Jun 24, 2010
Interesting Times
Interesting, interesting times in Australian politics today.
For non-Aussie readers, we’ve been drawing to the end of our first term of centre-left government under the Australian Labor Party after well over a decade of conservative rule. This morning, the Labor caucus voted to depose Kevin Rudd as party leader, replacing him with Julia Gillard who has just been sworn in as our new Prime Minister.
In a historical context, this is an extraordinary day. Gillard is our the first female Australian Prime Minister. And not to detract from this, I must say I’m deeply grateful that I live in a time when a woman (and a non-religious, unmarried woman at that) can become PM. However, setting this aside and measuring up Gillard by her politics, I’m becoming increasingly nervous in the leadup to the coming election.
Gillard’s generally regarded as Labor-left, but the factional powers who have enabled the coup come from the conservative Catholic Labor-right boys’ club. The people who have run New South Wales into the ground, pushed back against emissions trading & carbon legislation, and fought to protect Labor’s Western Sydney seats by attacking refugees in the media. For me, they’ve long represented the worst of the party, and I’m concerned that they’re going to demand repayment for their support. Gillard’s track record as Shadow Minister for Population and Immigration and reference to ‘strong management of our borders’ in her press conference point in one particular direction, and I fear that immigration policy will form the requisite pound of flesh.
She’s an excellent parliamentary debater, a strong public speaker and I have little doubt that we will see some great moments on the campaign trail as Australia’s first female Prime Minister comes up against Australia’s favourite misogynistic opposition leader. But in a broader sense, I struggle to see positive policy change coming out of the spill; there’s just doesn’t seem to be a realistic incentive at the moment.
To be electable, Gillard merely needs to placate the mining industry, promise ‘safe borders’ to mop up the Western Sydney seats and generally appear to be less of a dick than Abbott in the media spotlight. Given the current parliamentary balance and restrictions around calling a double dissolution election, emissions trading legislation can’t be pushed through, and civil liberties issues such as web censorship aren’t a deal-breaker to the wider public. The things I care passionately about have become, at least for the next few months, political side dishes at best.
If there’s one thing that will break my heart in the coming election, it will be yet another racist, fear-mongering wedge-issue campaign. Prove me wrong, Julia. Prove me wrong.
