Former Australian education minister Bill Shorten yesterday announced his candidacy for the Australian Labor Party (ALP) leadership, vowing to rebuild the party after years of infighting saw it toppled from power in recent national elections.
Shorten, a powerful and highly ambitious right-wing factional leader, said the ALP could take back the government “if we are the party of ideas, not just personalities.”
Even as he announced his bid to lead the party forward, a senior party figure claimed former ALP leader Kevin Rudd, who was toppled as prime minister on Saturday and is facing pressure to quit politics entirely, is planning a comeback.
Former trade minister Craig Emerson, a staunch supporter of Rudd’s predecessor, Julia Gillard, said he had been told the 55-year-old wants to be prime minister again.
“Historians will note that Andrew Fisher served as a Labor prime minister on three separate occasions [1908 to 1909, 1910 to 1913, and 1914 to 1915],” he said yesterday in a column for the Australian newspaper titled: “Rudd wants to be leader again.”
“Rudd has told three journalists at this newspaper that he wants to emulate Fisher and become a three-time Labor prime minister. He has described himself as a ‘determined bastard,’” Emerson wrote.
Rudd’s popularity with the Australian public came crashing down on Saturday when he was soundly defeated in national elections by conservative Tony Abbott, as voters punished the ALP at the ballot box for years of infighting.
He announced his resignation as ALP chief and pressure has been building on him to quit politics altogether amid concerns he would be a destabilizing influence on the party and whoever takes over the top job.
Former deputy prime minister Anthony Albanese is considered to be the only other serious candidate for the leadership, and is yet to publicly say whether he wants the job.
While having plenty of allies, some in the party will be wary over Shorten’s backroom role in toppling Rudd as prime minister in 2010, and his part in the downfall of Gillard earlier this year.
Shorten admitted he had “some responsibility” for the ALP infighting, but said he always had the party’s best interests at heart.
Nominations for the leadership are expected to be called at a Labor caucus meeting today.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
RSS