Kevin Rudd's declaration that homelessness is dead wrong and his vow to intervene in this growing problem is surely a rerun of done-to-death emotional politics. Granted, there are genuine cases, but the public is well aware by now that many supposedly homeless people have options that they refuse to take. I see these people as akin to the well-to-do housewives who shoplift, apparently as a cry for help. The help they require is so often with internal conditions, not necessarily with external ones. That help if given would empower them to change the external factors. A declaration to that effect by the prime minister would be a sign of true leadership by a statesman who feels that grubby vote-begging exercises are beneath his dignity.