Personal Vendettas and the Australian Labor Party

The famous handshake when bullyboy Mark Latham almost pulls John Howard off his feet prior to his defeat in the 2004 federal election

Mark William Latham (born 28.2.1961) is a former leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from December 2003 to January 2005. He lost the federal election to John Howard in October 2004. He couldn't wait to write a book, attacking his former colleagues and members of the media. His attacks were vindictive and very personal. Union leader Bill Shorten said that Latham had displayed "all the attributes of a dog, except loyalty".

It's hard to believe, but the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, elected by the people, was sacked by his own party only weeks before a general election and sent to the back bench. His party colleagues were getting nervous about his perceived popularity with the electorate and were convinced that they would not win a second term with Rudd as leader. So they sacked him and elected his deputy, Julia Gillard to the top job.

The backroom power brokers were thrilled that their decision was correct - Julia Gillard is our first female Prime Minister and she sailed through the honeymoon period. There were two Labor policies that were very popular with the people. The first was paid parental leave and the other - a major increase for old age pensioners.

Out of the blue, the unbelievable happened. Someone from within the Labor Party spoke to veteran reporter Laurie Oakes and told him that Julia Gillard was against both of these proposals. When they were being disuccsed, she said the stay-at-home mothers would be angry about the paid parental leave and that the old age pensioners didn't vote for Labor anyway. All hell broke lose.


Enter yesterday's man Mark Latham. Also a Labor man, he couldn't resist kicking Kevin Rudd when he was down - he's accusing him of being the source of the leak. Yesterday he said the former Prime Minister was humiliated by the sacking and being sent to the back bench by Ms Gillard. "If he cant have it, no one else will either, there's also a cowardice to it" he said. He's convinced that Rudd is the source of the leak saying "It's the snake's way, it's unmanly and beneath an Aussie bloke to act this way". It would have been much better for them to have made Kevin Rudd Foreign Minister or Defence Minister and sent him to Afghanistan. In hindsight, he could be right.

But here's the kicker: Mark Latham said Labor could still win the election and voters would give a first-time Labor government a second chance. I can't think of any one man who has done more harm to bring his own party down.

Julia Gillard has promised to find the 'rat' within the ranks. One wonders how many other personal vendettas are going on inside the Australian Labor Party. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott must be absolutely delighted, all he has to do is sit back and watch as the one term Labor Party implodes.