This is a tricky thing to take in. It got dropped on me this morning while listening to NPR on the way to work, and I reeled. I'd only checked the ABC News website not 48 hours before and there'd been no hint that this was in the offing; now all of a sudden Australian's got it's first HBIC and I'm torn between feeling thrilled to the core that a woman - a competent, intelligent, effective woman (i.e., Bishop, Hanson and Palin: not you) - is running things; impressed by her ability to make such a tough choice and act on it quickly and successfully; and absolutely effing terrified that Labor has just handed this year's election to Tony Abbott. I've thought long and hard about this, and I believe that I would rather see John Howard back in power than Tony Abbott. That's how much I fear that lunatic.
This morning I read a piece by Annabel Crabb that said that while Rudd was popular with the electorate, he was never much liked by other politicians, and when his public rating started to slip there were very few people left to catch him. Gillard is, by all accounts that I read/heard, very popular with and well-respected by other pols; however, I'm worried that she's not nearly as well-liked by the public, and they're the ones who'll be deciding if she keeps the job. The problem is, while Gillard is smart and experienced and a hell of a politician, she's also a bit of a cold fish (Josh Thomas memorably referred to her as the Queen of Narnia), a fact that will count against her even more because she's a woman. She's not soft, she's not maternal, and she's not a sex object; she's the boss that the men refer to as a ballbuster because she got further than they did and doesn't put up with blokey bullshit. She can't be accused of having slept her way to the top, so she must have castrated her way there instead.
And she's a ranga besides.
I didn't mean for this to turn into a feminist dialectic. And let me make myself perfectly clear: if allowed to govern, Julia Gillard will be excellent; I do not doubt that for a moment. I'm just not at all sure she'll be allowed to govern.
What's killing me on a personal level is that I had no idea this was in the offing. Even with all my reading I can't get a feel for the timeframe of the whole thing, apart from 'really fucking quick', but I can't help but think that if I were there I would have had some inkling, some insight that things were afoot. And if I didn't, if it had been the shock to me there that it was here, I'd have rung Anthony and Paul and Alison and Hamish and Nikki and Michelle and Amanda and Emily and Stuart and we'd have sat around with our soda waters and beers and Long Island iced teas and absinthe and talked and talked and talked until I felt like I had some grasp on it, like I knew what to think. I feel very, very far from home at this moment.
XOXO
Yeah, I don't know where to start. It's been a very bizarre couple of days here and although you say that you're feeling very far from it all and had no inkling, the truth of it is that it caught the whole country by surprise. And I think most people are still reeling. Although there were a few murmurs over the months about Gillard making a challenge, they were always vehemently denied and not really taken seriously until so very recently. We literally went to sleep with one PM and woke up with another.
ReplyDeleteI too feel very mixed about it. Although not especially keen on her stance on education (and I really think she dropped the ball on the whole NAPLAN debarcle) I quite like Gillard. She’s intelligent, hardworking and capable – all qualities that you want in a leader. And I am truly excited to have our first female PM – it’s been a long time coming. However, I can’t help feeling that it all happened SO quickly! Too quickly. I feel for Rudd. I liked him. And although he was disappointing in some regards, I feel that he did a lot of good in a very short space of time. Perhaps that was his undoing. I can’t help sitting here and wondering “when did it all go so horribly wrong” or indeed – “did it ever go that horribly wrong?” The truth is that noone voted for either Rudd or Gillard – they voted for the Labour party but I can’t help feeling that she’ll have more legitimacy if she gets through at the next election.
And I DO think that she has a good chance at the next election. Possibly even a better chance than Rudd would have had. His popularity had been on a downhill slope for a while. Time will tell, I guess. I just can’t believe Abbott’s popularity. He is quite simply, a dangerous man to have in power and I agree – while I never liked Howard, I’d have him over Abbott any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
In the meantime, I think everyone (myself certainly included) is still processing.
And on a personal note – I’m missing you! Lets organise a time to chat. We should be discussing over copious amounts of tea/booze and a good game of scrabble!
Take heart my chicken ... http://www.smh.com.au/national/gillard-saves-labor-20100625-z9qy.html?autostart=1
ReplyDeleteAnd as Trace said, it really did happen as mind-blowingly quickly here as it seemed over there. And on the same day that the Socceroos won but lost. Even I needed a drink that night!
I watch Kerry O'Brien give Abbott a delightfully good serve last night. If you can find it online watch not just his interview but the skit at the end. I shouted at the tv throughout the interview and very nearly peed my pants with the skit!
And ditto Trace's final comment too.
"She's not soft, she's not maternal, and she's not a sex object; she's the boss that the men refer to as a ballbuster because she got further than they did and doesn't put up with blokey bullshit. She can't be accused of having slept her way to the top, so she must have castrated her way there instead."
ReplyDeleteYou'd actually be surprised at how little any of this is being said at the moment. I have been. Yes, some of it has been said before (her empty fruit bowl blah blah blah) but it's really not happening currently. Once she calls the election, I expect we'll see the Libs dish it out (again) in spades, though.
"And she's a ranga besides."
This, on the other hand, is all anyone talked about for days. Australians, huh?
And finally, my 2c on the surprising nature of it all: I was actually very impressed at how professionally this hit was carried out. So, so many leadership challenges have been screwed up with media leaks, miscalculations of the numbers before announcements, etc that I thought it nice to see it happen smoothly, cleanly, and swiftly (at least at the last swing of the axe. I don't think the decision making and wheeling 'n dealing itself was fast, just very very well-managed by Labor pros).