Then, as now, Labor is still ruled by its factional leaders. It takes courage to take them on, and high public approval to pull it off.
Gough did initially. Like Rudd later, the public loved him, but the party didn't. So when he stumbled, the factions pounced, In his case, it was the left insisting that their man, Jim Cairns, was put in place of Lance Barnard as deputy leader. Cairns was too weak and flawed for the role, and helped no end in Whitlam's downfall.
Rudd tried initially - he wasn't beholden to either faction, but had enormous public support. But he lacked Gough's courage, and failed to "crash through or crash" on the introduction of an ETS. When he faltered, it was this time the right who pounced and knifed him.
I don't see a Gough at the moment - or a Keating for that matter. Keating never enjoyed Gough's popularity (until they made a musical about him), but he's the only recent politician with a true vision of where he wanted to take Australia.
We have some capable Labor leaders in Chris Bowen, Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke. I think Albo is probably the only one whose heart would really be in tune with Gough, but he's more of a Labor scrapper than the grand visionary. It's certainly not Shorten - once again, the right-wing flexing its political muscles and giving Labor the leader the people don't want.
Gough saw what was needed and went ahead and did it. Today's pollies seem to spend too much time counting their numbers and looking at the polls to give serious thought to something as fundamental as what is good for the country.
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