But I think it's the Greens who are pushing the kind of legislation that Labor should be putting forward.
I was very disappointed when Rudd dropped the CPRS, but remember, it was on the advice of Julia Gillard and Wayne Swann. Both Lindsay Tanner and Penny Wong were in favour of continuing to support it. Rudd made a bad call on that one, and his numbers fell, but dropping him was an excuse on the part of factional leaders who never could stand him because he is factionally-unaligned. The factions like to control their members, and nobody had control over Rudd.
I also think that announcing the mining tax before the 2010 election was bad politics, and gave the opposition and the mining billionaires too much time to organise. According to Twiggy Forrest though, they were on the verge of signing an agreement when Rudd was rolled. And the tax we have now will bring in $10 billion per year less than the tax proposed by Rudd, and some economists question whether there will be enough to pay for the low-income compensation payments promised under the legislation.
As for Kim Beasley - no, he had more than one chance already and he was never the man for the job. A decent bloke by all accounts, but far too accommodating for his own good. He's probably happy as a sandboy as Ambassador to Washington.
Personally, I like Rudd, but the biggest mistake he made was not having the nerve to go for a double dissolution over the CPRS. He would have won the Lower House and almost certainly would have seen a change in the Senate that would have enabled him to get the legislation through. That he lacked the guts to do it put a question mark over his political judgment and his strength of character. Has he learned from his experiences? He says yes, but we may never find out. I think Labor will be trying to find a replacement for Julia if her polling doesn't improve in the next few months, and they may just be desperate enough to try Kevin again, because there's certainly nobody else ready at this point, but it would be through gritted teeth.
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