Email to family Sep 8th

The Lord made some interesting comments about “idle” words or “worthless” words in Matthew 12.
‘That for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account (be required to give payback) in the day of judgment. For by your words shall you be justified (shown to be right), and by your words shall you be condemned.’
and as Pilate questioned the Lord, saying
”Where are you from ?” But Jesus gave him no answer. Then Pilate said to him, “You don’t speak to me? Don’t you know that I have power to crucify you, and have power to release you? “ Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against me, except it were given you from above: therefore he that delivered me to you has the greater sin.”

Part of the reason Kevin Rudd has got into so much trouble is that he names himself as a Christian, and he seems to speak good words, but then there is bad fruit backing them up, and he attacks anyone who holds him to account for it.
e.g. He said about 50 times he would not bring disunity to his party by rechallenging Julia Gillard for the leadership after his first attempt failed, but then he did so in July, saying it was because “I believe with all my heart that I owe it to offer the people of Australia a viable alternative." hmm

Regarding Iraq, Kevin Rudd told the State Zionist Council annual assembly on October 15, 2002: "Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction … That is a matter of empirical fact." i.e. it’s been proven by the evidence (as if he actually knew).
These were actually much stronger words than John Howard was using at the time, John Howard was saying that he really didn’t want to have to send Australian troops to war, so Kevin Rudd was coming out as a much stronger proponent for taking Saddam out, Hillary Clinton was speaking similar words over in the US.

Rudd then was very quiet on this point of WMD when the controversial invasion occurred in March 2003 and no weapons could be immediately found, but within six months he was siding with the Greens who said that John Howard (with George Bush and Tony Blair) had deceived the nation, once again, hmmmm

And now we have Syria heating up enormously fast, intimidating America, the West, calling them cowards, all talk, no action.

Similar to the hubris Saddam was using in 2002 about the almighty inferno that would strike the west if they dared to attack.

May the Lord grant Tony Abbott and his team great wisdom here.

Blessings all xxxx dad

Party's over for the PM
The Australian
Graham Richardson
Friday, September 6, 2013

Graham Richardson was a Labour Party senator 1983-1994

THERE will come a moment on Saturday night, probably around 7.30, when the penny will finally drop for Kevin Rudd. It will be difficult enough for him to confess this to the nation but will be well nigh impossible to admit to himself. With a probable loss of 20 seats and the potential for an even worse result, he will have to concede that he would have been far better off had he not sought to lead the Labor Party and the nation for a second time.

Maybe it would have been better to allow Julia Gillard to take her caucus over the cliff. At least then he would have been able to claim 'til his dying day that things would have been better if the party had turned to him.

On Saturday night, the time for the ifs, buts and maybes will be over for him. The reality will be there, shocking him and mocking him simultaneously. In my view, he still will achieve a better result for Labor than his predecessor would have recorded but that will not mean any escape for him. He so firmly believed that given the opportunity, Australians would flock to him in their millions.

Unfortunately they came, they looked and listened, and they turned away again. The mob will have delivered its verdict.

"The mob will always work you out" has been my catchphrase for the past 40 years and it is proven right again.

Bob Hawke was fond of saying that, in terms of election results, Australia has always got it right. That old adage will be verified once again. Tony Abbott and the Coalition deserve their victory. Not only was the six-year record a burden too heavy to carry, the Labor campaign was a shocker.

While Rudd kept that massive ego under control for much of the campaign, it did manage to slip its shackles a couple of times and that was enough. The announcement of a special economic zone, the details of which were never explained because the idea's author had never bothered to consider the detail, was the first great ego debacle.

No matter how many times he promised to consult as the new Kevin would, the old Kevin never really left. The old Kevin was alive and well. He lurked in the shadows just biding his time. He escaped once more to foreshadow moving the navy to the north. He wasn't too sure if that meant Brisbane or Townsville or somewhere else. He didn't know how much it might cost or how long it might take. He hadn't considered where the skills base would be found.

