And for anybody who believes Julia Gillard will be any better just because she’s a woman, you need to think that through. I think it’s high time we had a female Prime Minister. But I didn’t want the first female Prime Minister to take office under heinous circumstances such as these. It kind of takes the glow off it.
Ms Gillard has to be returned in her own electorate, and the Labor party has to be returned to government with her as its leader before we can claim we’ve elected Australia’s first female prime minister. Until then, it’s a case of political expediency, and under circumstances nobody can be proud of.
It’s also a case of women to the rescue again. When all else fails, wheel in the woman. Think Kirner, Bligh, Keneally. Women get a tilt at the top job when the blokes have thoroughly stuffed it up and everyone’s desperate. Women pick up the chalice the blokes have poisoned, and they’re apparently proud and grateful to get it.
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The ruthlessness, the brutality, and the cowardice we’ve seen over the last few days leave a very bad taste and a very bad smell. These can’t help but taint the federal Labor party and Ms Gillard’s ascension for a long time to come.
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About the Author
Dr Jennifer Wilson worked with adult survivors of child abuse for 20 years. On leaving clinical practice she returned to academia, where she taught critical theory and creative writing, and pursued her interest in human rights, popular cultural representations of death and dying, and forgiveness. Dr Wilson has presented papers on human rights and other issues at Oxford, Barcelona, and East London Universities, as well as at several international human rights conferences. Her academic work has been published in national and international journals. Her fiction has also appeared in several anthologies. She is currently working on a secular exploration of forgiveness, and a collection of essays. She blogs at http://www.noplaceforsheep.wordpress.com.
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