By Shaun Carney
Julia Gillard has learnt from Rudd's mistakes, outlining plans to be more inclusive and to consult her colleagues.
JULIA Gillard explained how she planned to govern in an off-the-cuff address to the Labor Party's national executive in Canberra yesterday. The new Prime Minister told executive members what she wanted and what she didn't want. In doing so, she provided a sometimes harsh critique of the way things were run under Kevin Rudd, and foreshadowed a substantially different government.
The first thing her government would do, she said, would be to demonstrate that it was in control. The government would stick to its knitting. Rather than giving the appearance that it was in a permanent election campaign, it would simply get down to business and run the country.
The policy agenda would not be overcrowded and at all times her government would avoid the appearance of haphazardness. Clearly, she told the executive, there had been a view in the community that the Rudd government was not governing in a methodical manner.
She described a governing style bearing only a tenuous relationship to that of her predecessor. She would rely on traditional cabinet processes, following a collegial method in which policy positions would be based on a collective view - no super-committees, no channelling of policy exclusively through her office.
Gillard also encouraged the expression of contrary views. I'm not psychologically fragile, she told the executive, so feel free to say what's on your mind. She wanted her government to be based on inclusiveness, relying on the insights and experiences of everyone involved; there would be no unspoken ban on any topics or points of view that in the past might have been regarded as controversial, naive or even stupid. We must be capable of robust discussion, Gillard said, even if it led to disagreements.
Finally, Gillard said the party should acknowledge the trauma that the ousting of Rudd had caused. There was hurt in the ALP, she said, and there was no way to get around the ruthless nature of what had been done. It was a reminder that the processes of government were made by human beings.
But the party also needed to own up to the fact that the leadership change was necessary and, while members would want to reflect on this week's events, there would soon be an election to fight.
Gillard is a tough operator. What she was telling the party was that it needed to get over itself. To the extent that there is continued hand-wringing over Rudd's treatment within the ALP, it's likely to fall away after the publication today of the Age/Nielsen poll, taken yesterday and on Thursday night, which suggests a a strong majority of voters endorse the installation of the nation's first female prime minister.
The numbers effectively wipe out the Labor Party's nightmare of the past two months and restore it to the lead it held at the start of the year. This was the poll result Labor needed desperately, confirming - at least at first blush - that it was Rudd's rapidly declining personal standing that had been chiefly responsible for the government's crash in previous polls.
Gillard has told colleagues that she is determined to learn from Rudd's mistakes. Something she is keen to achieve is to assume the persona of the nation's most powerful politician, and not just the position. Her public appearances so far have revealed a more deliberative Gillard. On the 7.30 Report on Thursday night, she slowed her delivery and was very economical with words. Apart from a jest about redheads, her demeanour was relentlessly serious.
This is how she is likely to present herself from here on. It is not a big thing, but it will be a strong contrast with late-era Rudd, who never really assumed a strong air of authority. Those who think these things don't matter should think back to the ways in which the two most successful prime ministers of the past 30 years, Bob Hawke and John Howard, altered their personal styles when they took office.
Gillard is obviously not averse to picking up some clues from Hawke and Howard. She has already borrowed from Hawke in trying to recalibrate the government's stances on climate change and the mining tax, in which she says she wants to establish a ''community consensus'' on both issues.
There are definite shades of Hawke's early prime ministership in this approach. In the 1983 election that brought him to power, Hawke sold himself as a believer in consensus. Of course, consensus is a motherhood phenomenon - no one doesn't like it and those who advocate it can have a shot at the high moral ground.
Gillard's approach to the resource rent tax is that she will be happy to strike a deal with the mining companies but will probably also be pleased if she can simply get to the point where she has shown that she has done all she can to negotiate with them. Her most important objective is to establish the principle of the tax in the public mind and demonstrate that the government has not been acting unreasonably.
On asylum seekers, a perpetually troublesome issue for Labor, Gillard has borrowed directly from Howard's playbook. On Thursday, she emphasised several times that she ''understood'' people who were alarmed by unauthorised arrivals and who wanted tough border protection. At one stage, she said she was ''full of understanding''. This was a favourite, and highly successful, ploy of Howard's - a simple concession, an expression of empathy with the mindset of people whose voting choices could be determined by the issue.
Irrespective of the encouraging result in the first poll, Gillard has a lot of hard work ahead to re-establish the government. Filling her own portfolios of education and workplace relations is a headache; almost certainly she will have to split them. There is also the task of finding Rudd a job in her government and replacing Lindsay Tanner. If the government is to run on the strength of its economic team at the election, putting up a finance minister who is headed for the exit is not a good idea.
Shaun Carney is associate editor.