What is the cost of Rudd and Gillards shameless self promotion over new school sheds and fences;

All up, the Government expects to supply 9,285 school plaques at $200 a pop. There will also be 6,000 roadside signs at $295 each. The total cost is $3.8 million.

Now there is a value spend.

Finally the media seems to be waking up to Rudd and his endless spin.

Paul kelly is certanly changing his tune;

Transcript from the Insiders 10/12/2006

BARRIE CASSIDY: What sort of a leader do you think he'll make?

PAUL KELLY: Personal qualities kick in at this point, Barrie. I think Kevin Rudd is measured, methodical, and he does have a commitment to policy development. It's most interesting this week that there were no fireworks, there were no extravagances, and I think Kevin Rudd sees himself as a leader for the long haul. If one looks at his performance over a period of years as shadow foreign minister, one sees that he operates with tenacity. He's got a great sense of discipline, very high energy levels, and a deep commitment as a media operative. In fact, those qualities are all very similar to John Howard, and I think Rudd and Howard have a lot of overlap when it comes to their political style and qualities.

Rudd, I think, has got a reasonable chance of projecting Labor as a competent party on the economy and national security, and that's where it counts. He's an economic conservative. He's very pro-US and he has got a deep understanding of Asia. He is also a conservative and I think Rudd is comfortable and relaxed at making a pitch to conservatives. I think he will challenge Howard here front on, in terms of pitching to family values, to conservative and to Christian values. That, I think, will make him a most interesting Labor leader, and different from previous Labor leaders.

But that was before he really got to know Rudd and experiance him in government, what does Kelly think now?

 Transcript from the Insiders 24/05/2009

BARRIE CASSIDY: Now Paul, you wrote on spin as I mentioned earlier in the inquiry. And clearly you think it's reached a certain level?

PAUL KELLY: Well obviously it has Barrie. I mean if you look at the Rudd Government its got two defining features. It's a policy wonk Government and it's a political spin Government. And there's always a degree of tension between the two.

I think what happened this week was that the political spin became far too pronounced. The main example of this was clearly the Prime Minister's interview on Lateline when he was too evasive and was reluctant to put numbers on the debt and deficit figures. This looked childish; it looked demeaning; it looked as though he had something to hide. It was very much counterproductive.

And I think, you know, you can't have a serious debate about debt and deficits unless you talk about the numbers. Quite elementary I would have thought.

I think modern Labor needs to have a think about this because modern Labor's political management techniques came from state Labor governments. The requirements of a national government are different.

And I think one of the dangers here that Kevin Rudd needs to be careful of is that his Government is not branded and seen to be branded by the public as a political spin Government. That's not what Rudd wants and frankly I think he's better than that.

Bad new for you Paul, Rudds not better than that... not by a long shot.

The Rudd governments cash splash not only failed to deliver any economic stimulus as over 80% of the money handed out was stashed by recipients, but it seems that the low proportion of money actually spent was very detrimental to society at large;

The Reverend Tim Costello said poker machine venues had been "advertising furiously" while the stimulus payments were flowing. "What this has stimulated is more marriage breakdowns and lost businesses and crime committed, because when (poker machine) income jumps as dramatically as this, addiction jumps, and that just tears communities apart."

He said the stimulus spending on pokies was a "sad, missed opportunity to create jobs".

More unintended consciouses from the bumbling Rudd Government.

Just Say it Rudd!!... Say; "I put Australia in 300 Billion Dollars worth of debt"!!!;

TONY JONES: OK. Let’s move on. What’s the peak figure of the projected public debt in terms of tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming years? What’s the peak figure?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, these are clearly outlined in the Budget papers and they’re usually expressed in terms of a percentage of GDP. We peak, in around about 2013, at about 13.8 per cent of GDP.

TONY JONES: How much of that is in tens of billions or hundreds of billions of dollars; how much is that?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, let me step back in terms of the elements of this. First of all, 70 per cent of our overall position here is determined by a $214-billion collapse in tax revenue. That’s one slice of it.

TONY JONES: OK. I understand - we understand that. So what is the figure of peak debt in hundreds of billions of dollars? What is the actual figure?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, Tony, I’m about to come to that when I go to constituent parts. About $214-billion comes from a collapse in tax revenue and that is happening right across all the advanced economies across the world. That’s about two thirds of it. Then you go to the remaining third of it, which is made up of what we’re investing in infrastructure and other forms of temporary stimulus. And of that remaining one third of our total borrowings, the largest proportion is made up through infrastructure investment and the smallest proportion is made up through other forms of temporary stimulus. Put that altogether…

TONY JONES: But all I’m asking for is one figure.

KEVIN RUDD: Well, I’m about to come to that, Tony. I’m taking you to the constituent parts. Put all that together and you’ll see clearly outlined in the Budge papers, that we’re aiming to a gross figure of 13.8, which comes out at about $300-billio). The Liberals have said about $275-billion and then they’ve failed to nominate or to support $22-billion of savings in the Budget, which makes our positions virtually identical. That’s the point I was making.

TONY JONES: That figure is $300-billion, is that right?

KEVIN RUDD: As I said before, 13.8 per cent of GDP as described accurately in the Budget papers. There’s nothing new about that.

TONY JONES: Is there a political spin rule which says the Prime Minister must not say that figure? Because it seems very hard to get you to say $300-billion.

KEVIN RUDD: Well, Tony, there seems to be a political spin rule on your part to go back to this time and time again. The Treasurer made this absolutely plain in the Budget papers. I said before the figure was 300 as the Liberals’ was 275

Great Joke, thank you Gnomie. 

