New Day, New PM
Jun. 24th, 2010 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
4thofelevenJulia Gillard Prime Minister after Labor Leadership Challenge
What the hell? Seriously, what the hell?
You know, this is why I don’t do political analysis. My opinion had always been that the ‘leadership questions’ were purely a media-driven phenomena, and I wasn’t even considering that Rudd wouldn’t be leading the party to the next election. I guess one must admire Federal Labor’s ability to keep this under their hats until it was a fait accompli…
Anyway, Gillard. Not convinced she’s going to be as big a break from Rudd’s policies as some people seem to be assuming – I think her leftishness has always been overstated. On the plus side, this does give Labor a fresh and popular face –and an excuse to move away from some of its less popular policies without losing face.
Regarding Rudd; well, my opinion of him is basically the same as most people’s – very impressed with him initially, and then a stream of disappointments. On immigration, he seemed determined to engage in a fruitless race to the bottom with the opposition. Emissions trading was abandoned. Aboriginal issues are being handled largely the same as they were under Howard. The internet filter remained on the table. There’s very little positive you can point to and say “That was Rudd’s work” – and he suffered from the Obama syndrome of making very nice speeches that don’t actually mean anything when analysed. When it came to actually defending specific policies – eg, the mining tax – he seemed unable to actually communicate his position.
On the other hand, I do think he would have won the election nonetheless – Abott remains deeply unpopular, and while Labor was losing votes, they were mainly flowing to the Greens. Gillard probably will mean Labor will hold onto a few seats they would have lost otherwise. Whether she will actually govern differently than Rudd, though… well, I’m sceptical.
As for “Australia’s first woman Prime Minister” – eh, I’m going to save the celebrations until she wins the election. It is kinda fun that we’ve now got a female monarch, a female governor-general and a female head of government at the same time… Has Canada or New Zealand ever had that?
EDIT: And, you know what? After glancing at a few sites, I think I'm going to avoid all online discussion of Gillard for a while. *sigh*
What the hell? Seriously, what the hell?
You know, this is why I don’t do political analysis. My opinion had always been that the ‘leadership questions’ were purely a media-driven phenomena, and I wasn’t even considering that Rudd wouldn’t be leading the party to the next election. I guess one must admire Federal Labor’s ability to keep this under their hats until it was a fait accompli…
Anyway, Gillard. Not convinced she’s going to be as big a break from Rudd’s policies as some people seem to be assuming – I think her leftishness has always been overstated. On the plus side, this does give Labor a fresh and popular face –and an excuse to move away from some of its less popular policies without losing face.
Regarding Rudd; well, my opinion of him is basically the same as most people’s – very impressed with him initially, and then a stream of disappointments. On immigration, he seemed determined to engage in a fruitless race to the bottom with the opposition. Emissions trading was abandoned. Aboriginal issues are being handled largely the same as they were under Howard. The internet filter remained on the table. There’s very little positive you can point to and say “That was Rudd’s work” – and he suffered from the Obama syndrome of making very nice speeches that don’t actually mean anything when analysed. When it came to actually defending specific policies – eg, the mining tax – he seemed unable to actually communicate his position.
On the other hand, I do think he would have won the election nonetheless – Abott remains deeply unpopular, and while Labor was losing votes, they were mainly flowing to the Greens. Gillard probably will mean Labor will hold onto a few seats they would have lost otherwise. Whether she will actually govern differently than Rudd, though… well, I’m sceptical.
As for “Australia’s first woman Prime Minister” – eh, I’m going to save the celebrations until she wins the election. It is kinda fun that we’ve now got a female monarch, a female governor-general and a female head of government at the same time… Has Canada or New Zealand ever had that?
EDIT: And, you know what? After glancing at a few sites, I think I'm going to avoid all online discussion of Gillard for a while. *sigh*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2010-06-24 12:23 pm (UTC)Oh, online discussion. I've only ventured as far as Crikey so far, but I don't think I'll go too much farther. I can well imagine the fun elsewhere.
no subject
on 2010-06-29 12:47 am (UTC)