With Nothing Else To Say, Julia Gillard Resorts To Divisive Sexist Issues

On Monday, Australia’s Prime Minister attended the launch of a group of female supporters called “Women For Gillard.” This was a chance for her to get the troops fired up to help the first female Prime Minister to be reelected at the coming election. Gillard was installed as Prime Minister by the Labor Party’s “faceless men” who dumped the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, in a backroom coup.

Preaching to the converted, the Prime Minister certainly did get them fired up by trotting out the great standby strategy for politicians who have nothing much to say. Rather than talking about a vision for Australia or a list of positive achievements, Ms. Gillard resorted to pumping up a sexist gender war, playing the abortion card, and scaremongering that women would be removed from the corridors of power.

julia gillard makes gender war
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard addresses Women for Gillard and injects sexism and abortion onto the front pages of Australian newspapers.

This is a formula that often works, especially if you can get the TV, radio and newspaper media to beat the opposition with the words used. Most political parties are capable of doing this, but the left side of politics seems to do it more, and they are more effective because they appeal to the young and the politically naive. I know this because a long time ago, I was firmly in those categories myself.

Sometimes, when a party goes too far, even their own members stand up to be counted. That was the case this time, as some Labor Party backbenchers weren’t happy about injecting sexism and abortion into the debate, when there was no need, and certainly no provocation. It seemed to be just a convenient way to get her supporters fired up.

Gillard told her female supporters that the conservative opposition would “banish women’s voices from the core of our nation’s political life.”

“I invite you to imagine it: a prime minister – a man with a blue tie who goes on holidays to be replaced by a man in a blue tie.

“A treasurer who delivers a budget wearing a blue tie, to be supported by a finance minister, another man in a blue tie.

“Women once again, banished from the centre of Australia’s political life.”

Pundits from both left and right were dismayed, and even feminist Gillard supporters thought she had gone off the rails, setting back their cause. Sleeping dogs ought to be allowed to lie down, undisturbed, but that doesn’t fit Julia Gillard’s modus operandi.

Press were blocked from attending the “Women for Gillard” event, but her staff and others produced the damning video footage later, probably hoping to inflame other supporters. Whoever is providing her with advice lately is doing a very poor job.

The Prime Minister had recently redefined the word “misogynist,” in a terrible outburst, attacking the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott. Abbott is married, has three daughters and three sisters. His deputy is a woman. He is clearly not a misogynist, but the Prime Minister uses her bully pulpit to get what she wants. She gathered around her other women who felt they have been poorly treated at some time, and who didn’t mind misappropriating a perfectly good word with a defined meaning to make the opposition look bad.

The big problem for the Australian Labor Party is that it can’t get its act together, and according to recent polls, they are facing an electoral wipeout at the coming election. Their problems are almost all of their own doing. The Prime Minster has cast herself as someone who cannot keep a promise, cannot operate ethically, supports corrupt backers, and is prone to nonsensical public outbursts.

I did wonder whether Julia Gillard might be getting advice from Barack Obama or his team. When you have a terrible record in your first term, your strategy becomes to just attack the opposition because you hold most of the cards, and the opposition can’t get access to the government information they need to respond.

To take some pressure off the Prime Minister, it was reported today that Mal Brough, a Howard-era conservative politician, who organized a fundraising dinner to support his campaign at the next election, authorized a sexist menu that made ugly fun of the Prime Minister. There were calls from the left to have him disendorsed by his party, but those calls were brushed aside as being ridiculous. Brough immediately apologized for the menu, even though he hadn’t seen it. The shadow treasurer condemned it, saying although he was at the dinner too, he didn’t see the menu, and Abbott condemned it.

It turns out that the restaurant owner created a mock menu, that (almost) nobody saw, because he thought it would be fun. He is not a member of the party. As far as we know, the menu did not make an appearance at the dinner, and it is unknown how it came to be public.

The really bad thing for Australians is that parliament is still sitting, and electoral campaigning hasn’t officially started. They have around 94 more days of this waffling, bickering and infighting to look forward to.

Roll on election day.

Alan Gray is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of NewsBlaze Daily News and other online newspapers. He prefers to edit, rather than write, but sometimes an issue rears it’s head and makes him start hammering away on the keyboard.

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Alan has been on the internet since it first started. He loves to use his expertise in content and digital marketing to help businesses grow, through managed content services. After living in the United States for 15 years, he is now in South Australia. To learn more about how Alan can help you with content marketing and managed content services, contact him by email.

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Alan is also a techie. His father was a British soldier in the 4th Indian Division in WWII, with Sikhs and Gurkhas. He was a sergeant in signals and after that, he was a printer who typeset magazines and books on his linotype machine. Those skills were passed on to Alan and his brothers, who all worked for Telecom Australia, on more advanced signals (communications). After studying electronics, communications, and computing at college, and building and repairing all kinds of electronics, Alan switched to programming and team building and management.

He has a fascination with shooting video footage and video editing, so watch out if he points his Canon 7d in your direction.