Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard was Australia's first and only female Prime Minister, but isn't anywhere near the same level of authority or infamy as Britain's Margaret Thatcher. Her birth certificate indicates she comes from Wales, where she was born from at least one Australian parent, hence why she was allowed to be Prime Minister.
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[edit] From backbencher to Prime Minister
Starting off as a political bench warmer, she was chosen to be Kevin Rudd's deputy while he led Labor, becoming the first female deputy leader in Australian politics. Her recognition grew the more she criticized Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister in 2007, who lost a huge amount of his popularity from several PR-damaging legislative mistakes. When she challenged him for the position of Labor Leader, Rudd resigned hours before the election was supposed to happen, conceding the Premiership to her. When the 2010 elections resulted in a hung parliament, Gillard negotiated the support of one Green MP and three Independent MPs in order to ensure a Labor majority.
[edit] Rivalry with Rudd
She chose Kevin Rudd as Minister for Foreign Affairs, in an apparent showing of good faith for giving her the Premiership, but one that would lead to her downfall in retrospect. Since she was in a hung parliament, Gillard ran the Cabinet relatively more cautiously than her predecessor, in an attempt to cater to the independents and third party forces who held the balance of power. With her approval rating very quickly dissipating, tensions grew between Gillard and Rudd over the leadership of Labor as well as that of the Premiership.
There was a soap opera quality going on between the two: in one speech, Gillard mentioned every Labor Prime Minister since World War II with the exception of Kevin Rudd; pro-Gillard Laborites loudly and publicly denounced the idea of Rudd returning as Prime Minister; pro-Rudd Laborites loudly and publicly called for Gillard to resign amidst unpopularity; pro-Gillard Laborites demonized Rudd as an egomaniac who failed to get the job done in a dysfunctional cabinet; pro-Rudd Laborites criticized her mismanagement and lack of strength while consolidating support for him behind the scenes; and pro-Gillard Laborites pleaded for her to circumvent Rudd in any way to prevent a leadership challenge, either by sacking him, reducing his support outside the Cabinet or by simply handling issues better. There was so much Lulzy vitriol that it was a joy to watch.
The rivalry between the two eventually came to clashes between ideology as much as it was poor leadership in the party. Kevin Rudd was consistantly part of the "Labor Left" which was socially liberal (by Australian standards anyways) and supportive of Keynesian economics. Gillard started out similarly but eventually came to represent the more socially conservative and economically centrist "Labor Right", eventually settling her as too centrist for Rudd's taste.
When he had enough of the character assassinations, Rudd resigned as Minister of Foreign Affairs, citing Gillard's unwillingness to condemn the attacks on his character as the reason. After a while of deliberating with his family, Rudd took to a press conference to outline his own vision for Australia and his desire to "save" Australia from Tony Abbott. In a move that all but confirmed he would challenge Gillard at last, he expressed doubt that Gillard would have beaten Abbott in an election. Immediately thereafter, Gillard announced a leadership spill on February 23rd, 2012 and launched the proceeds to an election later that week.
Due to the still-fresh memories of Rudd's descent to unpopularity, Gillard won the support of most of the ministers; she was able to portray Rudd as "chaotic and dysfunctional" and claimed that he viewed the ballot process as "an episode of Celebrity Big Brother". For his part, he accused her of betraying him in 2010, portrayed her as an untrustworthy power-grabber and called her credibility into question. Gillard overwhelmingly defeated Rudd in the leadership ballot, by 71 votes to 31. In a vain attempt to end the rivalry, Rudd returned to the backbenches as he had promised and pledged his loyalty to Gillard, refusing to challenge her in another leadership spill.
His supporters didn't get the memo, however. On March 2013, Cabinet Minister Simon Crean called on Gillard to resign, so she launched a second leadership election. Rudd did not run, leaving Gillard as the only candidate on the leadership ballot. When she won unopposed, Crean was sacked from Cabinet. Just 'cause Gillard loves being a history maker, this marked the first time an incumbent Labor leader was elected unopposed at a leadership ballot. Six different pro-Rudd ministers and ALP members resigned afterwards, with Rudd definitively saying that he would not ever challenge her leadership again.
Until a few months later, that is, because this wouldn't be a soap opera without broken promises. The public wisely grew sick of Labor's mismanagement of government (and that's the kindest way we can put it), which showed in how persistently negative the opinion polling became. When the disapproval from the public indicated that Labor would lose the next election, members of the ALP were finally convinced that Gillard was bad news, to the point where many identified Rudd - who had become a sympathetic martyr by this point - as the only feasible replacement. Gillard again announced a third leadership spill, with Rudd predictably being her challenger; both were committed to retiring from politics in the event of a loss.
Once Rudd won, Gillard resigned as Prime Minister and Labor Leader for good. Her retirement from politics effectively ended the rivalry. Rudd, meanwhile, called upon the Governor-General to issue writs for an election on 7 September. To the surprise of nobody, Rudd utterly failed when up against Tony Abbott. He lost a significant amount of Labor seats to the Liberals and his Premiership bid was defeated in a landslide. Rudd himself immediately retired from politics in the aftermath, putting a final and fitting end to the coffin.
Oh, she was once chased off by Aboriginal protesters on Australia Day. That day of glorious celebration of white imperialist genocide. No doubt they were planted there by Rudd![1]
[edit] Pro-life Atheist?
As an unmarried childless atheist,[2] she spent her time as Prime Minister opposing same-sex marriage and expanding federal funding for religious chaplains in state schools, demonstrating once again that you can't always pick 'em.
[edit] Occasional pwnage
After calling out Tony Abbott for accusing her of supporting a sexist House Speaker, the Australian Macquarie Dictionary decided to update its definition of misogyny from "strictly meaning a hatred of women to also denote an entrenched prejudice against women."[3]
[edit] Conspiracy theories
Because of her affiliation with a Fabian Socialist society in her youth, Gillard has been regarded by many right-wing conspiracy cranks as a secret Satanist secretly working with the Illuminati to advance the New World Order's agenda in Australia.[4]
In 2011, Gillard appointed the environmentally enthusiastic Tim Flannery as chief commissioner of the Australian Climate Commission, an independent body aimed at increasing the public awareness of climate change. Many libertarian conspiracy theorists have viewed this appointment as crucial in the New World Order's agenda in Australia.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Australia Day 2012 protests.
- ↑ Gillard Won't Play Religion Card ABC (the Australian one)
- ↑ Aussie dictionary to redefine misogyny
- ↑ Yes, to no surprise, Henry Makow. [1]
| Australian Politicians | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ann Bressington - Clive Palmer - Fred Nile - Jacqui Lambie - Pauline Hanson - Scott Ludlam - Tony Abbott - | ||