Extract from the Guardian Website :
Lenore Taylor, political editor.
Kevin Rudd has moved to ensure no future Labor prime minister is
toppled by his own party as he was in 2010, unveiling a radical plan for
grassroots Labor members to help elect the federal leader and for the
backing of 75% of the caucus to be required before a Labor prime
minister can be removed.
The dramatic move significantly reduces the power of union leaders and gives Rudd an answer to the Coalition’s claim that if he wins the election he would again hold office only at the whim of the so-called “faceless men.”
Rudd discussed the reform with his full ministry on Monday and has called a special caucus meeting to approve the plan in two weeks time on 22 July.
Rudd is proposing that if Labor wins an election, its leader can only be removed if he or she resigns or if 75% of the federal caucus asks for a ballot “on the grounds that the current leader has brought the party into disrepute”.
In those circumstances, or after a federal election loss, a new leader would be chosen in a ballot in which 50% of the votes were cast by the federal caucus and 50% by the party membership. The candidates would be nominated by the caucus and would need 20% of caucus support to run.
Rudd said the change answers a “legitimate question” in the minds of voters who are “demanding to know if the prime minister they elect is the prime minister they will get” – a “guarantee” that an elected Labor prime minister would serve a full term.
It would “prevent anyone wandering in one day [to the prime minister’s office] and saying, ‘OK, sunshine it’s over,’” Rudd said, but he denied the change was in any way motivated by revenge.
He did not answer whether he would contest a leadership ballot if Labor lost the election, and would not comment on the proposition that this rule change might have prevented his own recent return to the prime ministership.
As a balance, Rudd is proposing that the caucus will again elect the members of the ministry, reversing a change he made in his early days as prime minister.
Labor hopes the ability to help select a federal leader will encourage people to join the party and address its rapidly diminishing membership base. It is launching what the deputy prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called “a massive recruitment campaign”.
The dramatic move significantly reduces the power of union leaders and gives Rudd an answer to the Coalition’s claim that if he wins the election he would again hold office only at the whim of the so-called “faceless men.”
Rudd discussed the reform with his full ministry on Monday and has called a special caucus meeting to approve the plan in two weeks time on 22 July.
Rudd is proposing that if Labor wins an election, its leader can only be removed if he or she resigns or if 75% of the federal caucus asks for a ballot “on the grounds that the current leader has brought the party into disrepute”.
In those circumstances, or after a federal election loss, a new leader would be chosen in a ballot in which 50% of the votes were cast by the federal caucus and 50% by the party membership. The candidates would be nominated by the caucus and would need 20% of caucus support to run.
Rudd said the change answers a “legitimate question” in the minds of voters who are “demanding to know if the prime minister they elect is the prime minister they will get” – a “guarantee” that an elected Labor prime minister would serve a full term.
It would “prevent anyone wandering in one day [to the prime minister’s office] and saying, ‘OK, sunshine it’s over,’” Rudd said, but he denied the change was in any way motivated by revenge.
He did not answer whether he would contest a leadership ballot if Labor lost the election, and would not comment on the proposition that this rule change might have prevented his own recent return to the prime ministership.
As a balance, Rudd is proposing that the caucus will again elect the members of the ministry, reversing a change he made in his early days as prime minister.
Labor hopes the ability to help select a federal leader will encourage people to join the party and address its rapidly diminishing membership base. It is launching what the deputy prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called “a massive recruitment campaign”.
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