So who is the next ALP leader?

Yesterday the Fairfax press had a piece speculating on the next ALP leader. Looks like their thinking about the post-Julia world.

Four names got mentioned: Bill Shorten, Greg Combet, Chris Bowen and Kevin Rudd. Shorten, Combet and Rudd we all know. Bowen has been flying under the radar a bit. Okay, he is the immigration minister and has had an appalling year – but it seems he is known for his “economics brain”. I hope not. He is the minister behind FuelWatch and the bungled tax changes to employee share ownership schemes in 2009.

Anyway Ken Parish suggests another contender – Bob Carr (as a contender to replace Gillard before the next election).

Carr has the stature and assured, commanding presence needed in such a situation. He certainly wouldn’t be rattled by a one trick pony bovver boy like Tony Abbott. The faceless men would need to make sure that he has no significant Obeid/Tripodi skeletons in his closet, but presumably the Coalition dirty tricks team would already have pulled them out if they existed.

I can only assume that Carr hasn’t to date entered seriously into Press Gallery leadership speculation for the simple reason that he’s currently a Senator, and Prime Minister is generally regarded as a position held by the parliamentary leader of the party holding an effective majority in the Lower House (House of Reps). However that is not a formal constitutional or legal requirement, indeed the office of Prime Minister is not even mentioned in Australia’s Constitution. It is simply an unwritten rule or convention that the PM is a member of the House of Reps. Constraints against breach of such conventions are solely political not legal.

Read the whole thing – it is a good argument with Ken dealing with all the issues that could bedevil such a move.

The only downside to the argument is that has Carr out at $15. Gillard is at $1.33 – Bowen at $151.