by David Penberthy
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is expected to visit Governor-General Quentin Bryce tomorrow to call an election for August 28. Here’s the report on the ABC, and here’s the report on The Australian.
All smiles: Julia Gillard in Brisbane this morning. Photo: Chris Kidd.
We’ll be writing plenty over the next six weeks so here The Punch would like to ask its readers two questions: what do you think will be (or should be) the dominant issues of the campaign? And who do you think is going to win?
Over to you. It’s going to be a long six weeks so make your answers thoughtful and entertaining. - Dominant issue will change depending the viewpoint. For the media it will be Mr Abbott's swim suit. For Gillard it will be Rudd's betrayal. For Rudd it will be Ban Ki Moon or Mars. For Mr Abbott it will be the economy. For Swan it will be Henry. For Keating it will be Hawke. For Hawke it will be himself. Whitlam will wonder if Rudd messed up Timor more. For Penberthy it will be about Turnbull. For Turnbull it will be about the ETS. For the Insiders it will be about the ALP. Fpr Blair and Akerman it will be about the ability of the ALP to prosecute an agenda, or honor a single promise.
As to the winner, I am running in Paul Keatings old seat of Blaxland against incumbent Jason Clare who has done nothing and stood for nothing. I don't expect to win, but I hope people will find my autobiography at Amazon.com. Then, as Paul says, Soccer will be the winner. - ed.
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Can Gillard stay mute on the night she rolled Rudd?
by Leo Shanahan
Today’s National Press Club appearance by Prime Minister Julia Gillard was a pretty banal address - a lot more going forwards etc - with one exception: a question by Channel Nine’s Laurie Oakes.
I know nussssing. Gillard today. Pic: Kym Smith
Oakes put it to an uncomfortable looking Gillard that on the night of the leadership challenge there was actually a deal done with Rudd on a leadership handover - one that she reneged on that same night.
“Can I ask you is it true that Mr Rudd told you that night that he was working towards an October election,’’ Mr Oakes asked.
“Is it true that Mr Rudd indicated to you that if closer to the election polling showed that he as an impediment to the re-election of the government and that if that leading Labor figures ... agreed he would voluntarily stand aside.’’ - It matters not what was said. Knowing ALP politics as I do, as a watcher of the ABC and occasional reader of the SMH, I know much about the ALP that doesn’t improve my decision making. However, one question asked seems to have gone by unremarked, and it gives a great hint about what Gillard plans and her thinking. She promised that she would reveal the BER report once it became available, before the election if it reported then. This suggests an election is sooner rather than later. Or, if it is indeed later, then things are worse than the ALP have admitted. - ed.
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Why Adelaide’s own Julia Gillard can sweep SA
by David Penberthy
It’s not often in politics that a single sentence can guarantee you victory in four vital seats which have historically been among the most volatile and closely-fought in the Federal Parliament.
JG
But Adelaide’s own ex-pat Melburnian Prime Minister Julia Gillard may have done just that with one inspired and clearly-enunciated line in her debut press conference as Labor Party Leader.
“I grew up in the great state of South Australia…” - She was pretty when she was a child, with a sweet smile and open features not suggestive of the hard bitten deviousness she exhibits today.
It is a pity she has made such hard personal life choices that encumber her time as PM with baggage. She is a creature of the far left, offering nothing of what she promised in her press talk yesterday. She talks of surplus budgets as if she hadn't opposed all the ones Australia had recently, and provided massive debt. - ed
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Well readhead: Everyone’s talking about parenting
by Leigh Sales
There’s been some buzz around a recent article in New York magazine titled: ‘All Joy and No Fun: Why Parents Hate Parenting’. The cover of the publication shows a mother holding her baby with the cover line ‘I Love My Children. I Hate My Life’.
These modern-day torture harnesses are strapped around the victims, with an actual live baby inserted in the front.
The author Jennifer Senior (a mother herself) explores a wide range of research on parenting and reports that it overwhelmingly supports the view that parents are not happier than their childless peers, and in many cases, are less so.
