Australian prime minister resigns after losing party leadership challenge
POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Monday, December 23, 2024 17:42
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Well, she did her best, and hopefully you guys will still move forward. All the sexism her time in office brought to light may help, or so I can hope?Quote:
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard resigned Wednesday after the Australian Labor Party voted her out of its leadership.
She had called for the vote herself after months of inner-party friction ahead of a general election due in September.
Her rival, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, takes her place as party leader, after winning the internal ballot in a 57-45 vote, according to an ALP spokesman.
He is now Australia's de facto prime minister and could be sworn in within hours, if Australian Governor-General Quentin Bryce approves him for the office. The governor-general represents Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.
Rudd, who was elected in 2007 but was ousted by Gillard in a leadership challenge in 2010, said he returns to the office of prime minister with "humility, with honor and with an important sense of energy and purpose."
He said the negative politics holding Australia back in recent years "must stop," and that he will strive to achieve this goal as prime minister.
He also paid tribute to Gillard as "a woman of extraordinary intelligence, of great strength and great energy," and said she had achieved remarkable reforms despite heading a minority government.
In her own news conference, Gillard said she was grateful to have had the opportunity to lead her country.
"This privilege was truly humbling. I thank the Australian Labor Party for that privilege and I thank the Australian people for their support," she said.
"When I first put myself forward for consideration for Labor leader in 2010, I had the overwhelming support of my colleagues to do so. I thank them for that. And I thank them for giving the opportunity to me not only to serve the nation but to serve as the first female prime minister of this country."
Gillard said she had written to the governor-general to inform her of the ballot result and asking her to commission Rudd as prime minister. She will go to see Bryce later Wednesday. http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/26/world/asia/australia-leadership-vote/ind
ex.html?hpt=hp_t2
Apparently it's pretty complex, Magons, from what I'm reading. Quote:
Rudd is widely popular with Australian voters, who go to the polls in September to pick a new parliament and government. The ALP has not felt confident it could take an election victory with Gillard at its helm.
Tony Abbott, leader of the official opposition Liberal Party of Australia, accused the ALP of focusing on politics over good government.
In a news conference, he said the people of Australia "deserve better than this," and appealed for voters to back his party if they want a strong, stable and unified government.
"Just a couple of simple facts," Abbott said. "In 2007, you voted for Kevin and got Julia. In 2010, you voted for Julia and got Kevin. If you vote for the Labor Party in 2013, who knows who you will end up with?"
Referring to the upcoming election battle, Rudd said he had finally decided to contest his party's leadership because "it's simply not in my nature to stand idly by and to allow an Abbott government to come to power in this country by default."
The internal leadership vote followed months of rivalry and division within the ALP.
Rudd's supporters within the ALP circulated a petition calling for him to challenger Gillard's leadership, but he initially refrained. In the meantime, at least eight of the ministers in Gillard's Cabinet resigned, purging decades of experience from her government.
This week the prime minister had had enough. Despite no official challenge from any rival, she put her power on the chopping block and handed her party the ax.
"I do think it's in the best interests of the nation -- and in the best interests
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I have my doubts that this is as civilized and nice as it sounds. Instead, sounds to me like politics as usual, with a nice dose of sexism that chased the former Prime Minister out of power just so the ALP felt like it had a better chance at an election.
That isn't respectable, that isn't standing on principles. It's downright mercenary is what it is, and encourages the norms and status quo of the prevailing attitudes that we've seen recently.
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Of course it is, that's obvious. But what American politician would do anything like this, for the good of the party, the people, or anyone else??
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Quote:
would do anything like this, for the good of the party, the people, or anyone else??
This is where I become lost. Technically this wasn't done for any of those reasons. This was a sacrifice performed for power, and she was the sacrificial lamb.
However, her party leaders MIGHT reward her loyalty with a cushy corporate or campaign management position. In America she'd also have a chance at getting into a non-elected appointed position.
Ultimately, politics is pretty much the same everywhere. And intolerance exists everywhere as well. Including in the Former Prime Minister's own party.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
Of course it is, that's obvious. But what American politician would do anything like this, for the good of the party, the people, or anyone else??
So old, and still so naive.
*smile*
Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen
Resident USA Freedom Fundie
" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall
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I wish I could post some suitable response on this thread, but unfortunately I don't know how to post obscene gestures.
Too raw too soon
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Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
I wish I could post some suitable response on this thread, but unfortunately I don't know how to post obscene gestures.
Too raw too soon
Does it help that no on here is gleefully taunting you over recent events ? I mean, someone COULD do that, if they were so inclined. But that no one is, doesn't that make you feel a wee bit better ?
Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen
Resident USA Freedom Fundie
" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall
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Magons, when you've had a chance to deal with your feelings, I very much would like to hear what you have to say. Meanwhile, here's one commentator's view:Quote:
Rudd Redux: The High Electoral Stakes Behind Australia’s P.M. Switch
The swearing-in Thursday of Kevin Rudd as Australia’s Prime Minister — for the second time — is a political coup worthy of Game of Thrones and takes place just over three years after he was ousted by previous incumbent Julia Gillard in a manner identical to the way in which she came to power. On Wednesday, Rudd emerged from a snap Labor Party leadership ballot (known in Australia as a spill) with a resounding 57-45 victory over Gillard, who called for the vote following months of speculation that she was losing support within the party and across the country. Polls have been consistently predicting a Labor rout, should Gillard remain at the party helm during the national elections in September.
