Rudd Mud Will Stick To Throwers

by Richard Farmer - Canberra Times

For a while early this year the Government thought impugning the character of Kevin Rudd was the right and clever thing to do.

There were references to him speaking at dinners organised by disgraced former Labor Premier of Western Australia Brian Burke. His memories of mum and the kids being harshly forced off the family farm after his dad's death were disputed. The underpayment of staff in a business owned by his wife was raised to suggest his views on industrial relations laws were hypocritical.

And the end result of all the bluff and bluster by John Howard, Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer was that the pollsters duly reported that Rudd had become the preferred choice to be prime minister of the country. Rather than cutting their opponent down to size, the Government had built him up.

Rod Cameron, the pollster who more than a decade ago was the Labor Party's campaign guru, put it nicely back in March: focus groups conducted by his ANOP company showed the tactics had left Australians puzzled. On the ABC's Lateline, Cameron said, "Well, they are looking in bewilderment at this mud-slinging issue. They hate mud-slinging. They hate it with a passion. In election campaigns they don't like it because it is negative ads, but at least they get the message. Outside of election campaigns, they can't understand why mud is being slung. They don't understand what the issue is all about and therefore, it is rebounding on John Howard's character.

"For the last decade of John Howard's political life, they've said, 'He's a cunning politician,' and they've sort of meant it in a vaguely positive way, at least grudgingly, admiringly. They now use it differently. They now say 'cunning politician' to mean sneaky, untrustworthy, wrong priorities, playing the man. The Prime Minister has lost the last two weeks in a significant way and I don't think it will be much longer before they drop this whole mud-slinging issue entirely."

The Government did, but five months later, and with the polls still showing Labor with a handy lead, the frustration is clearly growing. On several occasions Downer has not been able to control his bewilderment that his former colleague as a junior diplomat was in reach of the top political job. To him, Rudd is variously the vainest man he has met in politics and a jellyback. With those recent descriptions, and an interjection from him to Rudd in the House of Representatives claiming to know all about Rudd and Col Allan in New York, the cap as the source of the weekend story about a drunken night out would be a comfortable fit.

But there will be minimal if any damage to Labor's electoral chances. At its worst it gives people who have no intention of voting Labor a new reason to justify their decision. Conversely it gives people considering a vote for Labor because they are sick of a tired and tricky government further reason to do so. Once again it looks like a desperate effort by desperate politicians.

Perhaps most importantly, it takes Howard and his ministers away from talking about the one issue where their credibility is the greatest the economy. These days of financial turmoil have created the chance to assert that troubled times need handling by sensible and experienced people. Yet the sensible and experienced people play the issue and not the man. The "Scores" in this story will likely show an own goal from the kind of tactical mistake that can cost a party an election.


Richard Farmer is a political commentator and a former adviser to Bob Hawke.