I would cut the Prime Minister more slack than that, but I’m sure the opposition won’t.
Julia Gillard is starting to look like a serial offender. Succeeding a PM who had a reputation as a micro-manager she appears to be leaning so hard the other way that perhaps the word “management” holds no meaning for her at all.
First a senior staffer precipitates a riot on Australia Day, now apparently her staff prepared a victory speech two weeks before she challenged Kevin Rudd, but she had no knowledge of it.
Oh wait, it’s not that she had no knowledge of it, just that she didn’t order it.
So perhaps it wasn’t so much that she didn’t order it not because she didn’t want it to be written but because she wanted its writing to be deniable.
Either way she is caught somewhere between the twin horns of what the opposition says about her government – that it is incompetent and dishonest – and between the horns is the worst place to be caught by the beast.
The affair also casts some doubt about the competence of many of her colleagues. The coup against Rudd apparently took many of them unawares – who can forget Darryl Melham’s memorable quote as the coup rolled out:
Complete garbage. ABC have lost all credibility – all credibility. This story is garbage and the ABC needs to get their act together and start reporting fact instead of fiction.
Yet according to the ABC Hillary Clinton realised 2 weeks in advance that a change was on foot. Hillary wasn’t the only person to have worked it out. I knew on June 11 that a coup was in process, as you can read from this blog post.
Note that one of the first shots was fired by Simon Crean, the man who took aim at Rudd again last week accusing him of not being a team player, and Crean is someone who is very close to Julia Gillard.
Perhaps Simon is running the PM’s office and the speech was prepared on the basis of “Simon says”? Pure speculation, but might be worth a question in question time.
The nadir of the interview was when she said she wasn’t in the business of avoiding questions.
Comment by Nick Ferrett — February 14, 2012 @ 9:13 am
I didn’t see the interview, so was relying on the second hand reports and snippets this morning. I do however feel a bit sorry for politicians caught in a position where they can’t say yes and they can’t say no.
Makes me appreciate the luxury of being a commentator when you can tell the truth without too many ramifications.
Comment by Graham — February 14, 2012 @ 10:24 am
Graham, I heard it on radio this morning. I am similarly sympathetic, but not to the person who then gets haughty about it.
Comment by Nick Ferrett — February 14, 2012 @ 1:48 pm
Gillard definitely had plumpers and Botox in April, months before the knifing as preparation. For months it was open knowledge in canberra she was preparing a coup. Her mother told Women Weekly that her Julia was going to be pm, 3 months before…
The fact is everything about Julia is fake or spin. She was forced out of the law firm after colluding with a defendant union racketeer she was having an affair with (and by some accounts sharing in the proceeds using it to pay off a loan), she then went on to be a Fabian union groupie, even changing her voice to pay homage as some sort of welsh mining village scold to fetish her sponsors. (video of Gillard in her early 30’s shows a plummy voiced middle class awkard spinster fabian class warfare typical Melbourne/Adelaide handout left wing cliche. Several affairs later she got her selection and the rest is history ad she worked the factions. On the Australia day incident was a clear planned wag the dog and she and her staff knew and planned it as a comeback dirty tricks. In the video footage Gillard lingers, tries to stay in the sight line between the cameras and Abbott, asks tellingly where is he ‘at’ and actually is shown constantly moving into the sight line to get the best footage for the evening news. Then the stunt fails, backfires, they hate her even more. (the protectors latex said they were ‘played like puppets’. So then she goes to plan b, helpless victim but then gets caught out. We are all the victim of affirmative action, factions, and the shallow talent pool , we have a woman that has never worked properly in her life, has values and beliefs that are not to the common good, and her ambition and deciet are now on display and an embarrassment to all Australians.
Comment by Australia first — February 15, 2012 @ 1:10 am
All of the comments ignore the faults in Rudd. He was, and probably still is, a control freak one man band not above using church going for publicity especially considering a certain entertainment establishment he visited while in the USA.
The comment Kevin O-lemon comes to mind.
The comment by Australia first re the indiscetions of youth, as do some of the other comments, brings to mind the comment by Christ, ‘Let he who is without fault cast the first stone.’
Comment by John Turner — February 15, 2012 @ 6:28 am
Hi John, Rudd is a workaholic and an impatient one at that. He wanted to achieve lots of things in a short time. He was unpopular with slow-moving bureaucrats and lazy staffers. Remember he is an intelligent bloke and as I have many dealings with some highly intelligent people, they all tend to have some similar characteristics. We in Australia have a cultural bias against ‘go-getters’ and ‘change agents’. We love our politicians that are suave, deceitfully cunning, make empty promises and speak volumes of pies platitudes. We love to be conned into believing that we are “egalitarian’ that this is “the best country in the world”, etc, etc. Comes Rudd with his penchant for hard work, inovations and pushy impatience and his staffers cry foul. Couple that with Judas Gillard and her ‘faceless men’, Rudd was thu publicly ‘assassinated’. What a shame. first for Labor and second for this nation. Current Labor is DOOMED!
Comment by Jolly — February 20, 2012 @ 4:44 pm
I have previously compared the skill set of Julia Gillard with the skill set of Bob Hawke – both are supreme negotiators – both have proven track records facilitating the delivery of vision.
Bob Hawke was and is well liked by many, and certainly respected by the majority.
Ask Bob to come out swinging with one of his famous speeches beginning “My fellow Australians.”
Let Bob tell the Australian people the skills that allowed him to be one of Australia’s longest serving Labor prime ministers. Let him articulate his admiration for the skills demonstrated by the greatest leader Australia has seen since his time as PM – a facilitator – someone who understands that true democracy means listening to arguments, debating, and negotiating the best outcome.
Let Bob tell Australians what Julia has achieved – negotiating with the Greens and Independents, etc – let Bob articulate the milestones her government has achieved.
Let Bob remind Australians that he is a larrikin, who speaks with a strong Aussie accent, but that in his day no-one suggested his accent wasn’t appropriate to the job, that he should clean it up and have elocution lessons, so why did Australians not afford their first female PM the same courtesy they afforded him, and let her speak in her own voice. Their voice. The voice of the Australian people.
Let Bob tell Australians that they should be proud to have an educated Australian prime minister, with a double degree, that speaks with their voice, just as he is a Rhodes Scholar, who speaks with their voice.
Let Bob tell Australians that the Labor Party has always worked for a fair society that rewards productivity, a fair society that shares the countries riches, a fair society that doesn’t penalise the disadvantaged, a fair society that ensures the opportunity for a quality education is accessible to all.
Let Bob finish by reminding the Australian people that one of the most productive and VISIONARY prime ministers in a generation is sitting in the job right now, and Australia will be a poorer place without her ability to negotiate outcomes acceptable to the Labor Party, the Greens, 3 Independents, and those senior figures in the Liberal Camp who don’t have a voice under Abbot.
Let Bob conclude by saying that in the next two years, the Australian people will experience the advantages of the policy achievements already implemented under Julia’s leadership. That leadership is not measured in a popularity pageant, but in an objective assessment of the achievements facilitated, negotiated and delivered by that leadership.
Comment by dan — February 24, 2012 @ 3:47 am