They say a week in politics is a long time, and if there was ever a week to prove that right, it was probably this week. A prime minister – less famous for her progressive policy making than her backstabbing – has now been deposed herself, and Australia’s brief flirtation with a female PM seems to be at an end – back to the white boys’ brigade.
Alone amongst my fellow members of the ALP, I seem to have no strong feelings either way. I voted for Rudd from England in 2007 simply because I had a visceral disgust for the way John Howard’s policies seemed to have driven Australia into a world where we hid under our bedclothes, looking for the support of others, simply because we could not make our way in the world alone. I couldn’t abide his stance on race, on refugees, on education, on health or on infrastructure. The only policy I would congratulate him on was the way he limited automatic and semi-automatic weapons – a brave policy, indeed.
Rudd seemed like a good deal, however – especially when he seemed to start off with such a progressive, left-wing stance. Refugees – tick! Indigenous apologies – tick! Climate change – tick! Of course, that honeymoon was never going to last, and when it did, it seemed that Rudd’s aura of invincibility disappeared too, and that was the end of him. It’s almost like he saw the amount of work ahead of him – and faltered. And that mis-step was all that was needed to drag him down, and replace him.
Still, Gillard is no shrinking violet. She carried on a lot of the policies – watered down, perhaps, but in the end, some policy is often better than no policy, and compromise is the essence of democracy – or perhaps it should be. Dealing with a minority government, a Greens party determined to punch above its weight, and a relentlessly negative Opposition, Gillard, at her best, rose above it and delivered what so many Australians still wanted: the NDIS, Climate Change, Gonski, NBN and so on. Not sure what else – check out ‘whatthegovermenthasdoneforus’ on Google.
But perhaps it was a bridge too far. Combined with a one-line (Stop the Boats) opposition, the government struggled to find clear air. A hostile media seemed determined to only share one side of the story. And, it appeared, far too many Australians seemed willing to vent a particularly vile brand of misogyny – she was too fat, her bum was too big, her voice was too whiny, she was not married, she had no children… I’ll stop there. It would have been interesting if the opposition, the shock jocks and perhaps even the media had shown the same restraint.
And now? Well, when it all falls apart, no one does a schism like the Labor party. Especially in Australia, they’re famous for it. While not on the scale of the Trotskyites, it’s still a pretty brutal display. When all the spilled blood is mopped up, I wonder whether there will be enough of a party left to vote for.
A dark day, indeed.