As this blog predicted last Thursday Julia Gillard, the Australian Prime Minister, has won the emergency ballot against former PM Kevin Rudd by a margin of 71-31. The PM's popularity is low and she needs to call a Federal election by December 2012. Bonne chance, as we say Down Under.
The real news of the day was the unexpected resignation of a bloke called Mark Arbib, more or less minutes after the ballot news.
From what I can work out this Minister, also the assistant treasurer, was a Gillard supporter and heavily involved in her challenge of Rudd in 2010. Since Julia has been confirmed today as leader of the party his resignation has everyone scratching their heads as to why. It's not as if he was a Rudd backer and about to be fired.
Arbib's message - he spoke to the press for 30 minutes - was that he wanted to give the party a chance to heal and felt his resignation would help that. When questioned he mentioned his role in the 2010 challenge. He did then go on to talk about what pressure politics places on families. When he was awarded the role of assistant treasurer he said his daughter burst into tears when he confirmed it would mean more time away from the family. 'She said 'don't take the job, Daddy.''
Has that personal pressure, coupled with the recent leadership grime made a young politician reconsider his path? Who knows, but the fact that the media just didn't get it, after 30 minutes of tireless questioning, sort of suggest the bloke might be, and I say this apologetically, telling the truth.
Stranger things, indeed.
Mark is apparently a decent bloke - as we say in Australia. He was also the most powerful factional leader of the NSW right since Graham Richardson. At age 40 I suspect he realised that the endless pursuit of power was only going to mean spending less and less time at his home in South Bondi. Also; I suspect you get paid more as a labor lobbyist than as a junior minister ...
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