Sydney: Australian Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd was under fire on Monday over startling comments in which he
admitted that he had let down voters and needed to do better,
as elections loom.
In the surprising mea culpa on national television,
Rudd said being in power was harder than he had expected, and
while the government was meeting most of the commitments made
during the 2007 election, it had fallen short on others.
"Look, I think it is quite plain that one of the
problems that we have had as a government, for which I accept
responsibility, is that we didn't anticipate how hard it was
going to be to deliver things," he said yesterday.
"So we need to lift our game, I need to lift my game
in terms of delivering on these undertakings, that's fair
criticism."
Rudd, a former diplomat who has enjoyed record
approval ratings since becoming prime minister in November
2007, said his centre-left Labour government deserved the
"whacking" it was taking in the polls.
He said while the government had successfully
managed the global financial crisis, it had been too ambitious
with a hospital reform plan and had to "get on" with its
climate change agenda.
The comments rankled some members of his
government, who described them as a risky move after a poll
published over the weekend showed Labour's lead slipping from
52.7 per cent of the vote at the 2007 election to 50 per cent.
PTI
First Published: Monday, March 01, 2010, 13:25