Julia Gillard and the Dictator's Throne

Just days after the 2010 Federal Budget was released, Kevin Rudd was depicted by [Herald Sun Cartoonist] Mark Knight as a modern day Robin Hood, and Julia Gillard his faithful Maid Marion. Now; with Rudd’s dignity assuming the prime position on her trophy shelf and a notch added on her belt for an illegitimate Prime Ministership; Rudd’s not-so-faithful deputy is still being hailed as some kind of saviour for becoming Australia’s first female leader.

So Julia Gillard is a woman... Big. Freaking. Deal. It doesn’t change the fact that she ‘got the job’ by prying it out from under Rudd’s feet, it doesn’t change the fact that she acted in a conniving and dishonest manner by lying on countless occasions to the public about her intentions, it doesn’t change the fact that she orchestrated the whole coup by making deals with Union bosses who as our ‘leader’, she is now going to be indebted to, and it certainly doesn’t change the fact that she was not elected to power; but rather forced her way there. It seems we have gotten so caught up in congratulating Gillard on her supposedly inspirational achievement, that we are incapable of seeing it for what it really is; clandestine theft of the country’s top job by a deceitful manipulator, to whom democracy is a romantic notion, not a style of government.

How can we trust a Prime Minister whose idea of doing right by the nation essentially undermines the whole notion of responsible government, which is the fundamental core of any nation which aspires to call itself democratic? Call me a naive Gen Yer, but from what I understand, Julia Gillard used cloak and dagger tactics to overthrow her colleague in order to substantiate her own political agenda... For all his faults, when push came to shove, at least Kevin Rudd put the party ahead of himself and stood down without any real attempt at opposition. As deputy, she had just as big a role in the development of the policies the Rudd government failed to implement, and supported the viewpoints which she then turned around and ousted him on, but of course, her having to come in and pick up the pieces of the mess left by Krudd (a mess which she played a major part in creating), makes her a martyr. Oh yes, and let’s not forget the carefully contrived deposition of the rightful ruler. Julia can maintain all she likes that she did it for the good of the people, but the Rudd administration was one which she had a first hand in sabotaging... her actions were centred around appeasing her hunger for power, not the betterment of the party; and by it, the people it was sworn in to protect. She knew that with a humiliated Rudd as the face of the ALP, the chances of them being re-elected to a second term would have been fairly slim. Don’t get me wrong, I am not unhappy that the Milky Bar Kid has gone back to doing what he is best at, but would have much preferred the exorcism of my right to be a below-the-line voter be the point of his demise, and not his now illustrious former deputy. Under Gillard, although we can still hope for that outcome, the ALP are definitely in with a fighting chance.

Regardless of what she achieves in the lead up to the election, and irrespective of whether or not she gets to officially move into the Lodge, Australia’s outright acceptance of her stolen seat at the throne makes this one of the nicest dictatorships in the world.

At the end of the day, If she can’t get the job honestly in the first place, how can we expect her to do it that way? Looking back, Rudd was certainly the lesser of two evils.....

Cunning move indeed, clever Ms Fox.