Hill Final Debate

Both Mr Rudd and Mr Abbott faced a volatile audience in their recent and final debate before the Australian Election of 2013.

As a result, the Rooty Hill debate was more of the battle of the two against voters than a battle against each other.

Mr Rudd was pushed to defend himself against allegations of his political assassination against Ms Gillard and his continuous internal campaign against the ousted prime minister.

One voter asked Mr Rudd if he honestly believe that he was not guilty of destabilizing Ms Gillard in his reclaim of prime ministership and does he really think that voters are blind not to see that he had been manipulative to regain power.

''I can say that through all of that, I believe I was doing absolutely the right thing by the party and by the country,'' Mr Rudd said weakly.

On the other hand Mr Abbott was hard-pressed about his poor parental leave policy.

''I just think that a fork-lift driver from Mt Druitt should not be paying his taxes so a pretty little lady lawyer on the north shore on 180 grand a year can have a kid," one voter said.

An exit poll after the debate revealed that out of 100 voters, 45 will vote for Mr Rudd while 38 will vote for Mr Abbott. There 19 voters who were still undecided.

Please Vote Now

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is calling all eligible voters living, working or just vacationing abroad to cast their votes as early as possible because overseas voting will stop at 6pm on Saturday, Sept 7, Western Australian Time.

"From Argentina to Zimbabwe, Auckland to Zagreb, Australians who are enrolled to vote, but will be overseas on 7 September, can cast their vote now. Don't leave voting to the last minute and don't assume our overseas diplomatic missions are open on election day in Australia, even if they share a similar time zone. Go online now and plan your best voting option. Please also be aware that you may need to show identification when visiting diplomatic missions," Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn said.

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