Gillard
He turned up on the stage of the Sydney Convention Centre yesterday looking like he was outfitted by a tailor legally barred from using the endorsement “bespoke”, and with a hairdo a trainee mate might have tended to.
He had started on the shop floor unencumbered by a university degree, and yet there he was prepared to give advice to political queens and business emperors.
He was available to help shape a $1.5 trillion economy when at his peak earning years he might have taken in just a bit over $90,000 annually.
Diagnosing the pathology in the Federal Labor Government has become something of a national pastime. The commentariat, practitioners and pundits have all had a go trying to work out why an otherwise healthy government languishes so far in the polls and seems to have such difficulty engaging with the electorate.
We hear many analyses. Some blame party factionalism. Some blame the killer instinct with which KRudd was removed from the Prime Ministership. Perhaps we are not seeing the “real” Julia. Maybe the government lacks a “narrative”.
Continue reading "What’s wrong with Labor: how long have you got?" »
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James O says:
If you want a quiet life never volunteer for anything,especially if it is hard work or dangerous. Julia Gillard put her hand up to be Prime Minister so she must have been a glutton for punishment considering the adverse publicity surrounding her accepting the top job. And so it is… Read more »
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Arturo says:
@ Simon, I predict there will be another 10,000 people arrive via illegal boats by the end of this year. Not an insignificant number for a country of only 22million people, particular when you consider there is often large and/or extended families waiting to come and join them in the… Read more »
The cleaners at The Lodge don’t appear to be mopping the PM’s political blood up off the floor this morning, following her butcher’s-paper-and-textas meeting yesterday and BBQ last night. But the leadership murmurings about Gillard and Rudd continue to sizzle on the hotplate.
Australians have witnessed plenty of leadership knifings over the past 20 years. Rudd by Gillard. Hawke by Keating. Rees by Keneally… It’s become so normal it wouldn’t be surprising if primary school prefects started knifing their school captains in the pursuit of absolute student representative council power.
But you’ve got to wonder why Labor hasn’t learnt its lesson about leadership challenges by now. I mean, if we can take away anything from recent intra-party political crapfights, it’s that someone knifing the head of the government and taking their place doesn’t do much to help parties stay in power in the long-term.
Continue reading "Leadership spills are just a big fizzer with voters" »
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gumnut says:
marley timb, space cadet, whatever. You have yet to show me whatever it is you call a point. I have made mine, but you are just waffling on like some child who insists there is an easter bunny. Perhaps you will never understand how the press works and continue to… Read more »
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marley says:
@gumnut et al - failing mark for you, in whatever guise. Still haven’t addressed the issue. The press is not speculating based on nothing. They’re speculating based on what they’re being fed. I know it, the ALP caucus knows it, and if you don’t, well, not all of us are… Read more »
The Gillard Government has taken the middle road in making changes to the national school chaplaincy program; $222 million has been committed to extend the program until 2014. But now schools can elect to have non-religious person fill the role as a secular worker and still use the $20,000 grant scheme.
Chaplains have really become budget student counsellors under the program. Since 2006, it has been rolled out to 2681 schools, 28 per cent are public schools. While the school applies for a chaplain to DEEWR, the funding is administered to a third party employer, in most cases a Christian organisation like Access Ministries who then engage a person to be a chaplain at the school.
Chaplains have a set of guidelines from the Government which prohibit proselytising, which they adhere to by signing a code of conduct.
Continue reading "Why the Christian right don’t like Gillard" »
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Cate says:
I’m not sure what this is all about however I can say Prof Steven Hawking has a good outlook and so does Budhism and Christianity. Not religion - spirituality and having the belief that there is always room for improvement every day. If Ms Gillard had correct and respectful mindfulness… Read more »
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James Darby says:
.Miss Julia Gillard is living proof that mistakes cannot be learnt from, only paid for and in Gillard’s case, at someone elses expense. ‘An Aspect of Abuse’ The “You learn from your mistakes” belief system is so heavily imprinted into the minds of the school leaver that their sense of… Read more »
Over recent years, Australia has doubled its financial commitment to foreign aid.
Yet our aid program has remained starved of attention from the government, media and community at large.
On Tuesday, Kevin Rudd sought to rectify this by announcing a five-month independent review of the effectiveness of Australia aid.
Continue reading "Australia’s foreign aid is starved of attention" »
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steve b says:
Well I’m in the minority here. I have no problem with the oz government spending 0.3% of the GDP on our less fortunate neighbours. It would be nice if more of it went to where it was intended - rather than milked by the leeches in the chain. NGOs (non-governemt… Read more »
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Frustrated in Pakistan says:
I’m an Australian aid worker in Pakistan at the moment, and I should stop reading comment threads like this as the close-minded and ill-informed attitudes are so depressing. Yes, millions of dollars are handed over to governments that misappropriate funds (Of the US$500m that the US just gave to Pakistan,… Read more »
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