Wakefield MP Nick Champion has told InDaily this morning Australians have “unfinished business” with Kevin Rudd.
InDaily also understands that Federal Member for Adelaide and Minister for Employment Participation Kate Ellis is likely to remain in parliament and will probably retain her ministry under new PM Kevin Rudd.
Ellis sat on the front bench alongside Rudd in this morning’s session of Parliament. Ellis did not return calls this morning.
Ellis is a supporter of former PM Julia Gillard, and voted for her at last night’s leadership ballot. This morning the ABC quoted Ellis saying she supported Gillard because of “integrity”.
“There’s been a sense of unfinished business between the Australian people and Kevin Rudd, I think they want to make a judgement about his Prime Ministership,” Champion told InDaily this morning.
“I think they wanted him to have a second chance of being Prime Minister, so that he could bring the country together – as he did through the Global Financial Crisis.”
Champion was elected in 2007 on the back of the Rudd surge – which flipped his northern suburbs seat from the Liberals to the ALP – and backed Rudd in last night’s leadership challenge.
He told InDaily he expects to recontest the next election, and hasn’t been offered a ministry in the Rudd cabinet.
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The events of the last few months and years had tested his soul, but not his faith in the Labor party, he said.
“It’s tough. These events are trying, and they do test your mettle. They’re trying on the soul. I guess we’ve got to try and get through all of that, with some kindness to each other and some dignity, and I think the whole of the party is trying to do that.”
“I don’t know about relief. There is a sense of resolve, particularly amongst my generation of Labor politicians, the 2007 generation, that we never want to see these times again, that the party is unified not just in name but in spirit, that we deal with each other kindly and with respect.
Champion told InDaily he expected Rudd would build a cabinet that unified the Labor party – which suggests Rudd might be considering including Gillard supporters.
“Obviously the Prime Minister has to craft a ministry which brings the party together, which reflects the ability of the country, and which reflects our desire to unify the country. After a very divisive few years, we want Australians to have a sense of hope and confidence – and they can’t have that when there’s this divisive, corrosive politics out there in the community.
“We hope we’ve seen the back of the downs, and we hope we’re on the incline toward the light on the hill.”
Minister for Mental Health and Ageing Mark Butler holds the seat of Port Adelaide by 21 per cent – one of the safest Labor-held seats in the country.
This morning he told the ABC he had supported Rudd in last night’s leadership ballot, despite supporting former-Prime Minister Julia Gillard in March’s leadership ballot.
“I think our position was still a little less clear in March. I think there was still a glimmer of hope. I lost that sense of hope over the last few months.
Of Rudd’s guarantee that he would never again challenge for the Labor leadership, Butler said the national interest trumped personal guarantees.
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“That national interest and the party interest trumps those sort of things. We are in such a precarious position of seeing Tony Abbot cake walk into the prime ministership.
“This is a hard decision that Kevin has had to take. It’s going to be a very steep climb for him between now and the national election.”
South Australian ALP Senator Don Farrell told the ABC this morning Rudd spoke to him before he got the chance to offer his resignation.
“He asked me to continue in my role,” Farrell said.
The 11 Federal lower house seats in South Australia are currently shared 6-5 between the ALP and the Liberal Party.
In South Australia Labor recorded swings towards it in both of the last two Federal elections – defying a national trend in 2010.
In Hindmarsh, Steve Georganas holds his seat by 6.1 per cent.
Kate Ellis holds Adelaide by 7.5 per cent,
Nick Champion holds Wakefield by 10.5 per cent after a 5.4 per cent in 2010.
In Makin, Tony Zappia sits on a 12 per cent margin after a 5.2 per cent swing toward him in 2010.
Amanda Rishworth holds Kingston with a 14.5 per cent margin after a 9.5 per cent swing in 2010, the largest in the country.
