Australian PM.Madame JuLIAR Gillard
'Faceless men' ready to challenge Prime Minister,
says Tony Abbott
July 07, 2012 12:44PM
OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott says the Labor's party's "faceless men" are considering another leadership challenge against the prime minister.
Mr Abbott said he wasn't surprised at reports on Saturday that former prime minister Kevin Rudd still has leadership ambitions. He also said a push for Labor to preference the Australian Greens last at the next election shows who really runs the ALP.
Madame Rein (c) and Partner former Australian PM Lu Kewen aka. Kevin 07 / Rudd.
Mr Rudd's wife Therese Rein told Fairfax newspapers her husband could still return to the federal Labor leadership, but only if he was invited.
Mr Abbott said the party's "faceless men" would have the final say on who was leader.
"I'm not at all surprised that there are lots of people inside the Labor party who'd think they'd do a better job than Prime Minister Gillard, but in the end we know who calls the shots," he told reporters at Yatala, south of Brisbane, on Saturday.
"It's the faceless men. And what the faceless men are doing right now is weighing up whether it is time for change."
The push for Labor to preference the Australian Greens last at the next election shows who really runs the ALP, Mr Abbott said.
NSW Labor secretary Sam Dastyari, convenor of the Centre Unity faction, on the NSW Right, has described the Greens as "extremists not unlike One Nation".
Mr Dastyari said the ALP must stop treating the Greens "like they are part of our family".
"Where it is in the Labor Party's interest to do so, we should consider placing (the Greens) last - just like we did with One Nation," he told News Ltd.
Mr Dastyari is preparing to move a motion at the state party conference next weekend calling for Labor to "no longer provide the Greens party automatic preferential treatment in any future preference negotiations".
Mr Abbott said the move was telling.
"The faceless men are ultimately calling the shots," he said.
Mr Dastyari leads the faction which counted former senator Mark Arbib among its numbers.
Mr Arbib was known as one of the so-called faceless men, alongside Victorian Labor MP and minister Bill Shorten, who helped depose Kevin Rudd in 2010 and replace him with Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Mr Dastyari is hoping other ALP state branches will follow the NSW move.
Australian Greens leader Christine Milne is reported to be seething after Victorian Labor put Family First ahead of the Greens in the seat of Melbourne, held by deputy Greens leader Adam Bandt.
Ms Gillard brokered a deal with the Greens to form minority government after the 2010 election resulted in a hung parliament.
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