Daniel Hurst Federal political reporter
February 20, 2013
Nervous Labor MPs would be ''stupid'' to reinstall Kevin Rudd as their leader, according to a union leader who wants politicians to focus instead on selling the government's message.
But Australian Workers Union Victorian state secretary Cesar Melhem also called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to improve her sales pitch by delivering more passionate, off-the-cuff speeches such as the one that motivated members on Monday night.
The comments came as the Arts Minister, Simon Crean, warned his colleagues not to see ''the revolving door of leadership'' as the key to their salvation before the September 14 election.
Simon Crean: Broken model. Photo: Andrew Meares
Mr Crean said he took Mr Rudd at his word when the former prime minister signalled on Sunday that he did not want to regain the Labor leadership.
''I think that the Labor Party model, in changing leadership every time there's a bad poll, is broken and discredited,'' Mr Crean said.
In the wake of the latest Fairfax-Nielsen poll showing Labor's primary support had slumped to 30 per cent, union leaders urged delegates to go out into their workforces and mobilise members to restore support for the government.
Mr Melhem said members felt Ms Gillard had a closer affinity to their experiences in the workplace than Mr Rudd ''because she can speak their language; she's been there, she's done that, she actually represented workers''.
''Now some members or some people might talk a bit about the carbon tax fiasco or something like that but overall they have a real distinction between her and even Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott,'' he told Fairfax Media on the sidelines of the AWU's national conference on the Gold Coast.
Mr Melhem said if Ms Gillard lost the election, it did not mean it had been a mistake to switch from Mr Rudd in 2010 - and the idea of an imminent leadership change was fanciful.
''I don't think it'll ever happen anyway, it's hypothetical and it would be stupid anyway.''
Mr Melhem said some members had felt during the weekend that the Labor government's prospects were a ''hopeless case'' but had since been inspired by determined speeches by Ms Gillard and other ministers.
''MPs, instead of worrying about who's going to be the leader . . . should be out there in their electorates selling the message,'' he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan praised Ms Gillard as ''the toughest warrior of Labor values in our history''.
Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten said workers had an affinity for Ms Gillard ''because they know she likes working people and protecting their conditions''.
''I'm not bagging anyone else - no gotcha moment - but the current prime minister was minister for workplace relations when we scrapped WorkChoices,'' he told Fairfax Media.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said on Wednesday Labor faced an unappealing choice between Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd.
''The difficulty they've got is you've got one failure or another failure and I guess that's why they're thinking about a possible third candidate as well,'' Mr Abbott said on Fairfax radio.
Mr Abbott predicted Mr Shorten, who has been touted as a possible replacement for Ms Gillard, would be reluctant to accept the ''poisoned chalice'' of the Labor leadership.
''I think Bill sees himself as a future Prime Minister, but Bill is very ambitious and I don't know that Bill wants to cruel his pitch by drinking from a poisoned chalice,'' he said.
Mr Abbott said Labor's ''faceless men'' would decide who would lead the party.
with Dan Harrison
