Rudd must make peace with his growing list of opponents: Gottliebsen

For an election year, Kevin Rudd is starting to chalk up a remarkable number of opponents. Over the weekend he added the Victorian Premier John Brumby to the list.

What he said about the Victorian Premier was made more acid because it was the truth and was exactly what the Victorian opposition has been saying – and what has led to the dramatic boost in voter support for the opposition.

Rudd says Victoria under-invested in law and order (presumably police) and public transport. He could have added that the Victorian government appointed too many ‘politically correct’ judges and was far too soft on penalty legislation. These Victorian mistakes were not the only cause of the violence against Indians in Melbourne, but they contributed.

In the area of health, while Victoria might have some problems, it is one of Australia’s leaders and there is no certainty Canberra will improve anything. Canberra’s track record and lack of experience in other areas would suggest they could make things a lot worse.

By hitting the ALP Victorian government on its soft under belly – law and order – in a state election year, Rudd is going close to threatening John Brumby that if he does not agree to the Commonwealth health takeover, he will be driven out of office.

Does this sound familiar? Telstra shareholders are being told that if they don’t sell their network assets cheaply they will be butchered. The Commonwealth believes that there should be separation between the network and the consumer business of Telstra. As with health, they might be right or wrong, but the way they pursue their objectives involves taking no prisoners.

We saw the same thing in emissions trading. While carbon reduction is supported by a large proportion of the community, the government was prepared to pulverise vast sections of industry (including resources) to impose a solution. It so happens that emissions trading, as conceived by Canberra, was a stupid solution. Thanks to Tony Abbott the badly drafted emissions trading legislation is dead. But still looming is the battle over a resource rent tax and, of course, the industrial relations legislation is starting to bite.

Then, Nick Sherry decided to endorse a massive attack on small contracting businesses such as plumbers and computer people). This is a huge potential battle and if the Australian small business community gets a whiff near the election that what Sherry is endorsing will come to pass, small business will almost certainly drive the ALP from office in Canberra.

I am a fan of the thrust of the Gillard education policy, but it has a lot of teachers off side and it is again being introduced using the same principle – accept what we say or we will hit you, and hit you hard.

I could go on. At some point as the federal election draws near, the government will need to make peace with a few of these enemies. Telstra shareholders will be hoping they will be on the “make peace” list.

This article first appeared on Business Spectator.