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February 21st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda -
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Graham Perrett has joined the chorus of Labor MPs calling on Kevin Rudd’s supporters to end the leadership speculation or risk the death of the party.
Mr Perrett, a convenor of the Left faction, has appealed to his colleagues to “shut up”, warning that the federal disharmony is having a horrific effect on the Queensland election campaign.
Last year, Mr Perrett threatened to quit his marginal Queensland seat of Moreton and trigger a by-election if there was a leadership challenge to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
He says that warning still stands and the ALP needs to show a united front.
“If we weren’t unified it would be death and that warning at the end of last year stands to this day,” he said.
“The last thing we want to do is give any ammunition to Tony Abbott to throw at us and that’s what we’re doing by talking about leadership and even I think I contributed to it by talking about resigning.”
He says Australia has a “wonderful” prime minister and the rest of the Government needs to get on with the job.
In the face of a potential challenge from Mr Rudd, senior ministers have queued up to pledge allegiance to Ms Gillard.
“The Foreign Minister has already indicated that he’s not interested in a challenge, he’s doing his job as foreign minister,” said frontbencher Brendan O’Connor.
“Now if there are those suggesting they’re acting on his behalf given his comments in recent days, I would say to them they should desist.”
Right-wing powerbroker Bernie Ripoll has also warned Mr Rudd’s backers to stop wrecking the party.
“We’ve all had a gutful,” Mr Ripoll, who once shared a Canberra flat with Mr Rudd, said.
“You don’t have the support, you don’t have the numbers.”
One Labor MP, frustrated by the escalating speculation, offered to get a tattoo declaring his support for Ms Gillard.
David Bradbury, who holds the marginal Sydney seat of Lindsay, said newspaper reports listing him as an undecided vote in a leadership ballot were false.
“In relation to each of those articles, not one journalist has asked me for my view,” he said.
“Both privately and publicly I have stated that I support the Prime Minister.
“I don’t know what I have to do to go beyond that – if it means getting a tattoo I’d consider it, but somehow I think my wife might object to that.”
‘Haemorrhaging votes’
But Mr Perrett says the Queensland election campaign is being hit particularly hard by the federal rumours.
“It’s horrific, horrific. I was talking to candidates last night; we’ve got a tough election to win. We’ve thankfully got a wonderful team under Anna Bligh, but it’s going to be a very tough election to win,” he said.
“The brand Labor, as I said, is haemorrhaging votes at the moment in Queensland.”
Mr Perrett says branch members in his seat want the leadership issue resolved, although even he acknowledges it still might not be dealt with at next week’s caucus meeting.
“The major propagandists seem to be the Foreign Minister and the rest of the caucus, and the Foreign Minister assures me and the rest of the caucus – via the media – that he is not contemplating any challenge, ” he said.
“Australia’s fortunate to have a gifted Foreign Minister, one with both a diplomatic background, the language skills and the gravitas of having been a former prime minister.
“So doors open to Kevin Rudd around the world that no other foreign minister would have access to. So we are blessed to have him as part of the Labor team and I just hope that he gets on with the job of being a wonderful Foreign Minster.”
Mr Perrett says he and Mr Rudd are friends but the leadership speculation needs to be put to rest now for the sake of the party.
“He’s my next-door neighbour and you know he’s always looked after me, so I’m hoping he’ll continue to do that because at the moment this speculation is haemorrhaging votes out of the Labor brand,” he said.
federal-government,
government-and-politics,
alp,
gillard-julia,
rudd-kevin,
australia,
qld
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