Why Australia needs a Kevin Rudd vs Tony Abbott election?

As unlikely as it is, for Australia's sake, it is imperative that someone other than Julia Gillard leads the Government towards the elections in September.

This post is not about attacking Julia Gillard. Labor are probably bound to lose whether she remains at the helm or not.

But a Gillard vs Abbott election will be all about personalities of the two leaders as they attack each other's character, and will have very little or no substantive focus on policy issues.

Abbott will attack Gillard's trustworthiness. He has enough ammunition to question the character of the PM based on the many failed policies and /or poor policy implementation her record is littered with (the Mineral Resources Tax debacle being the latest)

On the other hand, the Gillard camp will no doubt attack Abbott's perceived lack of popularity amongst moderate male voters & most female voters ie the Gillard camp will concentrate on Abbott's deep unpopularity amongst the electorate.

And sadly but surely, the media will love this battle & further concentrate the focus on the battle of personalities. This personality battle will limit the policy debate to marginal seat type issues such as border security & boat arrivals as both sides battle for a handful of marginal seats.

Substantive policy debate will no doubt take a back seat & Gillard will end up defending her Government's poor track record instead of challenging Abbott to discuss the already invisible details of his.

But if Kevin Rudd leads Labor, whilst character assassination strategies will still be on display from both sides, at the very least some substantive policy initiatives will get a bigger share of limelight & the media has no choice but t give policy debates a higher profile.

Kevin Rudd's almost cult status profile will limit character assassination strategies. Even though Abbott & the coalition will no doubt try to highlight & expose the so called faceless factional powerbrokers of ALP, they will not be able to attack Rudd's character with the same intensity they will be targeting Gillard.

Rightly or wrongly, Kevin Rudd's poor record in many policy areas seems to have been forgiven & forgotten by the voters! Therefore, he is not carrying the baggage that is limiting Gillard's strategies. At the same time he has a much better media presence than both Abbott & Gillard, and seems more at ease talking about policy matters than either leader, both of whom look awkward & at unease when challenged on policy matters

2007 election saw the removal of John Howard & was one of the key historical moments in Australia's political landscape. 2013 may turn out to be crucial again in many way.

Neither Gillard nor Abbott exhibit the visionary leadership qualities that Australia needs to rebuild the momentum that was created during the Hawke-Keating-Howard era.

Kevin Rudd & Malcolm Turnbull on the other hand do!!!!

PM Julia Gillard's attempt to get on the front foot once again derailed!

To paraphrase Ocar Wilde: "To lose one senior Minister may be regarded a misfortune, to lose two in one day looks like carelessness"!

Labor party is in a mess! It takes Gillard's own Labor colleagues, ie Craig Thompson, Nicola Roxon & Chris Evans to derail & overshadow Gillard's latest attempt to get on the front foot in the eyes of the voters!

Julia Gillard simply can not get on the front foot! As soon as she took the bold move of giving the voters an 8 month long election campaign (yawn!) in order to neutralise Kevin Rudd supporters & force Tony Abbott's hand on actual policy issues, Craig Thompson (finally) got charged & arrested.

Then to make matters worse, two of Gillard's most senior & loyal ministers (and competent I may add) announced they are stepping down from her front bench on Saturday. To make matters worse, in what can easily be interpreted as lack of confidence in Government's chances of winning the next election, both Nicola Roxon & Chris Evans announced their retirement from politics after the next Federal election in September.

And to add icing to the cake, Eddie Obeid will go on stand in the ICAC corruption investigations against him & his family & other Labor identities on Monday, as the Parliament resumes.

Julia Gillard may have shown great political skills to take her minority government full term. But in doing so she has been lucky because she has had to deal with the least popular opposition leader in living memory, if not of all time. 

But even with Tony Abbott's unpopularity as a huge bonus for her, surely Julia Gillard must know the writing is on the wall! Everything seems to be stacked against her!