Crunch day for the ALP

Whilst the New Zealand Labour Party takes in the bad news delivered by last night's Roy Morgan poll its Australian counterpart faces a nervous day as well. Australia's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will release a report today with "adverse findings" against two senior Labor figures in NSW politics.

Kevin Rudd is understandably nervous; News.com.au reports:

IF you throw enough mud some of it will stick.

There's plenty of dirt on the Australian Labor Party contained in a major NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) report released on Wednesday.
The two key Labor figures facing adverse findings - former NSW ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald - have been expelled from the party and face criminal charges over the alleged corrupt granting of mining licences.
The federal coalition is keen to ensure the taint spreads all the way to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's office.
"Today is a black day in the history of the Labor party," Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said.
"The NSW disease has well and truly come to Canberra."
While there's no mention of Rudd in the 174-page ICAC document, it does spend three pages explaining how factions influence the NSW ALP.
These are the same factions that threw their significant weight behind Rudd's return to the federal leadership in June, and helped overthrow him three years earlier in favour of Julia Gillard.

One right-wing sub-faction "in effect ... had control over the ALP", ICAC said.

This really is a nightmare for Kevin Rudd; his "zero tolerance" policy towards corruption is hollow given that these men are among those who backed Rudd's destabilisation of Julia Gillard, and his subsequent leadership coup. He cannot simply wipe away history.

And there's more to come; read on:

Rudd and Labor will also be concerned about another ICAC report expected in August, probably during the federal election campaign.
It will examine a coal exploration licence granted by Macdonald to a company run by ex-union boss John Maitland and entrepreneurs.
The inquiry called two senior federal MPs to the witness stand - NSW Senator Doug Cameron and former minister Greg Combet.
Two others, Stephen Conroy and Tony Burke, were also mentioned as having been offered free accommodation at Obeid's Perisher Valley ski lodge.
The ICAC hearings have been keenly followed by voters in NSW's 48 federal seats.

The timing of these reports from the ICAC couldn't be worse for Rudd and Labor. The reports do nothing to diminish perceptions that Labor has a rotten streak running through it.

And unsurprisingly, the Liberals have been quick to respond, with this image doing the rounds:

Kevin Rudd's honeymoon is well and truly over.