Kevin Rudd was visiting a primary school and he visited one of the classes. They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked Kevin, the saviour of 'working families', if he would like to lead the discussion on the word 'tragedy'.

So Kevin (the saviour of 'working families' ) asked the class for an example of a 'tragedy'.
A little boy stood up and offered: 'If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field & a tractor runs over him and kills him, That would be a 'tragedy.'

No, said Kevin - that would be an accident.'

A little girl raised her hand: 'If a school bus carrying fifty children drove over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy'

I'm afraid not, explained Kevin - that's what we would call great loss'

The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Kevin searched the room. 'Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?'
Finally, at the back of the room, little Johnny raised his hand..

In a quiet voice he said: 'If A plane carrying you and Julia Gillard was struck by a 'friendly fire' missile & blown to smithereens, that would be a tragedy.'
'Fantastic!' exclaimed Kevin. 'That's right. And can you tell me why that would be tragedy?'

'Well,' says little Johnny 'it has to be a tragedy, because it certainly wouldn't be a great loss and it probably wouldn't be a f*ckin' accident either!'

Rudd has just bosted that his stimulus packages have saved the day on the unemployment front... However;

TODAY'S federal budget will forecast a record deficit of $58 billion for next financial year while also claiming that the Government's stimulus packages will save 200,000 people from losing their jobs.

With the two stimulus packages worth a combined $52 billion, the average cost of each job saved will be $260,000.

Nuff said.

Rudd is rightfully worried about the NSW Government drag on his election chances.

So much so that he wont trust his State counterpart with any opportunity to waste the cash in their inevitable blundering and incompetence;

The city of Sydney has been singled out by the Prime Minister as needing much better infrastructure planning.

...He says an organisation like the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games might be a good model.

Now thats a vote of confidence.

Closing the Gap report speech to Parliament, February 2009:

Mr Speaker, that brings me to the third pillar of our national strategy for closing the gap, which is re-building the everyday social norms that underpin strong families and healthy communities.

We must address the dysfunctional culture of violence and neglect that blights some communities.

We must all work toward shared values.

Indigenous women and children must know they will be safe from violence and abuse.

Our investments to rebuild communities will help people increase their personal responsibility.

We will support people to be responsible parents, tenants, students and employees.

What do we get, ATSIC and this;

New figures from the Northern Territory Government show an increase in children diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections.

The statistics for 2008 show 22 STI cases reported in children under 10 years of age - double the number reported the previous year.

Twenty-one of those infections involved chlamydia, with one child diagnosed with gonorrhoea.

A further 169 STI cases were reported in children between 10 and 14-years-old.

There were 68 cases of gonorrhoea, 62 of chlamydia, two syphilis infections and 37 notifications of trichomoniasis.

Its all just hearsay, but it is just such an easy story to believe;

John Cobb, an opposition frontbench MP who recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan, claimed Australian troops had told him that Mr Rudd "threw a wobbly" during the visit, and said the soldiers at the Australian base of Tarin Kowt were "going on and on about it".

The incident was alleged to have occurred when Mr Rudd embarked on an unannounced visit to pay tribute to troops serving the war zone before Christmas last year.

After all the man has form on wobblies, over little things too, such as Airline food.

Makes me wonder if Battery Powered Hair Driers will now become Standard Kit for the Digger... just in case Rudd ever visits again. 

Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says the cost of interest payments on Government debt will likely top $3 billion a year.

Everybody together.... "Thank you Mr Rudd."

Why on earth would people at a Kevin Rudd publicity stunt think their ideas would get even a smattering of anything other than contempt; 

PARTICIPANTS emerged from a roundtable discussion with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on job creation and training in Sydney's southwest saying they were unenthusiastic about his responses.

It really hasn't been that long since the results of Rudds 2020 summit flopped out of limbo to thunderous silence.

Whoops time for Kevin to update his website;

The cost of inaction on climate change will be much greater than the cost of taking action now. The Australian Government is committed to decisive action on climate change, to prepare Australia for the transformation of the global economy to low carbon energy sources. The Government’s action plan on climate change includes:

• ...
• Establishing a national emissions trading scheme by 2010.
• ...

Perhaps something like;

The cost of action on climate change will be much greater than the cost of taking inaction now. The Australian Government is committed to decisive action on climate change later on sometime, to prepare Australia for the transformation of the global economy to low carbon energy sources at some time in the future. The Government’s action plan on climate change includes:

• ...
• Establishing a national emissions trading scheme by some time post 2010.
• ...

Thank god for the Labor Governments inability to deliver any promise it makes.

But that wouldn't make your policy softening responsible would it...

KEVIN RUDD faces a continuing influx of asylum seekers after another boatload has been intercepted on its way to Australia.

It is the 11th vessel to be intercepted this year and is believed to have been carrying 50 asylum seekers.

What, can't our sailors count anymore, or is the order out to haze the issue with delayed detail (ie Numbers Aboard)?

Again Debus, The Minister for Home Affairs, wheels out the usual platitudes;

"The Australian Government will continue to deal effectively and appropriately with people smugglers."

Well I guess Debus, being a Labor Minister, can't be expected to have any concept of 'Supply and Demand' can he?

Finally I'm glad this hopeless Rudd government is unable to do anything but spin its wheels;

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced that the Government's emissions trading scheme is being delayed until 2011.

Hopefully just the first step in a complete turnaround.