“The unpopularity of Julia Gillard’s government was cited as a key factor in the big margin of Labor’s 2013 WA election loss”
Source: ABC News
It is not surprising if Gillard was deeply unpopular with WA voters. There is little love lost between ALP leaders.
When Shorten nominated Gillard, Rudd and Keating ‘lifetime members’ to ‘bury the hatchet’ (after he had ‘backstabbed’ two of them), only Rudd turned up to accept the ‘award’. Perhaps Rudd wasn’t smart enough to see through the ploy to buy their silence in the coming election campaign.
Rudd calls for healing, pays tribute to ‘formidable’ Gillard at Labor conference
“In the history of every political party there is a time for healing”
“For us to fully grasp the future we have to put to bed the disagreements of the past. And for us, that time has well and truly come”.
Apparently Keating and Gillard didn’t think it was time to ‘bed’ any disagreements, because neither of them turned up…even though Gillard lives locally.
“Let’s let history be the judge of these things”.
Indeed.
Mr Rudd paid tribute to former Labor prime ministers, including Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, ‘and the very formidable Julia Gillard’.
Source: SBS
It wasn’t Shorten’s first attempt to ‘bury the hatchet’.
Bill Shorten regrets ‘mistake’ in dismissing Gillard-Rudd leadership talk
Bill Shorten says he regrets making ‘a mistake’ in 2013 when he emphatically dismissed leadership talk just days after meeting with Kevin Rudd to discuss replacing Julia Gillard as prime minister.
Source: The Guardian