They love him here 'downunder' too! Ignore Number 1 and his sour grapes comment. Rudd has astronomically high PM approval ratings in opinion polls here.

There has been change here on several fronts, particularly re Aboriginal/mainstream relations, industrial issues, and the economy which has outperformed all other major industrialised economies throughout the GFC.

If Rudd has failed on climate change it's not for want of of trying, but rather bastardry on the part of the Coalition of conservatives here who betrayed their own leader and earlier election commitments for an Emissions Trading Scheme.

The leader of the Opposition here is on his bike, literally, most of the time and his Finance spokesman has trouble differentiating between millions when billions when talking up the horrors of our National Debt which in fact is miniscule compared with most modern industrial economies.

His Health Reforms I think he'll carry in the face of dollar demands from State governments here reluctant to give up control to the Federal Governmnet but unwilling to forego the funding they see available if they do conform.

It's true Rudd and his government are having problems differentiating themselves from the right on issues relating to boat people arrivals, mainly because the Coalition Opposition see it as their one and only strength and they seize every opportunity to stir up xenophobic hysteria here. I'm disappointed that Rudd hasn't found a way to circumvent them. I suspect Australians are too polarised on the issue for him to take a principled stand and lead in the way that many of us on the left would like. He's a politician after all, not a kamikaze pilot.