Midnight Oil

Subject: Re: [powderworks] NMOC: Our hero's in trouble
From: Stuart Fenech
Date: 28/02/2010, 10:52 am
To: powderworks

Well, it was a demotion :-/

I'm afraid that even the most generous interpretation of this situation has management problems involved - the problems here did not appear overnight when the Coalition and media politicised the homeowner insulation scheme related fatalities. They just brought the situation into the open.

Garrett is intelligent, passionate and an incredible speaker. What has let him down is management, pure and simple. There are some interesting generous interpretations of this situation here, with which I must respectfully disagree.

Garrett's very unlikely to throw a tantrum and even if he was, this would not be part of Rudd's thinking. There is clearly a problem here. The person responsible is just not cutting through the problems. At some point you have to change the team.

There is no conspiracy here. It's not that different to the problems of Joel Fitzgibbon, former Minister for Defence. Forces behind him were trying to sink him. He was not able to overcome it. He was replaced by one of the most impressive in the ALP caucus - Senator John Faulkner. That has been working relatively well.

Greg Combet is the chosen one for the household rebate situations. Coincidentally, I actually thought he was the ideal choice for this role if Garrett was to step back. It's risky for Combet - this is a very hard role - but he'll be absolutely determined not to fail.

Don't underestimate how much damage this stuff is doing to the Rudd Government. It's debatable if they would win an election held today: this issue has people furious. Peter Garrett does not want the Rudd Government to lose government.

Garrett is not stupid. He would appreciate that the demotion is necessary. Faced with continuing in his role and returning to the opposition - or being on the backbench - I am certain Garrett would choose the latter. Garrett understands politics.

Regards

Stuart

On 28 February 2010 10:14, david earle <canadavros@yahoo.com.au> wrote:


More discussion can be found here (at time of posting, this morning's ep had only just gone to air, so may be a few hours before it's up for viewing)

http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/
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Looks to me more and more like PG was given a Vegemite sandwich which turned out to be a sh*t sandwich the more it was chewed, and when he tried to draw it to the attention leadership group within the govt (KRudd, Gillard, Swan and Tanner) was told to get lost.

For those who heard it, I also thought KRudd's initial description of PG's core responsibilities after the insulation component was removed was patronising and demeaning - go and look after the flora and fauna (what is this, the� f****g 50s?) while the adults get on with the real business. I think this may have been drawn to KRudd's attention, as his comments to Barrie Cassidy are bit more well rounded.

As for the overall media treatment of the whole issue (including sad to say my fave news site, Crikey, who initially were giving free advice to the opposition on tactics before drawing back and taking a more critical look at the situation)...here we go here we go again, hear the clamour of the feeding pen...

Cheers,
David

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