How is Rudd doing these days?

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Archie

I am happy with Rudd's performance to date. He had an excellent overseas trip and has not put a foot wrong domestically. I disagreed with the apology. Will he help convicted drug smugglers? Why should he? The Australian & Indonesian governments are working on an agreement whereby citizens in jail in either country may be sent home to complete their sentences. Whether that applies to those you mentioned - I do not know nor care.

molly

He is doing well its a big week for him this week with the budget due out so we will see what is on offer.
With regard to Corby and the Bali 9 he can't interfere in another countries laws and that's the way it should be we wouldn't like it if the Indonesian PM told us what to do with all their illegal fishermen in our jail.

Sammy

i am an Australian teenager, he is doing fine so far i mean we haven't had ,much of a go with him yet, i really appreciated his apology even though it didn't apply to me it was still meaningful. He had dont more in his 5 months in parliament then john Howard over the past 2 years.

ll_jenny_ll here

oooh I am going to get myself into trouble here... While Corby's case is questionable as to exactly what happened .. I have to say I am bloody well sick to death of people thinking that they can make a fast buck by getting involved in the drug trade...

ALL australians KNOW the consequences of being caught trafficking drugs... so why should WE do anything to help them WHEN their actions could be harmful to innocent people ( ie swamping the nations with drugs).. the Bali Nine KNEW what they were doing ... THEY knew Indonesia's attitude to drug trafficking ...

YOU DO THE CRIME YOU SHOULD BE PREPARED TO SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES

BUT back to the main part of your Q .. I'm watching the Govt ... they need time to either do good or to screw-up .. is still too early to say either way.

BUT he's still better than Lil' Johnny.

HEY WAZ ... Lil' Johnny blamed hawke and keating for YEARS ...I think Rudd's Govt is permitted at LEAST 12 months blaming Howard's policies .. and MAY I REMIND YOU that Pete Costello DID say that there was a Tsunami of an economic time coming ... NO MATTER WHO WON the election ...

Kerron

He seems to be doing well with the mess he was left with. Hopefully this will mark the beginning of a new style of leadership whereby opposing parties can agree and even compliment great ideas and move our country forward instead of point scoring and trying to sabotage each other.

Jac

k rudd's not going to badly. at the moment he's doing his best to lower expectations for the budget, with the help of his mate swanny. as for corby and the bali 9, i think that the government is still working on trying to get them transferred to australia to finish their sentences, but not with much likelihood of success. they are convicted drug smugglers and they are paying the price for their crimes, so i don't care much what happens to them, although i am glad that none of them have been sentenced to death.

bfrincess

nope.they broke the indonesian law so they have to pay for their crimes.

Bardy

Well interest rates are soaring and now they say in the papers that unemployment will increase. So yea he is doing just fine. I hope he lets the drug trafficers rot in their Asian jails.

azza

So far he's doing quite well.

On a social policy front, he's made the apology to the Stolen Generation, which was great, and marks a historic moment in our country's history. Hopefully now that that symbolic motion has finally been carried out, we can get to the practical business of helping the indigenous people of our country get on an even footing with the wider community with regards to health and education.

He's also signed the Kyoto Protocol which (along with the apology) is something that the Howard government refused to do. He has attempted to water down the next leg of climate change policies (which is frustrating), but at least we've signed on for this.

His recent world tour was a good step as well. He has begun lobbying to get Australia a seat on the UN Security Council, which I believe is an important step (Australia being geographically placed in the best area to deal with terrorism in South East Asia). He also went to China and publically condemned their treatment of the Tibetan people. This is a very significant step. Not many people would ever speak out against China, in public, while still IN China at the time.

So, overall, his social and environmental policy work has been really good. Far, far better and far more foward looking than the previous government.

HOWEVER, his biggest test so far is coming up. The Budget is due this week and Rudd has promised fairly wholesale cuts to a lot of government funding as a way reigning in inflation in the hope of stopping further interest rate rises.

He now has the tough job of delivery nessecary funding where it's needed, while making sure the economy slows gradually enough to prevent further rate rises, but doesnt slow so fast that it causes a recession.

This is really important, because the Liberal Party attacked Rudd over Labor's economic management in the past, and if this budget doesnt do what he hopes, then it will give the opposition ammunition to attack him with.

Of course, it's worth noting that we've had a whole bunch of rate rises while under a Peter Costello budget, and HE was supposed to be a genius treasurer. So much for that. This new budget will really show us if Rudd can handle the economy.

So, all in all, he's not doing a bad job. We'll know better in a couple of months, after this budget has taken effect.

It's also worth noting that the Liberal Party, since losing power in the election by a huge margin are currently really struggling. Their leader, Dr. Nelson has a 9% approval rating and they have pretty much no policies. So, unless they get their act together, they dont present much of a threat, yet.

Brendan P

Hmmm, I am personally not a fan of Rudd, but i would give him a job as a salesman any day.

Big Waz from Oz

Everything was going fine till Rudd got it. Now night after night we hear Rudd and Swann blaming the previous government for everything that is going wrong. ie unemployment going up, inflation going up, interest rates going up, petrol prices going up, food prices going up etc.

They keep saying "we need to put downward pressure on inflation" but nothing is happening. I really dont think they understand economics as well as the Howard government did.

One thing is for sure, they can only continue to blame the previous government for so long before the Australian public crucify them. I can't see them making a 2nd term.

As far as Corby and the Bali 9, I think they should be left to rot.. but Rudd will do whatever makes him look good.

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