Order Restored

When we moved here almost three years ago, it was shortly after Kevin Rudd, the then Prime Minister, had been replaced as leader by his party in a back room coup.  Julia Gillard was installed as party leader and, after a quick election campaign, was elected by Australians as Prime Minister (as in Canada, we do not vote for the leader, only the party...she was leader of the party that won).

For three years we all watched as Kevin Rudd was closely watched to see if and when he would make the move to reclaim the leadership.  About 18 months ago he held a press conference from an overseas trip to announce that he would return to Australia to challenge for the leadership.  Julia Gillard and her supporters met him head on and he lost.  After the election was called earlier this year, one of Kevin Rudd's supporters called for him to stand for leader of the party.  Kevin Rudd declined to stand for the leadership and everyone moved on.  Last week, after a great deal of speculation, Kevin Rudd challenged for the leadership of the Labor Party and won!  Three years later and he, according to his supporters, is right back where he should be!  The big problem now is that we are seven months into an election campaign and Kevin Rudd is not bound to hold the election.  We could have just gone through the torture of a seemingly endless election campaign, only to have it extended to last even longer.

Kevin Rudd getting mobbed at an AFL game we attended in 2011

Kevin Rudd is a Queenslander...a very popular Queenslander.  His successful coup happened on the same night as the second game in the State of Origin.  The State of Origin in an annual "best of three" series between the Rugby League players of Queensland and New South Wales.  Queensland has won the series for the last seven years in a row, but they actually lost the first game that was held at the beginning of June.  People were losing their minds over how such a travesty could occur but on Wednesday night the stars were aligned as they should be and Queensland beat NSW...handily.  It wasn't just a win it was an old-fashioned beat down.  So by Thursday morning Kevin Rudd was back as PM, the Queensland Rugby League players had shown total domination and once again Queensland was ruling Australia.  Order has indeed been restored.