Paul Howes, the current boy-wonder of the union movement has certainly made a name for himself in this past year. After publicly and privately undermining an elected Prime Minister he is seen as one of the factional power-brokers in the ALP right and is one of the more powerful members of the ALP despite never having been elected by the Australian public.
On the eve of Kevin Rudd’s assassination as Prime Minister Paul Howes featured in an interview on Lateline stating that getting rid of Rudd was essential for Labor to win re-election, it was quite an extraordinary statement considering he was once Australia’s most popular PM in history. Surely personal grudges and payback had to be a factor?
Well a few months on, Rudd is finished as PM but is now our foreign minister. But that doesn’t stop Paul Howes continuing to snipe at him at every opportunity. Here was one of his tweets today.
So whilst we await patiently for any news on the 29 miners that are trapped underground and face the very likely prospect that there will be casualties, the leader of the largest union in the country uses the tragedy to continue his petty public vendetta against Kevin Rudd. And what on earth is the basis of his criticism? Kevin Rudd is the foreign minister, 2 of the men trapped underground are Australians and Australia has already offered assistance to the New Zealand authorities. Its completely within his portfolio to be commenting on it.
But that’s not what this is about, its not what Rudd said but who said it. Rudd publicly limited the role of the factions and therefore the unions whilst he was leader. And although he may be gone that legacy remains (to a reduced extent) through Gillard. And people like Paul Howes don’t let a grudge go.
