in the news: gillard is australia’s PM
June 24, 2010 in news
One of my childhood dreams was crushed today – I will not have the chance to be Australia’s first female Prime Minister. Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, given I decided politics was not for me quite some time ago but Australia having a female Prime Minister was still one of those things that was definitely a distant dream.
It all happened rather quickly. Kevin 07 was the golden boy just a few years ago but how the mighty have fallen – several policy failures have let him down, most notably his failure to keep fighting on climate change and the mining “super profits” tax. Labor has been falling in the polls and so too was the party’s support for its leader.
Last night, Rudd refused to step aside for Gillard and a ballot was to be held this morning. Gillard had the backing of the powerful Australian Workers Union and was also believed to have the numbers to win the ballot. In the end, Rudd decided to step aside before the ballot and Julia Gillard became leader of the Labor Party and PM of Australia.
It’s an unprecedented political ambush but it gives us our first female PM as well as our first ousted PM since Bob Hawke. Rudd was also supposed to leave for the G20 summit in Toronto tomorrow, but it seems Wayne Swan (who has taken on the Deputy PM role) will now attend.
It really is quite the day for Australian politics – who would’ve suspected it, even a week ago!
PS Props also go out to my beloved Socceroos – we may not have made it to the Group of 16 in the World Cup but the boys sure put on a brilliant show this morning to take Serbia down 2-1. Bravo!
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