The reason the Federal ALP members of Parliament dumped
Julia Gillard is that all the polling clearly indicated that they were going
to be wiped out at the next election & that they would do much better with Rudd
as leader.
You cannot summarise Gillard's performance as Prime Minister easily.
The way she became Prime Minister when Rudd was deposed
& Rudd's continual destabilisation dogged her leadership & cost her an election win
that would have given her majority Government.
She has managed to form a Government in a "hung Parliament" and implement several major policy reforms, whether you agree with them, or not.
eg Carbon pricing, the thing that John Howard, Malcolm Turnbull & Rudd were
incapable of achieving.
National Disability Insurance Scheme.
But She also kept making political mistakes, eg the "No Carbon Tax" promise.
cutting Welfare for single mothers, supporting David Feeney ( a Senator & ex Trade
Union power broker ) for pre selection for the "safe ALP" seat of Batman over a
talented woman.
She is also hated by the Right wing "Patriarchal Conservatives"
eg Andrew Bolt ( a disaffected white South African refugee )
Alan Jones ( radio shock jock ) with his "Ditch the Witch" fellow travellers,
Howard Sattler ( sacked by Fairfax media for asking an offensive question of Gillard )
and countless others.
Rupert Murdoch's papers have run hard against the ALP Federal Govt for 6 years
( and he controls over 80% of Australia's print media ),
most notably his "the Australian" national newspaper has been a ferocious critic
Her problem is that too many Australians have just "switched off & do not listen to her
at all".
She has been opposed by a "hard line Jesuit trained Conservative" in Tony Abbott who, in my opinion has played a "vicious negative personal attack based campaign"
for a long time. He has played the "small policy target role" to perfection.
As an example of the hypocracy of Tony Abbott consider his "policy alternative" to a
market based Carbon Pollution Reduction policy---his "Direct Action" policy--
taxpayer funded, central beaurocrat directed rubbish that has me asking as this comes
from the political party that supposedly supports "Free Market economic theory",
the question, "was Tony Abbott more influenced by the Soviets than the Jesuits ?"
Another example of Tony Abbotts hypocracy is his "Stop the Boats" campaign,
it's worth noting that he has started to "revise" this "political promise" and it's now become "We'll try to significantly reduce the flow of boats by the end of our first term in Government" ( he's started to realise that what he says he would do is just impossible )
There is a considerable difference between a "promise to do a thing" and a
"promise to try to do part of a thing after 3 years have elapsed" in my opinion.
Anyway the electorate that has done best in terms of receiving Government funds
over the last 3 years has been the electorate of Tony Windsor, one of the 4
independent Parliamentarians that supported the minority Gillard Government.
The inescapable conclusion is that if you want planty of funding for schools, public
health services etc etc in your community, then live in a "swinging seat" and /or
elect an independent candidate.
I'm doomed in that respect, I live in Mayo, formerly Alexander Downer's seat.
At least with Downer we had a chap who was a Senior Minister & memeber of Howard's "inner Cabinet"
Now we have a Liberal party apparatchik,a former Liberal Party staffer who had a
taxpayer funded job in John Howard's Dept of Prime Minister & Cabinet, as an
Industrial Relations advisor -- one of the architects of "work choices", that he lost
when Howard lost Government. The Factional Power brokers within the local Liberal
party installed him as the pre selected candidate for this "Blue Ribbon" safe Liberal
seat instead of a capable local long term party member and Dairy Farmer -----
-- the uninspiring Jamie Briggs, who whenever I watch Parliament Question Time is
either being warned by the Speaker for breaching various Standing Rules or being
booted out for similar offences.
An "ambitious little turk", in my opinion, who I think devotes more energy to internecine
warfare as a "stooge" for Christopher "poodle" Pyne, than he does representing the
punters in the local electorate.
We are stuffed with Briggs-- a minor character in the Liberal Party ranks, who will be
just one of many over ambitious backbenchers / minor functionaries in a possible
Tony Abbott Government, all busy brown nosing the Party Power brokers.
I was talking to a local property owner ( 50 something white male, owns properties
worth squillions, and surprisingly a long term ALP supporter ) and he was a passionate
Gillard supporter. He was really angry at the "unfair criticism to which she has been
relentlessly subjected " ( his opinion ) and said that "after she's gone" people will look
back at her "like that fabulous girlfriend you had that you dumped, and now cannot
understand why you dumped her & want her back " ( again, his opinion )
whatever your opinion, she's in the history of this nation as our first female Prime
Minister. As for me, I'm glad those Pommy blighters had Thatcher & we had Gillard. They both had / have virtues & vices.
Thatcher represents the last century, Gillard represents the new century -
- our "brave new world".
One thing's for sure, Abbott and the Conservatives would have rather faced
Gillard than Rudd at the next election,
and it's worth noting they already have started the "personal negative attack
advertising" against Rudd,
rather than advertising & discussing a comprehensive set of superior policy iniatives
that they might have.
Pause error?
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