The extent of Rudd’s chicanery knows no bounds.
My research tells me that his almost unequalled proficiency in the art of public fraud has most likely been inherited from his distant-relative, Lia-lia Pantsonfia, the famous 19th century Italian dancer, cheap hooker and flim-flam artist. Observing the modus-operandi of Trade Union officials, such as Craig Thompson, as they rose successfully through the ranks fine-tuned his prodigious natural talents and made him conclude: “hey, this is for me.” Some other commentators have discounted all of the above, noting the fact that Rudd really can’t seem to help himself and point to the probable root cause as having caught some incurable exotic disease, perhaps while learning Mandarin from Chinese take-away menus.

Whatever the reasons, renaming the Carbon Tax to the Emissions Trading Scheme a few weeks out from the general elections equates to nothing less than a frantic attempt to hoodwink the Australian public: a massive scramble to fiddle the books before a pending tax audit.  It amounts to a shameless, calculated attempt to swindle the voters through a gigantic fraud, something which the electorate should nevertheless be able to see right through and publicly condemn in the strongest possible terms. But with Rudd’s personal standing now riding so high in the opinion polls, a clear indication that the public don’t care two hoots about what he says because they despise Tony Abbott so much, I and the Labor Party have no alternative but to stand aside and loudly applaud.