RSS Feed
February 17th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda 
Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd and PM Julia Gillard pictured in Question Time yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith
Source: The Daily Telegraph
SENIOR cabinet ministers have been deployed to lobby MPs to stick with Julia Gillard – the clearest sign yet that panic has set in and planning is under way for a showdown with Kevin Rudd.
Several Labor MPs confirmed that ministers loyal to the PM – including Attorney-General Nicola Roxon – had been openly canvassing numbers for Ms Gillard this week in Parliament, warning backbenchers that a return to Mr Rudd would destroy the party.
The push to shore up Ms Gillard’s numbers occurred over Wednesday and Thursday following one of the PM’s worst weeks as leader.
One MP who was lobbied said: “A lot of people have definitely been deployed to start speaking to the troops on behalf of the PM. There were conversations happening all over Parliament House.”
Sources close to Mr Rudd yesterday signalled that “events were moving swiftly” and that a challenge could come sooner rather than later.
“From here on in, anything is possible,” a senior MP said.
At least two MPs were heard openly telling colleagues in the corridors that change had to happen.
“It was very brazen, and they didn’t seem to care who heard them,” one MP said.
Ms Roxon, a member of the Victorian Right, which includes Gillard backers such as Bill Shorten, spoke to several Victorian MPs and warned them against thinking about voting for Mr Rudd in a spill.
“Nicola was telling anyone who would listen that Rudd would be a disaster,” one MP said. “It seemed to me that panic has set in, and they know Gillard is in trouble.”
The next sitting week of Parliament in two weeks could be critical, with members of Mr Rudd’s camp claiming a growing list of MPs privately declaring support.
However, one senior minister loyal to Ms Gillard said Mr Rudd would not have the numbers to succeed. “If he challenged now he would lose,” the minister said.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, concerned NSW MPs in particular had lost confidence in Ms Gillard, is also reported to have started counting numbers for her.
The NSW Right, the largest single bloc of votes with 18 MPs, has split, with a majority now behind Mr Rudd.
Party Secretary Sam Dastyari has maintained that the position of the NSW party machine was one of support for Ms Gillard.
It is unlikely it would actively direct NSW MPs how to vote if it came to a challenge.
Mr Rudd is this weekend campaigning in Queensland for Labor premier Anna Bligh.
Posted in 
Tags: 
