Posted on 09/01/2007 10:02:50 AM PDT by pinochet
DARWIN, Australia (AFP) — Australian opposition leader Kevin Rudd said Saturday that he would bring the nation's troops home from Iraq by the middle of next year if elected to government.
The Labor party leader said he would deliver that message to US President George W. Bush when the two meet next week, as Bush visits Australia for a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
"It's time for there to be an exit strategy for Australian combat troops," Rudd told reporters in Darwin.
Rudd has a strong lead over Prime Minister John Howard in opinion polls, with an election expected within the next three months. Howard is running for his fifth consecutive term as prime minister.
Pinging Aussie Freepers
Operation Iraqi Freedom = socialism on the march all over the world.
Thank you, President Bush,
Why would the Aussies take Rudd over Howard?
Are they nuts?
Don’t ask me ask Aussie Freepers I just ping them
Fair enough :-)
Because it's diplomatically appropriate, given the way Australia's system of government works.
Rudd is the alternative Prime Minister - if the Governor General so chose, he could be Prime Minister tomorrow. There are a bunch of conventions and traditions that make that incredibly unlikely to happen without an election, but Constitutionally, it is the way things are - and it has happened once, back in 1975, when a Constitutional crisis developed. With an election due shortly, Rudd's role is even more significant - I hope it doesn't happen (and, in all honesty, I don't expect it to, despite the current polls) but Rudd could be Prime Minister before Christmas, and the Bush administration has to be ready for that.
Howard's biggest problem is that he's been there so long - he was elected in 1996 and is now in his fourth term. A fifth term has only been achieved once in Australia's history, and that was by the only man to have served longer as Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies. A significant number of voters have forgotten what life was like under Labor federally (for example, people are complaining that mortgage interest rates have now reached 8% - forgetting that in the early 1990s they hit 18%.) and with the country enjoying economic prosperity, believe that whoever is in government, things will remain rosy.
Personally, I believe Howard will hold on and win the election - but largely because the coalition has a large buffer in Parliament and so can afford to lose a few seats.
Thanks very much for the explanation.
sjb
I hope you’re right but I think the Libs are going to get thrashed.
To many people I think the feeling is that Howard’s run has gone on long enough and it’s time to give the other mob a run.
It’s the great cycle of Australian politics - Labor completely stuff up the country, the Libs get in and do all the hard yards to fix it, then the people vote Labor back in.
It’s, as other people have said, plain voter fatigue. Rudd’s not a total incompetent or obscene to look at, and so people see him as a viable alternative to Howard.
He’s not, of course. But the reason Howard’s losing in the polls is because of how long he’s been in. I’m fairly sure you guys over in the US tend not to have Congress/President controlled by the same party for more than 3 or 4 terms in a row.
I do hope Howard wins, but, if he does, I strongly suspect it’ll be his last term. I do think, though, if Rudd wins, he won’t hold onto the job long. He looks good on TV, but he’s not going to be able to manage the nation well enough for people to actually want to vote him in more than once.
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