Rudd will now fight that election and is under no illusions about the enormity of the task that lies ahead of him. At a packed late-night press conference in the capital, Canberra, on Wednesday evening, he conceded that the Labor government’s future “is not guaranteed.” But the second-time Prime Minister is a master campaigner. During last night’s acceptance speech, he got straight down to business, wooing young voters by empathizing with their view of the political system as a “huge national turn off,” and courting heartland voters with the promise of “a big future for Australian manufacturing.” Projections show that he could even the odds of a Labor victory — and even tip them in his favor — if he brings the election forward to cash in on his honeymoon period with the electorate.
Rudd proved to be an utterly dysfunctional leader in his first term in office. His ill-fated attempt to introduce a mining industry super-profits tax two months before his ousting in 2010 saw $16 billion wiped off the share market value of Australian mining companies and sparked a war with the powerful Minerals Council of Australia. Rudd’s concurrent decision to postpone the emissions trading scheme — one of his key campaign promises in 2007 — left him looking spineless.
Yet it was Rudd’s inability to work with others that ultimately cost him the Prime Ministership. Environment Minister Tony Burke described Rudd’s leadership style as “chaotic,” “undermining” and hamstrung by “micromanagement.” Federal Labor member Simon Crean said Rudd put “his own self-interest ahead of the interests of the broader labor movement and the county as a whole.” Added former attorney general Nicola Roxon: “We need to lance this boil.”
So why does he remain such a popular public figure?
“That is the irony of this,” says Professor Zareh Ghazarian from the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University. “What we have seen over the past few years is that voters seem to have forgiven Rudd for his errors the first time around, and think he was hard done by when he was ousted by his own party in 2010. Australians are all about giving people a ‘fair go’ and since Rudd didn’t get that the first time around, voters seem to want to give him a second chance.”
However, with the Labor Party in disarray following the departure last night of a number of high-profile ministers and apparatchiks, Rudd 2.0 will be a harder sell. His new team may also face a backlash from female voters displeased with the unceremonious 11th-hour dumping of Australia’s first female Prime Minister.
Emerging red-eyed a few hours after the defeat, Gillard made a dignified valediction speech and wished her former colleagues success. She also lambasted the opposition for an appalling string of sexist attacks. In 2007, Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan said Gillard was not fit to lead the country because she had chosen not to have children and was thus deliberately “barren.” Earlier this month, a dish on the menu at a $1,000-a-head Liberal fundraising lunch was described as “Ju
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The question that must be asked is WHY was she losing support with the public and her own party?
Considering what was the loudest objection to her, I can take a wild guess.
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Quote:
The cruellest irony of Julia Gillard's political career must surely be the chasm that existed between public perceptions of the first female prime minister and the views of those who worked with her closely.
To those who knew her at a personal level, as I did, she was regarded as warm, good-humoured, dignified, hard-working and courageous.
But as pollsters and shock jocks regularly reminded us, among much of the population she was viewed as a godless, childless, unmarried, lying, backstabbing witch.
To understand this brutal disjuncture, a balanced appraisal is needed of Gillard's ability as a politician and her period as prime minister.
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Gillard is one of the best close-quarters politicians the Federal Parliament has ever seen.
As prime minister, she ran a disciplined, professional office that operated in much the same way as a well-run law firm - a product of her early career at Slater & Gordon.
Cabinet process was strictly upheld and the massive flow of administrative and policy paperwork that moves between government departments, the prime minister's office and the prime minister's desk was dealt with efficiently.
There was courtesy shown to staff, MPs, public servants and stakeholders - every person entitled to a view was given a chance to express it before a decision was made.
Gillard would diligently work her way through the detail of an issue and then patiently execute an agreed plan to tackle it.
She was generous with her time and did not rush people in the way busy leaders often do. She was never rude and never raised her voice, unless for humorous purposes.
She had a quick mind and could master a brief at lightning speed. She was a masterful parliamentary tactician and a brilliant analyst of the day's events and the politics of the Labor caucus. She was a genuinely affectionate person and had a quick wit that could be deployed to lift the spirits of those around her.
At her instigation, birthdays were the subject of office celebration. This would involve Gillard turning up for cake and delivering a very personal speech to even the most junior staff.
Significantly for a national leader, Gillard had no major personality defects. She is probably the most normal, down-to-earth person to have served as prime minister of Australia in the modern era.
In a crisis, she was supremely calm. While others wilted, Gillard had a resilience that allowed her to keep stepping up to the plate.
She was good at remembering people's names, knowing their story, understanding their motivations and being able to see a situation from another's perspective.
These were attributes that were very well suited to the fraught circumstances of the 43rd Parliament.
In the negotiations with the crossbench MPs to form government, Gillard easily outmanoeuvred Tony Abbott. She better understood the independents' motivations - she focused on the detail of how the relationship between government and the crossbenches would work and committed to serving the full term.
The achievements include: the national broadband network, putting a price on carbon, education reform, children's dental care and the national disability insurance scheme.
In federal-state relations, there was the negotiation of health reform with the conservative premiers and in foreign affairs there was a strengthening of relations with our major partners, particularly China and the US.
Against this backdrop, it is not surprising that Gillard was well-liked, even loved, among her staff, the public service and most of her caucus.
So why did public opinion run so strongly against Gillard?
The first problem was the way she became prime minister. The change came as a complete shock to most Australians. At the time, there was no proper explanation of the reasons for this change. When it came, it was too late.
The events of June 2010 also sparked a long-running war against Gillard, prosecuted from inside the Labor caucus. Beginning with the leaks during the 2010 electNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME