Word: labors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...this temperance has injected one big question among Australians: who is this man who is likely to become the country's leader? Traditional, left-leaning Labor voters are generally lukewarm about Rudd and his softly-softly approach, but hope he'll fire up once in power. Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett gave them encouragement when he told an off-duty talkback radio host: "Once we get in we'll just change it all" - a remark condemned by the rest of his party as a monumental gaffe. That's precisely why Australians are uncertain of Rudd: is he the Steady...
Costello's point is valid enough, but so is the Rudd approach. Rudd knows Howard was vulnerable at the last election, in 2004. But Labor at that time was led by Mark Latham, who was quick-tempered and volatile, (at one time, he called George Bush as "the most incompetent and dangerous President in living memory"). Latham also espoused ideas too left-wing for a country that likes its politics fought in the center. Clearly, many Australians had tired of Howard and stopped listening to him, but needed a credible alternative before taking the next step of kicking...
Kevin Rudd took on what appeared to be an unenviable challenge when he became leader of the Australian Labor Party in December last year. It was to sell himself to the Australian people in time for an election - due within a year - that would pit him against Prime Minister John Howard, who, after a decade in office, had come to be regarded by many, including himself, as the natural leader of the country...
...later, and on the eve of the election, Rudd looks set to drive Howard into retirement and return the ALP to power for the first time since 1996. In some ways, Rudd has had a smoother ride than he might have expected. His elevation to the leadership resulted in Labor immediately overtaking the Liberal-National Coalition government in opinion polls - a lead it hasn't relinquished since. Australians don't even seem to mind that Rudd espouses some of the same policies as Howard. What is important is that Kevin Rudd is not John Howard...
Whether a Labor government would manage Australia's $1 trillion economy as adeptly as have Howard and Costello remains a voter concern, according to polls. However, Rudd has largely defused economic management as an issue. The thrust of his case is that Australia's strong economy is less the result of any judicious handling on the part of the government than of the ongoing minerals boom and watershed reforms undertaken in the 1980s by Labor governments. He's repeatedly cast himself as an economic conservative and tried to prove it by declining to match the government's extravagant spending promises...