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Post by Yossarian on Jun 23, 2010 18:58:34 GMT -4
Go Gillard!
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Deleted
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Oct 3, 2024 21:37:06 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2010 19:38:54 GMT -4
She's in!
(And now we have a ranga PM)
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Post by Yossarian on Jun 23, 2010 19:42:11 GMT -4
Yay yay yay! I'm all teary here!
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hal9000
Guest
Oct 3, 2024 21:37:06 GMT -4
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Post by hal9000 on Jun 24, 2010 10:18:02 GMT -4
It was good shit! Apart from the fact that we watched it go down at work via on the Today Show, that is. Remind me why Mia Freedman exists again? Oh yeah, to wear sequined minidresses at 6am and to read (her own) tweets about why it's okay to talk about Julia Gillard's hair, apparently. I should shut up before she googles herself and accuses me of being a cyber-bully.
KRudd is more manager than politician, and increasingly revealed he had no intention of working the party room or negotiating before announcing policy, to his detriment. I am fully behind the idea of PM Gillard, but I've got to say, his speech was one of the hardest things to watch; especially with his young son behind him, barely holding it in. It was like watching someone come to terms with death. Kudos to him to getting straight on the back bench, it's probably the best thing for him.
I for one am pleased that the Julia and Tony show will be thrust into the spotlight. In a different world, those two would totally be dating.
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Deleted
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Oct 3, 2024 21:37:06 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2010 5:17:39 GMT -4
They've got that kind of antagonistic-but-secretly-hot-for-each-other vibe, haven't they? I suspect that underneath the insults there's a lot of respect for each other.
I only watch commercial television when I'm forced to. Not like, gun to my head forced, but if I'm at work and my co-workers are watching commercial TV and not Austar. I particularly hate the Sunrise / Today Show people and the parade of irrelevant commentators they drag out. It's embarrassing to watch them opine on, well, anything, but particularly pop culture.
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Deleted
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Oct 3, 2024 21:37:06 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2010 12:17:11 GMT -4
Aussie Greecers, why did Kevin Rudd implode? Was it the economy?
Also, will the opposition leader be next prime minister in the next election? I'm an Australian political novice so any information is helpful.
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Deleted
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Oct 3, 2024 21:37:06 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2010 17:36:03 GMT -4
It all seemed to happen very quickly. Australia was lucky to avoid the worst of the global downturn, and it was mainly due to the Rudd government's quick action, although the previous government left a significant surplus. So the economy's okay so far, although of course people are saying that the world economy's not out of the woods yet.
My opinion is that while Rudd enjoyed strong popularity among the Australian people, he wasn't so popular with the rest of the Labor Party and the senior bureaucrats. He was renowned - or notorious, depending on your POV - for his exacting schedule and getting by on 4 hours' sleep a night. He also expected members of his staff and the bureaucracy to be available 24/7, which I kind of think is fair enough when you're running a country, but on the other hand even those running a country deserve their 8 hours every night. His campaign slogan in the 2007 election was 'Kevin 07', which unofficially became 'Kevin 24/7' after he took over as PM.
There's also a lot of talk that he would develop and implement policy without consultation with the rest of the party, and that he wasn't open to input from the rest of his party. He had a short temper - he reduced an Air Force stewardess to tears on one occasion when the only food on board the plane was a sandwich, and not the hot meal he ordered. I would want a hot meal quickly if I had a punishing schedule too, but it wasn't her fault.
So what I'm trying to say in a roundabout way is that I get the impression that a lot of people were waiting for an opportunity to get rid of him, and it came recently in the form of a proposed super-tax imposed on profits made by mining companies. Australia gets the bulk of its income from the resource sector, and mining companies already pay a lot in state taxes, federal taxes, royalties to various interests, salaries for workers, etc, and the mining industry basically said that they were going to take their bats and balls and go home if this tax was imposed. It made a lot of people in Australia nervous, because the government and the mining industry came to a stand off, but neither side managed to explain the tax well enough to put people's minds at ease. Rudd's popularity slid pretty quickly after that.
I certainly hope that the opposition leader doesn't become PM at the next election! Tony Abbott is a conservative Catholic who, when he was Health Minister in the previous government, set up a counselling hotline for pregnant women considering abortions that had very close links to the Catholic Church, and he also attempted to block the introduction of RU-486. Thankfully both failed.
I don't see the opposition winning the next election. The PM before Kevin Rudd (John Howard) was very socially conservative, but was politically savvy enough to temper it. I don't think Tony Abbott is. As well, I think Australians won't elect a new government just for the sake of it, there has to be a strong catalyst. In the 2007 election, it was a proposal called WorkChoices. Australia has a pretty strong labour union tradition, and we enjoy good working conditions as a result. The Howard government attempted to introduce a proposal (WorkChoices) that would allow workers to negotiate their own contracts with employees. It sounds good in theory, but I think most Australians just envisioned employers taking away any benefits they could get away with. If Julia Gillard can negotiate a truce with the mining industry then I think she'll win the next election.
That's a bit tl'dr, isn't it? I hope it helps explain things, and I'm sure the other Oz Greecies will be able to add to it.
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londonstill
Lady in Waiting
Posts: 272
Sept 8, 2007 23:10:19 GMT -4
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Post by londonstill on Jun 25, 2010 18:09:16 GMT -4
Evil Minion that was a great explanation! I've been trying to explain what has happened to a Canadian friend (and to myself) and your post really helped!
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Post by Yossarian on Jun 25, 2010 18:33:36 GMT -4
Great explanation, Evil Minion. And the short version is, as my friend put so succintly on Facebook,: "Kevin Rudd is a timeless morality tale for all the intelligent children out there who don't like to make friends." Truer words were never spoken.
I think the other crucial issue in his downfall was his lack of relationship with the unions. Most Labor powerbrokers have a union base but Rudd didn't. He was previously a diplomat and a bureaucrat and while he got to the top job through hard work and gumption the unions were always wary of him. And once he showed that he wasn't going to be consultative with them or within his Ministry (he pretty much concentrated power in a Gang of Four - four ministers with "super" portfolios rather than spreading the work across the govt) they actively started agitating for his replacement.
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Deleted
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Oct 3, 2024 21:37:06 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2010 3:57:05 GMT -4
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