As most people know, Julia Gillard is the Prime Minister of Australia. She is the leader of the Labour Party, a position she has held since June of 2010 when she lead a caucus revolt against then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. She was voted in as leader of the party and promptly called an election. She was elected by the populace as Australia's Prime Minister in August of 2010. The August election was a tight contest between Gillard's Labour Party and Tony Abbott, the leader of the Liberal Party and the opposition coalition. (Interesting side note: neither of these two was born in Australia - Gillard was born in Wales and Abbott in England...we are still a British stronghold!)
Julia Gillard is sometimes seen as a bit wooden in her speeches and in her interactions with the public. She made strong gains after the flood when she became very emotional in Parliament while relating the flood damage in a speech to the House. She doesn't hold a lead in the polls, but right now no one in her party is calling for her to step down and there is no real threat of an election being called in the immediate future. Overall she is seen as doing her job in an acceptable way.
Tony Abbott, however, can't quite seem to catch a break. He does not seem to be a natural in front of the TV cameras and doesn't have a "warm and cuddly" side. During the summer election he was widely portrayed as Bible-thumping, iron-pumping and leaden-tongued. While we cannot say anything about the Bible-thumping part, we can certainly agree that the iron-pumping has some validity to it. We can now see how the "leaden-tongued" part of the equation came to be.
"Ironman" Tony in his budgie-smugglers (aka Speedo)
In the past month Tony Abbott has been called out on three major issues. The first issue is that he was opposed to the flood relief levy that all tax-paying Australians will be required to pay. This wouldn't have been a problem if it was only opposed to the new tax, but he asked all those who didn't want to pay a tax to make a contribution to his Liberal Party to support them in fighting this tax. When he was questioned about being anti-tax but pro-fundraising, he just said that it was party policy to always ask for money from supporters. Then, when questioned about how he would pay for the necessary flood repairs, he suggested funding cuts to industries that support low-income earning Australians...this one baffles us. Potentially the final nail in his public relations coffin is his commentary on an Australian soldier recently killed in combat. He was speaking with a commander in the soldier's unit and when he asked about the circumstance's of the soldier's death, he was told it was not caused by poor equipment or any kind of bad decision. After hearing this, Tony Abbott said, on camera, "I guess sometimes sh*t happens". This may be true, and it is a valid opinion, but a new widow and anyone concerned about the military doesn't want to hear it. His party said that he was taken out of context and a TV news reporter interviewed him about the comment and asked him what the context was. And Tony answered with silence...an uncomfortable, lip-clenching, toe-to-heel rocking, darting-eyes silence from the man who was seen as the person who just shrugged off a soldier's death. The party had really nothing left to say and even his supporters are silent about it right now. Politics are all about opinions, and image is everything. He has no choice but to hope for a Gillard melt-down and a quick election.
Having said all of that, it seems like most politicians specialize in poor decisions, and a spin doctor can only administer so much medicine. Just to keep things fair, review the photo of our illustrious Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, below. Five years on and he is still our leader. We are not so high and mighty.
There are too many comments to make about this!
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