rudd sets his sights to chifleys light on the

Bad budget would see them in trouble although they would have 2 years to bring in a vote winner.

**Mr Rudd warned that the party could not relax after winning November's federal election, saying a swing of less than 3 per cent would unseat Labor.**




Brad Norington | May 05, 2008
KEVIN Rudd has made an unlikely comparison between himself and Ben Chifley, declaring he wants to embody his legendary predecessor's vision of a "light on the hill".

The Prime Minister said yesterday that Chifley, who lost office in 1949 after trying to nationalise the banks, still served as a reminder of Labor's responsibility to reform and build for the future.

Speaking at the NSW ALP's annual conference, Mr Rudd marvelled that Chifley had been able to "seize the day" and achieve a series of nation-building reforms in just five years.

Chifley coined the phrase "the light on the hill" in his speech to the 1949 NSW party conference to embody Labor's quest for better standards in which people were given a "helping hand".

Possibly like Mr Rudd, Chifley was a dedicated "centralist" who sought to concentrate power in Canberra. But while introducing national projects such as the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme and launching the huge wave of post-war immigration, his government was ousted after planning to nationalise the banks.

Mr Rudd praised Chifley as a reformer and builder, listing projects from post-war reconstruction to the Australian National University. He said Chifley had not simply "drifted into the future" but shaped it, signalling that he hoped to emulate the reform agenda of Labor's hero in areas including health, education and indigenous policy.

Mr Rudd warned that the party could not relax after winning November's federal election, saying a swing of less than 3 per cent would unseat Labor.

With 10 new federal Labor MPs from NSW entering parliament at the last election, Mr Rudd paid tribute to the contribution of his party's largest state. He then launched into his homage to Chifley as a railway man from Bathurst in western NSW who had addressed the conference 60 years earlier.

But their backgrounds are vastly different. While Chifley was a largely self-taught train driver, Mr Rudd is a university-educated former diplomat fluent in Mandarin. He was a senior bureaucrat who ran Queensland premier Wayne Goss's cabinet office.

Chifley's philosophy was rooted in the ALP's socialist past, while Mr Rudd is focused more on the free market and a good relationship with business.

However, Mr Rudd's workload resonates with a lesser-known part of Chifley's June 12, 1949, speech: "They have not been easy times and it has not been an easy job. It is a man-killing job."

Six months later Labor lost government, and on June 13, 1951, Chifley died at the age of 65.