Julia Gillard….Australia’s new Labor PM

Harriet Harman may know her place as the UK’s most unpopular mad person, but the Australian Labor Party’s deputy leader Julia Gillard has become the country’s first ever female Prime Minister….via a backstairs coup.

The secret of Gillard’s success appears to be her ability to avoid coming across as bonkers. That, and a political nose for opportunism that far exceeds anything our Hattie could manage. Much of the Aussie press has had her taped as a ruthless careerist for some time; here, for example, is a recent blog column on Australian Yahoo:

‘Gillard is an ex-Communist, and a feminist, total supporter of quota representation in Australia, total support of EEO when it is in favour of women, firm believer that women are a downtrodden race who are so weak and ineffectual they need a hand up, cunning as the proverbial outhouse rat in being able to take advantage of her position and the feminist push with Labor, and, I have no doubt, desperately waiting for the day when Brother Kev makes a mistake and falls down on his sword….’

Well, prescient if nothing else. Meanwhile, ousted PM Kevin Rudd displayed a fair amount of bad loser in his personality as the court coup took place. Under the Australian system, a leader who loses the confidence of the Party can be ousted without any reference to either legislature or nation. Rudd has made several boobs this year, as a result of which the boobs have taken over. In short, this is all about switching riders just before the big race….a General Election which Ms Gillard has already said she’ll ask the Governor General to call ‘in the coming months’.

The Slog understands that sisterly greetings from fellow feminist Harman have already been dispatched. Can you have a fellow feminist, or is that a contradiction?

Good luck Australia.