Secret pro-Kevin Rudd polling buried by Labor
Julia Gillard faces the most crucial 24 hours of her leadership with a new report confirming that Labor polling taken on the eve of Kevin Rudd’s political assassination revealed a rebound for the overthrown PM.
The polling, which suggests that Labor could still have won an election in 2010 under Kevin Rudd’s leadership, was kept a secret from him, most senior ministers and the majority of the Labor caucus due to fears it could have disrupted the leadership coup that was already under way.
The secret polling also contradicts the official Labor research used at the time to convince MPs to replace Mr Rudd.
The shocking revelations come as former minister Joel Fitzgibbon last night warned that there was “unrest” among Labor MPs and the party faced being “wiped out” at an election.
Mr Fitzgibbon, who supports Kevin Rudd, said “it’s so obvious something’s going on” inside the Government.
With Federal Parliament to sit today for the last scheduled session before the May 14 Budget, Mr Fitzgibbon appeared to start a countdown for a leadership change, saying it was a “silly concept” that Labor could make a switch between the Budget and the September 14 election.
It has emerged that while Labor officials had cancelled a round of scheduled polling the week before the June 24 coup, one had already been commissioned and was “in the field”.
The survey was conducted by UMR research on June 22-23, 2010 in the marginal South Australian seat of Kingston.
Results had started to filter back on the night of the coup.
They showed Mr Rudd well ahead of Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister at 50 to 39 per cent.
More critically, the numbers showed the swing against Labor was nowhere near as dire as was suggested to MPs, with only a 0.5 per cent swing against the Government in that marginal seat.
Senior Cabinet sources confirmed no one had been told about the Kingston numbers, claiming they would have been seen as “inconvenient”.
A spokesman for the PM said she had no knowledge of the Kingston numbers.
Several Cabinet sources now claim they believe the research shown to ministers and key MPs had been “cooked” up to support the case to dump Mr Rudd.
“Things weren’t great for the Government then, but they were nowhere near as bad as what was being suggested internally,” said a senior Cabinet source.
“There was certainly no case for changing the prime minister.”
theguttertrash.com 
Nothing really surprises when it comes to this lying grub of a PM
Labor will never recover from Gillard
If any principle stands in the way of her retaining her leadership…………. she wont hesitate to destroy it.
There is little doubt that she’s a nasty piece of work.
How apt
Today is apparently Harmony Day
ROFLMAO
When I read this story what surprised me was that no one in the caucus noticed the cancelled polling. that the ALP is a nest of Machiavellian schemes should surprise no one.
Crean has laid the groundwork……2 1/2 years late.
I doubt whether there will be any challenge today or this week, and I really don’t understand why reports suggest that this is the last opportunity.
Gillard used the knife and went to an election a couple of months later. Rudd can wait until may or later.
Let Gillard baste.
Thank goodness for the simple politics of the Liberal Party …
If Rudd took the leadership – what would actually change?
Policies would be the same … court cases would be the same … biased media reports would be the same … Thomson would be the same … Slipper, Ashby, Brough, Abbott Pyne ……………….. the faceless men and women on both sides – playing their puppetry …
I don’t agree TB.
• I think Rudd would possibly win an election. So it’s a choice between ALP decimation and a possible ALP win.
• If Rudd won, he would be determined to take a strong roll in some internal ALP reform. This is vital.
• Rudd has previously said election of Gillard would represent a “lurch to the right” on asylum seekers. How right he was.
• Rudd would represent a sense of democratisation, as people preferred him at the time of his knifing, and have maintained this opinion since.
• Rudd would introduce a new Cabinet, getting rid of a range of chain draggers such as Swan.
• Rudd has sent some signals that he would be supportive of marriage equality, he hasn’t painted himself into a corner the way Gillard has.
Return to Rudd would provide the ALP with impetus, even if they lost they would remain a viable party, the likelihood is that it would be a more transparent and progressive government than the current incompetent, dishonest one.
“If Rudd took the leadership – what would actually change?”
Perhaps not much. But that vicious, malicious, odious, malodorous, vacuous, conniving, backstabbing, noxious, debauched, double-dealing, rotten, lying mongrel masquerading as our PM would get her come-uppance. The victim of her bloody lust for power would be restored to office and, for a few months until the election, a better person would be our country’s leader.
Glad to see that you are showing such restraint in your description of Gillard SB
😉
Indeed. If she was as bad as John Howard she would have gotten both barrels.
😆
But unlike John Howard I don’t expect that anyone is going to remember her administration at all fondly, least of all Labor voters
‘If Rudd took the leadership – what would actually change?’
If he doesn’t get rid of that odious tax, then nothing will change for the better.
Agreed El Gordo, getting rid of the whole “clean energy future” nonsense would be essential but I can’t see Rudd being so bold, my best guess is that He would run on the basis that “I’m Kevin and I’m not Tony Abbott” rather than anything truly radical.
Crean takes his numbers to the Rudd camp.
So there will be a spill!!
Crean will support Rudd!!! Shorten for Treasurer!!