Goodbye Kim. Hullo Kevin
Especially co-inciding with the death of his young brother David, the defeat of Kim Beazley as the Federal leader of the Australian Labor Party touched all Australians. To most people Kim was a big amiable loser who took defeat well. No-one wanted Kim to go more than the leaders of the Liberal Party who had his measure.
But politics is about winning power, so Hullo Kevin! No-one who knows Kevin Rudd doubts neither his ambition nor his ability. Christians praise God he is an open Christian committed to worshipping in his Anglican Church with his family every week. Two years ago I had a number of prominent politicians visit Wesley Mission Sunday Night Live to give their testimony of faith and to speak about what Jesus Christ meant to them. They included the then State leaders Bob Carr and John Brogden. John Howard and Kevin Rudd both spoke forcefully and unequivocally about the centrality of Jesus Christ to their lives and faith.
Kevin Rudd was more the school teacher delivering an outstanding lecture of why the Labor Party must capture the Christian vote, seeing the Labor Party had such strong Christian roots. He ignored why the Labor Party had turned its back on the church by adopting so many anti-Christian policies. But he did mention the contribution of every Christian organisation and individual in the history of the Labor Party in the UK and Australia from the Tollpuddle Martyrs to Keir Hardie.
He then spoke of his own faith and commitment to Christ. Kevin Rudd is not a creature of either the Union Movement or the ALP structure. For him to lead both and contain them to his direction and fresh policies will take outstanding leadership. For him to contain his deputy and leader of the Left faction, Julia Gillard, will also take much skill. But like his look-alike, Harry Potter, Kevin Rudd can weave his own magic. As I have been saying for several years, he is the best alternative leader of the ALP when Kim Beazley vacated the position. This month, the moment of transition came.
That doesn’t mean he is a certainty to become Prime Minister this time. While he has outstanding intellect, his political experience is limited and he finds it difficult to strike a common chord with the ordinary voter. But time should heal both of those problems.
REV THE HON DR GORDON MOYES A.C., M.L.C.
