A lot of Aussies were pissed off with Julia not because of the "carbon tax" issue hyped by the corporate media but because of the way that Rudd was deposed. He annoyed the mining companies with a proposed tax on their enormous profits, they got on the phone to his shit-scared colleagues and got him knifed while in office putting Julia in his place.
It's a lovely little narrative that resonates deeply with the Australian public, but has bugger-all to do with reality. Fact is, both Rudd and Gillard are and were quite conservative and pro-business despite being in the more "left wing" of Australia's two main parties. Rudd happily bought in to the lie of Hussein's WMD's when he was in opposition and, although he's changed his stance on gay marriage since he was staunchly opposed to it when he was leader of the opposition and when he was PM.
End of the day-he's just another hack from one of the two approved parties(tm) of a western industrial democracy. Brits familiar with their own Labour party and Americans who know anything about Democrats know exactly what I'm talking about!
