RUMOURS: Nicola Roxon May Not Be On Labor Frontbench After Next Election

One of Labor's senior frontbenchers, Shadow Health Minister Nicola Roxon is understood to have all but decided not to contest a position in the ministry or shadow ministry after the next election.

Roxon is a member of the moderate and patriotic Labor Unity faction, although is considered quite left-wing by many observers and distinguished herself by bartering her vote in the one-vote margin Leadership election which saw her help elect Mark Latham to become Leader of the Opposition. In return for her vote, he agreed to make her Shadow Attorney-General. And to be fair, up until that point, she had done a serviceable job as Shadow Minister for Children.

LATTE LEFTY
Her political instincts in the sensitive A-G portfolio could be reasonably summarised as "All Latte All The Time". It has taken Queenslander Joseph Ludwig for Labor to have a politically savvy and astute Attorney-General spokesperson, who reflects to the views of most Labor supporters on issues like preventing terrorism, rather than the prevailing wisdom in lefty barristers' chambers. (Greetings to our many readers from various chambers, how do you find the time?)

Some have said that she will plans on being in Canberra for a long time and that she considers her young family a priority at the moment.

BARREL GIRL - MCMANUS SAID IT, I DIDN'T
Her opponents have speculated - probably not correctly - that she enjoys little support from Leader Kevin Rudd. Patriot Gerard McManus of the Herald-Sun pointed this out in an interesting article (off-line) on Saturday.

He wrote:

Mr Rudd is a hard task master and is known to be unhappy with the performance of some front-benchers. The body language of the recent launch of Labor's health policy said a great deal when Mr Rudd explained everything and took every follow-up question, and has give some inside Labor to question whether Nicola Roxon will have the same role after the election.

One Labor MP suggested that the launch was a setback for Ms Roxon, who was made to look like a barrel girl standing beside game show host Rudd.

(McManus' article is really very good so we'll try to obtain a digital copy of the whole thing for your edification)

Calling feminista Nicola a "barrel girl" might well be enough for patriot Gerard to wish he had been "sent away" for refusing to disclose his confidential sources to a court, once she catches up with him with some kind of sharp object in Canberra. That aside, it's certainly an insight into the confidence Ruddster has in his Health spokesperson. For all her faults, I cannot imagine him doing that when Ms Gillard was the Shadow Health Minister.

THE POSITIONING
There has been widespread speculation (previously reported on the OC) that Kevin Rudd would - if he wins - seize control of the ministerial selection process which is elected by the caucus. Or perhaps just as likely in our view, threaten factional leaders with this in order to get the outcomes he wants.

This could spell trouble for Roxon if she chose to contest, although an open ballot among her Victorian Right colleagues might not help her much either according to some. All of these factors - in additional to personal ones - are believed to be weighing on the ambitious Gellibrand MP's mind.

Labor insiders have revealed that her relinquishing her spot in Labor's front-bench team would facilitate the entry of the likes of Bill Shorten, the candidate for Maribyrnong and Mark Dreyfus, the candidate for the marginal seat of Isaacs.

Game on.