She writes about the changing views of childhood in Western society, arguing that before urbanisation, children delivered their parents an economic advantage that’s no longer evident:
‘If you had a farm, they toiled alongside you to maintain its upkeep; if you had a family business, the kids helped mind the store. But … as we gained in prosperity, childhood came increasingly to be viewed as a protected, privileged time, and once college degrees became essential to getting ahead, children became not only a great expense but subjects to be sculpted, stimulated, instructed, groomed … kids in short went from being our staffs to being our bosses.’ - Children are a blessing and joys follow such. But some don't know what blessings are. Blessings aren't cash deposits. Neither are they necessarily job promotions .. sometimes those are called a poisoned chalice. Blessings are not necessarily long lives or short ones. You can't always get them by trade. They can't be regulated by government. Beautiful people have no more blessings than those who are blessed ugly. Note, if you swap the word Children with Blessings you'll note the same. But to those who are thankful. To those who serve out of love, and not merely for reward. Blessings are .. priceless.
I despise the Chinese Mainland government for limiting children to their people. I am not impressed by Gillard's giving 'em a uniform. - ed.
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Campaign countdown: Is it payback time for Kevin?
by David Penberthy
Kevin Rudd might be flat out carrying on like one of those sacked Japs who keeps showing up for work - UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon had a meeting in New York yesterday with Mr Rudd in his capacity as, erm, a backbencher. But there’s now a strong view in Labor circles after Laurie Oakes’ bombshell question to Julia Gillard at the Press Club yesterday that the former PM has in fact been a very busy little bee.
I'm not sure who he is but he seems nice enough, Ban Ki-Moon said yesterday. Photo: Michael Jones
Leo Shanahan has had a close look below at Oakes’ question in a piece he filed straight after Gillard’s Press Club ambush yesterday, and the 170+ readers comments are illuminating as many people clearly believe the new PM should reveal to the public exactly what transpired with the alleged leadership deal.
The most worrying result for Ms Gillard, who may be just one day away from calling an election, is that if Mr Rudd is the source of the leak to Laurie Oakes, it signals that the former PM is now well and truly off the leash and may continue to dump on his successor and her factional boosters in the lead-up to polling day. - It doesn't matter to me why Gillard rolled Rudd. It may have been self preservation, because Rudd was the worst PM of all time and it was killing her future prospects. It may have been because Rudd was the worst PM of all time and he had killed the ALP's prospect of being reelected and so she had to do it quickly. Maybe it was because Rudd was the worst PM of all time and she wanted to do something worthwhile before being slaughtered at the next election. What really matters is that the press missed it. They failed to see it coming. It came as such a surprise that members of the ALP were accusing the ABC of bias as they reported it. It was reported the CIA did not know who the PM was, when the story was the ALP did not know who the PM was.
It is sad to see it likened to the change of leadership over Mr Turnbull for the Liberal Party last year. Mr Turnbull called the spill and stood on his platform. Mr Abbott only reluctantly took a stand. THAT was on policy, while Rudd was knifed because .. well, because he was the worst PM of all time and the press hadn't reported it. - ed.
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Sorry Andrew, you’ve bolted headlong into racism now
by Tory Shepherd
Andrew Bolt, the man all lefties love to hate, has really done it this time.
Bolt’s a great opinion columnist. He is well researched, eloquent, and knows exactly which buttons to push to whip up indignation and outrage. That’s his job, and he’s bloody good at it.
But his latest effort treads a dangerous line. It fuels racist thinking. Even more than usual. - being correct is not enough, you need to substantiate how you are correct.
Bolt has not said anything racist, by which I mean he has not said that all people who are black or islamic or some other is a criminal because of their race. That is something that has been said by those he criticizes. Bolt has pointed out some very uncomfortable truths which some public servants have not been allowed to say, but which statistics can show. They aren't cherry picked, they are salient. There is a difference. Cherry picked data is that which shows global warming .. because it ignores data which shows global cooling or global staying the same. Cherry picked Data is that which suggests something different to what is actually happening, it has bias. Like Tory's unsubstantiated assertion that Bolt is racist. - ed.
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Sorry Tory, you should try reading what I actually wrote
by Andrew Bolt
Tory is very quick to use the “racist” slur to disguise her lack of argument and of comprehension. It’s a dead giveaway these days.
But there is an even more telling sign that she is totally unable to refute, let alone understand, my argument.
It’s that rather than deal with what I actually wrote, she imputes to me sentiments I do not share and arguments I have never made. - You defend yourself well, Andrew, and you give Tory a good approximation of what she would be arguing were she to have done so coherently. But I don't think her argument stands. There is a need to address these issues by adults and among adults. That rules out the ALP and Greens. - ed.
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