Kevin Rudd gets his revenge on Julia Gillard #ausvotes

I suppose Mr Rudd is now aware of just to what extent he is loathed and hated within the Labor Party, and may feel he's got nothing to lose from leaking damaging stories about Ms Gillard to Laurie Oakes. (Tee hee.) In a dreadful day, Julia Gillard is leaked against to show she’s a hypocrite - after first being exposed as leading a pack of rorters. The hypocrisy: First, Nine’s Laurie Oakes (having a great campaign) reports that Gillard actually questioned the boost to aged care pensions she boasted about during the debate, saying in Cabinet that they were Coalition voters. She’s also said to have opposed in Cabinet Labor’s parental leave scheme. The damage isn’t just in the embarrassment caused. It’s that Gillard is reminded again that she has enemies even at the Cabinet level prepared to harm her. Or should I say enemies who were in Cabinet with her until four weeks ago, and aren’t going quietly. The rorting: JULIA Gillard has been confronted by damaging allegations of pork-barrelling following a damning audit report… The Australian National Audit Office found the government failed to follow its own guidelines for assessing grants when dishing out $550 million from the government’s Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program… The outcome of the assessment process, administered by Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese, was that funding was skewed in favour of ALP and independent electorates. Projects in ALP-held electorates were approved at a higher rate compared to those in Coalition-held electorates, when considered in terms of each party’s level of political representation in the House of Representatives, the level of applications from each electorate and the types of councils within those electorates that made the applications for funding… The $800 million Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program was set up to fund “shovel-ready” projects that could provide an economic stimulus to local communities. But the ANAO found that delays in rolling out the projects meant the spending did not provide the planned level of stimulus to the economy in the timeframe intended. UPDATE The Nine report: Prime Minister Julia Gillard opposed a parental leave scheme and had concerns about a pension increase when she was Kevin Rudd’s deputy, a report says. The Nine Network’s political journalist Laurie Oakes said he had leaked information from government sources supporting this assertion. Ms Gillard reportedly opposed in cabinet the 18-week paid parental leave scheme set at the minimum wage, which is due to begin in January 2011. “The idea that paid parental leave would be a political winner was misconstrued,” Ms Gillard was quoted as telling cabinet. “People beyond child-bearing age would resent it as would stay-at-home mothers.” Ms Gillard reportedly questioned the $30 a week increase for single pensioners, billed as the biggest rise in a century since the pension was introduced. Government sources quoted in the report said that while Ms Gillard was not opposed to the pension increase, she questioned the $14 billion cost on the grounds “elderly voters did not support Labor”. The response of Gillard’s campaign office included this deliberately deceitful “smear”, as Oakes described it on air: If the Liberal Party have allegations to make, they should put their names to them. Oakes brandished his piece of paper and said that Gillard would in fact know his source was much closer to home. (Tee hee.)

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