The old Rudd would never waiver on his belief that if he ran the flag up the pole, Australia would stand to attention merely because it was his idea. He soon discovered that no one saluted. Once again the mob worked him out in a trice - ably assisted by a deadly surprise attack from NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell.

Then of course, there was the infamous press conference on the opposition's "black hole". I have listened to the excuses both public and private, and they are self-serving at best. Yes, it is true that at the outset of the conference Labor's big three stated firmly that the information provided to the departments of Treasury and Finance, and to the Parliamentary Budget Office, had been presented by the government. For the following hour, though, the continual claim that a $10 billion hole had been found in the opposition numbers and had been verified by the three departments gave a very different impression. If I were Martin Parkinson I would have thought that I had been verballed and I would have reacted in the same manner that he and his colleagues did.

No, I do not believe that they are weak bastards trying to crawl to the Coalition to save their jobs. They were entitled to assert their independence.

I have not given a report on the campaign over its final week because there has been virtually nothing to report on. This was the perfect finale for Tony Abbott, precisely because so little happened. When you are well in front, boredom is your friend. You want people to tune out because most of them have already decided to vote for you.

Labor held its so-called "launch" with just six days to go in a 33-day campaign. Rudd put on a good show but once again there was no hint of a blockbuster, game-changing tactic or policy.

I do, however, "doff me lid" to Abbott. He has maintained perfect discipline for five weeks. His mistakes have not resonated. His silly jobs bonus policy has not been mentioned by him or anyone else since its announcement. Hopefully it can be quietly ditched in the search for savings in the coming weeks.

The absurdly generous paid parental leave scheme remains a classic example of not knowing when to let go. He continues to champion a dopey policy because he thought it up in the first place.

He should not have made his baddies versus baddies comment on Syria if for no other reason than because it was factually wrong. Some of the Syrian opposition may be truly bad but some are equally good. It was a small error, though, and will soon be forgiven and forgotten.

The members of the Coalition A team - Abbott, Joe Hockey, Julie Bishop, Scott Morrison, George Brandis and Christopher Pyne - have had very good campaigns, one and all. They will form a formidable core in the new government.

History will not view this six-year Labor period kindly. It is a time that will be judged harshly in tomorrow's election and will be similarly regarded in the coming decades. Rudd will not be remembered as a Labor "great". That was an accolade he has desperately sought for so long. He will be acknowledged as one of the "pretty goods" and that would be more than sufficient for someone like me. For Rudd, it will be a source of intense regret.

He will have recorded a better result than Gillard would have achieved but that will be little consolation to him. Fantasies mostly don't withstand scrutiny, and they never survive reality.

Graham Richardson hosts Richo on Sky News on Wednesday.

Comments on this story

John of perth Posted at 2:51 PM Today

The Barry O'Farrell moment was a pivotal one in this campaign, it made Rudd look small, powerless and clownish.

Emmie Posted at 2:48 PM Today

What time on Saturday night, Mr Richardson, will the ALP knives come out? I have the champagne chilling, ashtray cleaned and the lounge ready - after all, I've had to wait since 2010 for this opportunity. This government is 'Worse than Whitlam' and as a voter then, I never thought I would see such a disaster again in my lifetime. As for the loved-up lefty media commentators and those who continued to tell us Abbott was 'unelectable', misogynist and any other bit of personal abuse and vitriol they could hurl at him, well suck it up princesses and princes! The next ALP PM has yet to get out of the nursery.

Dave of Melbourne Posted at 1:50 PM Today

Could be senior Labor MPs knew exactly what they were doing when they got rid of Gillard. Imagine Rudd still on the back bench after a landslide loss on Election Day; he would either have returned as ALP leader in opposition, or undermined whomever was elected by the Caucus. This way, Labor has got rid of the deadweight - both of them - and can elect a new leader with strong party support. Yes, I say Shorten, Wong, and others knew exactly what they were doing when they switched to Rudd.

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