Australia Prime Minister Gillard Not Your Average Leader

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I had to smile when I read this article and I hate to disappoint the Author BUT Ms Julia Gillard has all but ruined our fine Country since she stabbged the original PM Mr. Kevin Rudd in the back, she is a total joke.

Gillard Labor continues to lurch from one problem to the next.

Everything Julia Gillard does - on water, new onshore detention arrangements, the unravelling mining tax or the NBN white elephant - ends up in a mess.

Julia Gillard promised results - but instead all we are getting is more reckless policy, more incompetence and more disappointment.

Gillard Labor is in a mess of its own making.

Gillard Labor’s Economic Management Mess

Julia Gillard is becoming more and more shrill with her claims about the Coalition “screaming from the sidelines”.

Just a few months ago, Julia Gillard said the Coalition wanted to “let the market rip” but now accuses the Coalition of ‘economic Hansonism’.

Between 1998 and 2007, Julia Gillard opposed every major economic reform introduced by the Howard Government.

She opposed the private health insurance rebate. She opposed tax reform. She opposed waterfront reform. She opposed superannuation reform. She opposed successive Howard Government budget decisions designed to reduce government debt.

Julia Gillard is running the most economically incompetent government in living memory. Having wasted billions of dollars on overpriced school halls racked up mountains of debt and continuing to borrow $100 million every day, Julia Gillard has zero credibility when she talks about economic reform.

The only economic reform Julia Gillard is interested in is imposing higher electricity prices on Australian families through a carbon tax.

This is an increasingly desperate Prime Minister trying to distract from the seriousness of Labor’s mess.

Gillard Labor's NBN Mess

The Coalition has taken the initiative to prepare legislation requiring publication of a 10-year business case for Labor’s $43 billion spending on broadband.

We’ve had to resort to this to force Labor’s hand, establish the facts and provide Parliament with an appropriate level of understanding by allowing the Productivity Commission to independently assess economic and regulatory issues associated with Labor’s NBN.

Australia’s peak business body, the Business Council of Australia, has called for the NBN to be subjected to a rigorous cost-benefit analysis.

While the US Government is spending $7b to support broadband rollout, Labor’s NBN will spend taxpayers’ money at 100 times more per capita without undertaking a cost-benefit analysis.

Gillard Labor’s Water Mess

Water Minister Tony Burke now says he will push the Murray Darling Basin Authority to assess the social and economic impacts of water cuts.

Labor now effectively admits the work leading up to these cuts is flawed.

There is so much more that I could say but this space does not allow the room.

Kathy M 4:44PM September 28, 2011

Congratulations for covering Australian politics! We usually only make the U.S. papers when there is a major bushfire, shark attack or an attack of a killer dingo ...

You are right. Gillard does seem driven, and she is breaking all the stereotypes. Enough to make me, an Aussie who has lived in the United States for a long time, wonder if she could be elected here in the United States. After all, she is an atheist, unmarried and lives with her unmarried domestic partner. I blogged about this ... welcome your thoughts ... An Ideabomb callled Julia Gillard at http://www.momstowork.com/06/24/an-ideabomb-called-julia-gillard/

P.S. Congratulations for covering Australian politics! We usually only make the U.S. papers when there is a major bushfire, shark attack or an attack of a killer dingo ...

julie of MD 10:58AM June 28, 2010

I'll research the woman but that CAN'T be a good sign given the record of English/Aussie "Labor" leaders. The rest of the world is attempting to turn back RIGHT! I'm trying to find a decent country now that the USA is swirling down the "European" left-wing toilet.

Is there a FREE Nation left????

Chris Petty of GA 12:17AM June 28, 2010

Hopefully his whore gets ate by a crocodile. Poor little crocodile.

Hillary Clinton of NY 8:45PM June 27, 2010

In Slobovia they have perfected the art of surgically implanting heads into actual sphincters! It is all the rage. We americans should all do this now so that the world will think we are cool and with it.

Obama, prez dude of DC 10:11PM June 26, 2010

Good-bye and good luck......anything is better than Kevin Rudd.

Joe of CA 6:44AM June 26, 2010

Don't forget that this is a wild-eyed liberal feminist who wrote this column. Typically, they think that any woman who acts with any sort of grace and actually loves her husband/boyfriend is a throwback to olden, unenlightened times.

Bonnie may be many things, but you can't accuse her of being anything but what she is - ignorant and not very bright.

enzo of IN 3:11PM June 25, 2010

"Where swashbuckling and crocodile hunting are still in vogue"?!!

"They are where the wild west was in terms of womens leadership in the 19th century"?!!

Sorry but you sound bloody ignorant. But I guess being PC is more important than being accurate in the American media: 'child-free in place of childless'..! Pfft!!

Firstly, 'swashbuckling'? Not a term used often in Oz. We may be convicts, but we ain't pirates!!

Plus I'm pretty sure croc-hunting would be in vogue at yours if it'd get one outta your backyard!

And your STUPID comment about feminism in general in Australia, well the Queen has done an alright job for over 50 years, plus now our leader is a woman, so we've beaten you Yanks twice over! (Standard!)

Hahaha at least your good for a laugh, but next time, -do your bloody homework love!!

Lozzabell 1:10PM June 25, 2010

Medibank, Australia's "public option," a government owned entity which also happens to be the single largest insurance company with 30% of the national market for private health insurance, was up for privatization in 2006. Here's a typical Aussie’s response to the 2006 Federal Parlaiment approval of the sale of Medibank to private investors;

“I hope when Labor wins the election, they cancel the privitisation. This is obsurdity. No doubt that the health insurance premium would significantly increase because the industry has no gov’t owned company to make it competitive.” (emphasis added)

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=416939

Gillard is on record as opposing it in the past;

Labor's health spokeswoman, Julia Gillard, went into Parliament's Question Time armed with the document.

JULIA GILLARD: "This document is dynamite. It shows the huge flaws in the sale of Medibank private. It's going to hurt Medibank private, Australia's largest health insurer. It's going to hurt members, who face higher premiums and less benefits. And it's probably going to lead to a class action, which will be costly and complex. Labor remains opposed to the Medibank private sale, and we certainly sympathise with every Medibank private member, who today has every right to say John Howard and Tony Abbott are ripping me off."

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1653392.htm

The Finance Minister seemed to agree;

“A new private owner might simply want to milk the circumstances and charge the highest premiums they can and not care about the health circumstances of their members.”

http://www.abc.net.au/insidebusiness/content/2010/s2825785.htm

Labor PM Kevin Rudd, kept Medibank in public hands. Let's hope the new PM doesn't change course.

steve of IL 12:34PM June 25, 2010

Your views on australia are ridiculous and the typical uneducated stuff that journalists who base their understanding on a country via entertainment export.

Its NO surprise to me that Australia would have a female political leader far before America and on the whole, after living in america for 13 years (and fond of the country as I am), the levels of mysogyny I have experienced here far outweigh anything I experienced in Australia which in my experience was a country of "mate-ship" between men and women.

Honestly, this sort of journalism is just idiotic!

Georgia of NY 12:25PM June 25, 2010

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Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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