KEVIN Rudd has placed both his sons
in key election roles in an 'all-in-the-family' move that has ruffled
feathers within Labor's campaign team.
Youngest son Marcus, 20, has joined the ALP's digital campaign team
- and has already caused a stir after suggesting the use of a video
from the TV satire, The Hollowmen.
And there are signs of renewed
tensions emerging within Labor's campaign machine following the June
leadership coup against Julia Gillard.
A senior strategist, Nathan
Lambert, has been moved into a new role to make way for NSW state
secretary and Rudd loyalist Sam Dastyari, provoking a fiery attack from
Mr Lambert's father via email.
The Prime Minister's older son,
Nicholas, 24, has been on the ALP payroll for several weeks as a key
adviser to his father.Marcus has joined the ALP's digital campaign team -
which will be bolstered by the import of several members of Barack
Obama's campaign squad - as a volunteer. But the youngest of the Rudd
children caused bemusement when he suggested the release of a Hollowmen
clip - only to be told the satirical series was loosely based on his
father's first stint.
The appointments have not been met with universal acclaim. "People
are pretty p****d off that both Rudd's sons are going to be there," a
senior Government adviser said.
Meanwhile, John Lambert, father of
Labor's assistant national secretary, has written to a federal Labor MP
and lashed out at the Prime Minister's reputation for being a tough and
unrelenting boss.
In an email obtained by News Corp Australia, Mr
Lambert claims his son was moved after he tried to "negotiate a
compromise" over the campaign budget - and he points the finger at Mr
Rudd.
Mr Lambert Snr, in the email to Victorian MP Darren
Cheeseman, claims he has "known for a long time that many of those who
work around Kevin (Rudd) are poorly looked after by Kevin and his
closest advisers - his staff turnover and arguable bullying have made
the news regularly".
Mr Lambert says he was "appalled with the fact that Nathan had done
an excellent job of setting things in place for the campaign including
having funding allocated - but then Kevin had a 'good idea' to bring in
some US citizens 'first class' to assist and his henchmen then demanded
20% of Nathan's budget".
"When Nathan tried to negotiate a
compromise they set about getting rid of him - absolute bullying of the
worst kind," Mr Lambert said.
Last night, Mr Lambert wrote to Mr Cheeseman and claimed his earlier email, sent on Monday,
was the result of a "big misunderstanding and I'd like to retract what I said earlier as it's just not right".
Labor sources also insist Mr Lambert has not been demoted and that he was a "respected and valued" member of the campaign team.
He will be in charge of data management while Mr Dastyari will be based in the Melbourne HQ to manage marginal seat operations.
news.com.au 1 Aug 2013
Australian politics truly a business for the family.
Unskilled and not capable of the tasks, but as long as 'father' puts him there, is all that matters.
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