KEVIN RUDD will do little to quell leadership talk today with another appearance on the Queensland state election campaign trail. But the event will also be personal.
The former prime minister will visit the pivotal seat of Ashgrove, held by Labor's Kate Jones. It is being sought by the Liberal-National Party Opposition Leader, Campbell Newman, who does not have a seat in the Queensland Parliament and must win it to become premier.
Mr Rudd will address an assembly at Marist College Ashgrove, where he was sent as a boarder mid-way through 1969 after his father died.
Mr Rudd spent two miserable and lonely years at the school. He later said ''I didn't like it'' and in a 2010 essay written by the Herald's David Marr, Mr Rudd had ''never since encouraged Ashgrove to claim him as its own''.
He has since repaired his relationship with the school and during today's visit with Ms Jones he will address a student assembly. It will be Mr Rudd's second visit to Ashgrove since the Premier, Anna Bligh, called an election for March 24.
Mr Rudd's supporters believe that should Labor be wiped out in Queensland, momentum will build for a federal change of leadership. Queensland will be the most crucial state at the next election and Julia Gillard is unpopular there.
With the leadership tension now chronic within the government, a Rudd supporter admitted yesterday that Mr Rudd had not yet challenged because he still did not have the numbers. It is estimated there are about 30 of the 103-strong caucus who are undecided and Mr Rudd has about 26 solid votes.
One of those believed to be firmly in the Rudd camp, the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, fuelled speculation he would be the treasurer under Mr Rudd by writing a newspaper column about the economy.
He was taunted all day by Liberals for auditioning for the treasurer's job while asylum seekers continued to arrive.
Those plotting Mr Rudd's return believe the momentum shift is all one way and one said should the numbers materialise before the Queensland election, then Mr Rudd would move.
A cabinet minister who does not support Mr Rudd told the Herald yesterday that he could not serve under Mr Rudd and would shift to the backbench.
The minister also warned that the loyalty and disciplines Mr Rudd was afforded when prime minister - including the covering up of his shortcoming and the way he treated people - would not be provided again.
In Parliament yesterday, the opposition sought to exploit Labor's unrest by attempting to censure the government for being dysfunctional and divided. The opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne described the government as a gangrenous limb that needed to be excised. The shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, spoke of ''the calcification of the aorta of the Australian government''.
As passions burned in the final sitting day until the week after next, Tony Abbott's chief of staff, Peta Credlin, was reprimanded for heckling both Ms Gillard and her minister Anthony Albanese from the advisers' enclosure during question time.
Witnesses said Ms Credlin, among other things, told Mr Albanese to ''bugger off''.
Email a friend