Mr Rudd thinks he is Mr Perfect

Kevin Rudd thinks his performance since he knifed Julia Gillard for the top job has been perfect. When asked on Q&A last night what he thought his biggest mistake was since becoming Prime Minister again, Mr Rudd said: “It’s been too short a time to make another mistake”. This is an insult to ordinary, hard-working Australians who have been hit with four new tax grabs, since Mr Rudd returned to office, and are worried about ballooning debt and the rising cost of living. Mr Rudd’s changes to FBT arrangements – announced without any consultation with the industry – has caused chaos in the domestic car manufacturing industry and will cause widespread job losses. The Federal Council of Automotive Industries estimates Mr Rudd’s changes will cause a 20 per cent drop in sales of Australian made cars, while the National Tax and Accountants’ Association has estimated that job losses would exceed 22,000 in the auto sector alone if car sales fall between 10 per cent and 20 per cent. Mr Rudd has also announced the Financial Stability Levy Fund – which will take some $350 million each year from bank customers – as well as increased visa application charges and increased the excise on tobacco. Since Mr Rudd became Prime Minister, the nation’s bottom line has deteriorated by $33 billion but Labor has splurged another $9.2 billion on new spending. Then there is the bungled PNG deal, which has seen more than 3,209 people arrive illegally by boat since Mr Rudd announced it on 19 July this year. Even people within Mr Rudd’s own ranks think he’s doing a terrible job. One Labor MP last Friday was reported as saying that Labor’s campaign might be better off if the Prime Minister was out of the country. On Thursday The Courier Mail reported that many senior Labor insiders think Mr Rudd has nothing to say beyond announcing he is back, with one key strategist reportedly saying: “The guy hasn’t done the basics any leader needs to do when shaping up for a national contest.... he has no vision that can be explained in five or six dot points, as he did in 2007”. It’s no wonder Mr Rudd has no vision for the future when he doesn’t think that anything needs to change. 3 September 2013