Julia Gillard, Prime Minister
Hurrah! Something other than myself to write about.
A big part of me wants to send a sympathy card to Kevin Rudd (former PM). I don’t think it’s fair that he got booted. It certainly isn’t fair how visceral people have become about him. He did some great things, and no-one could have predicted the events of the last twenty-four hours.
But I’m still glad he’s gone. He was unpopular for pushing things through over-quickly, and for failing on various issues. There’s one thing, though, that trumps all: the world.
In Australia, we’re aware that an election is coming up. Tony Abbott (opposition leader) is a loose cannon – infamous for saying hilariously offensive remarks – and I shudder to think how he’d deal with power. But Kevin Rudd broke our hearts on climate change. I don’t know if he would have been able to actually make real change, but he gave up too early.
So now we have the unique opportunity to vote “none of the above”. We get to vote for Rudd’s party, while simultaneously punishing him for not fighting hard enough for “the greatest moral challenge of our time.”
Gillard has kept her integrity intact – so far. She consistently and emphatically backed Rudd until others asked her to challenge him. Then she spoke to him in person before she did anything official. Many believe that her party would have been voted out if she hadn’t stepped up, so she’s done the best thing for her party. I respect that.
So all our hopes are now pinned on her. And yes, it’s cool she’s a woman, but I deeply hope that’s not why she’s our new Prime Minister (because that would be sexist). My overwhelming impression is that she is competent. I like a competent PM. And she’s our best hope for better environmental responsibility – so she has my vote.
Felicity Banks 
World Wide News Flash said,
June 24, 2010 at 10:15 am
Julia Gillard, Prime Minister « crazy talk…
I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)…
Ben (Crispin) said,
June 24, 2010 at 11:34 am
…So, I take it that you haven’t heard that Gilliard was one of the main ones who pressured Rudd to drop the ETS…
Ann said,
June 24, 2010 at 12:21 pm
I think the major problem with Labor is that they are really BAD at communication and marketing. They have had some really big opportunities to hammer the opposition on some things and have totally dropped the ball. They could have blamed everything on the opposition for the ETS failure, but threw out all their good cards and played the rubbish instead….. Even avoiding a double dissolution election, they could have played it so much better. Ah well, I thionk Julia has Abbotts measure and Labor is safe, but it will probably be an interesting run to the polls!
Felicity Bloomfield said,
June 24, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Ben: Yeah I had heard. The wonderful thing about changing leaders is that you get to change party policy.
Ben (Crispin) said,
June 24, 2010 at 1:55 pm
…You CAN, but they most assuredly haven’t…
W said,
July 1, 2010 at 9:21 am
The first comment is spam, so I thought I’d leave a comment to balance it out.