(Eh, I just cut down the Tall Poppy!)
The Labour Party savaged its own leader yesterday, with PM Kevin Rudd resigning in an emotional farewell less than three years after his 2007 election victory as he was ousted in favor of 45-year-old Julia Gillard, who will be Australia's first female prime minister.
Gillard is widely credited with engineering her party leader's Rudd's demise.
What cut Rudd down was controversy over his shelving of a carbon-trade scheme of the type beloved by the Left everywhere and his attempt to implement a huge tax increase on Australia's mining industry that sparked widespread protests among companies, workers and members of Rudd’s own party. Another issue was Rudd's failure to move against an influx of boat people illegally entering Australia.Rudd was tanking in the polls, and his fellow Labour Party members were concerned about being tossed out in the next election.
Gillard has pledged to resurrect the carbon trade initiative and negotiate with the miners, which has made her popular with her own party. Also , as Australia's first female PM, she's something of a novelty and likely to attract the votes of the sheilas, who are quite excited at her ascendancy to power.
If this sounds a bit like Obama, I note the similarity, but being as it's Australia, the Labour Party generally is not quite as far Left as our Democrats, although Gillard is definitely in the party's Left wing.
In terms of Australia's chief trading party, China and its chief security partner, the US, things are unlikely to change much.
Gillard will be squaring off in the elections against the Liberal Party’s Tony Abbott, a former Rhodes scholar and priest trainee. Remember, in Oz the Liberals are the conservative party.
Her success may very well depend on whether she can negotiate successfully with the mining industry and to what degree she's willing to moderate her views more towards the center.
UPDATE: According to Isi Liebler Gillard is a proven friend of Israel.
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