Australia's Labor party is infighting its way to an electoral hiding

This morning a friend from London emailed to find out what the hell has happened to the Australian Labor Party? He was responding to the news overnight that, in a ballot for Labor’s 102-strong legislative caucus, Julia Gillard (the most unpopular prime minister in Australian history) smashed Kevin Rudd (the most popular prime minister in Australian history, whom she knifed late one night in June 2010) by a record 71 to 31 votes. ‘How can this be?’ my friend asked.

Well, Rudd’s fall from grace has little to do with Gillard and everything to do with Rudd. The 54-year-old Mandarin-speaking former diplomat has two weaknesses: he has never been much liked by anyone who’s worked closely with him and he presided over a dysfunctional government from December 2007 to June 2010.

Start with the personal. Mark Latham, the former Labor leader and a Spectator Australia columnist, reflects the views of many of Rudd’s colleagues when he says: ‘Those who know him best like him least. And those who say they like him have never actually met him.’ Nearly everyone accepts that ‘Heavvie Kevvie’ is somewhat boring and a bit nerdy. (How else to describe someone who refers to himself in the third person as ‘K. Rudd’ and who utters cringe-making Australianisms like ‘Happy Little Vegemite’ and ‘fair shake of the sauce bottle’?)

But his colleagues prefer stronger adjectives such as abrasive, arrogant, aloof and autocratic. In the past week, one MP called him a ‘psychopath’; one senior minister derided him as ‘a complete and utter fraud’; several others refused to serve under him if he returned to the top job; and even his former senior mental health adviser warned that ‘this man is not fit for prime minister’.

Then there was his utterly dysfunctional and chaotic cabinet. By most accounts, he regularly treated staff and public servants with rudeness and contempt. He silenced internal critics and punished those for whom he had a grudge. And he held up vital decisions while he vacillated over policy and procedure. No wonder his colleagues overwhelmingly rejected him (again).

Much of the brouhaha of the last week won’t die down anytime soon. Although Rudd is relegated to the backbench, he will pursue his nemesis so effectively as to make even a ghostly Banquo proud. For her part, more than few of Gillard’s own supporters think the Prime Minister is among the walking dead. Meanwhile, many Labor figures are fretting and wailing that Australia’s oldest party, which has experienced three splits in the past hundred years, is heading for the mother of all hidings at the next election, due in eighteen months.

Not surprisingly, party hard-heads will desperately search in vain for someone else who can stymie Rudd’s next challenge while blocking the rise of Opposition leader Tony Abbott and his centre-right Liberals. Does the Australian Labor Party have such a person? If they don’t, get ready for the beginning of a new conservative era in Australia.

Tom Switzer is editor of The Spectator Australia.