Class. Peter Garrett basically has said today that Rudd is full of shit. Sure the comment was casual, but he has refused to withdraw it. He said to some radio DJ that the ALP will change the me-too policies it has ripped of the government.
Many a serious thing has said in jest.
I think it was totally deliberate. Garrett has been humilated by having to endorse Rudd's slithering into a conservative skin. Uranium mining and US bases was the start. The Gunns pulp mill was first time his credibility has been seriously questioned by his enviro-fans. Bob Brown showed he was greatly dissapointed with his old mate. This must have hurt Garrett. I think the forced public retraction of the post-Kyoto position was the last straw. Garrett wanted to blow Rudd's cover. Rudd humialted him for stating Labour policy. Rudd dodged the blows and the media let him. The media directed their punch to the guts of Garrett.
(Warning: Australian toilet humour in next two paragraphs)
Garrett's guts have come out as a result. Ooohh, nice metaphor. Garrett's guts have come out in a projectile poo directed at Rudd. Garrett's gut reaction was to expel the foecal matter he had been forced to hold-inside for the sake of Rudd's reputation. I bet he feels very relieved now.
Don't worry Peter. It's perfectly natural. Rudd's shit stinks aswell, he just doesn't know it. Yet.
Garrett is playing a long game. He's a potential PM. Even i would consider voting for him just on the strength of Midnight Oil's back catalog - as long as he makes drummer Hirst his backup-singing deputy. Garrett knows he does not need Rudd and he does not want to be a part of not-quite-conservative government.
Time is on Garrett's side. He knows he needs time to evolve in the eyes of the Aussie public into a mature politician. It's too soon for him to be PM. He can and should wait it out in opposition until the economic cycle turns (yes this is inevitable and no you can't pin that on Howard when it comes. You can thank him for keeping the boom as long as it has been). The cycle may well last another 5 ot 10 years. When the economic growth that transcends the cycle is well and truly bedded down by an enterprise culture, and when the unions understand they will never run the country again, then the ALP have a chance to make some social changes of the sort they like without sending our prosperity south.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Garrett has f*cked Rudd.
I told you he was a man of principles, albeit the wrong ones.
UPDATED: Thanks to my girlfriend for telling me about a press conference a day or two ago where Garrett was further humiliated when after his public renouncement of his and Labor's post-Kyoto position Rudd still refused to endorse him in the environment portfolio after the election ... when he was standing right behind him! There were more straws on the camel's back than I thought.
