Dear Ms Gillard,
The 27th Prime Minister of Australia has carried the office with grace, fortitude and strength.
Rarely has a politician stirred such proud feelings in me - I have viewed most Prime Ministers with resignation and at times despair or frustration.
I might not agree with all of your policies but it is with the greatest respect that I thank you for carrying the office as you have done.
Thank you, you were awesome. You said things that needed to be said and you got a huge lot of good work done. I am sorry about the creeps.
With the greatest respect and gratitude,
Alicia Smith
You're my kind of Prime Minister.
There has only been one PM whom earned my respect more that Julia - Hawke. It was such a treat to have a PM who was more often than not, a real person, not some isolated super-deity. Julia, was like that.
ReplyDeleteIt is really sad. Last year we took a dinner trip on the Hotham Valley train. We were seated opposite a couple who were Labour supporters but the guy kept slagging Julia Gillard. He was of the opinion she had done nothing since she came to power when in fact she has been an active reform legislator.
ReplyDeletePersonally I feel Bob Hawke was more a Kevin Rudd kind of guy ... great at being a PR person but mediocre when it came to getting things done. I would compare Julia Gillard more to Gough Whitlam, a reformer able to make deals and get things done.
The only thing I could fault her on was that a number of her policies did not go far enough. In one case that was her personal beliefs in others it was probably the caucus getting cold feet.
I have to admire her fortitude I cant think of any other PM that would have put up with the appalling denigration that she has ben subject to from that appaling ABC "comedy" in 2011 via the constant sniping of editors and cartoonists in the big media to Germain Greer's uncalled for snarky comment.
Stephen Gunnell - I can agree with the Gough comparison, although I am certain while BH was more PR, he did achieve a number of items. Maybe my memory fails me...
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree with the Whitlam comparisons. She has the same reformer zeal and the same lack of communication skills. I'm with Stephen Gunnell , that she didn't go far enough. I just wish she'd been less risk averse. She just seemed to be constantly trying to please everyone. But maybe I'm too harsh... that probably has as much to do with the minority government.
ReplyDeleteI really liked her. I met her once. She's enormously charismatic. But a terribly dull media performer. I truly feel that if she could've met everyone personally she'd be in power for 30 years.
For mine, I wish she had the guts to come out in favour of marriage equality. That and her retention of Howard's boat people policies have been enormously disappointing. Refugee compassion, climate action, republic and marriage equality. With Rudd I've now got 3 out 4, at least and a slim shot at the fourth. I'm sorry to say, but 2 out of 4 just wasn't good enough. What's sad is I think she was really for all four, but lacked the courage to come out for the other two.
Peter Billing I wonder how much of that "dull media performance" is just outright media hostility. The Press Club speech excerpts I saw did not seem a dull performance. Although, I've met several politicians over the years and they are nearly always more interesting in person that in their official personna.
ReplyDeleteOf her achievements, one must realise how much she accomplished in what was effectively a HUNG PARLIAMENT. To have managed to get anything through is bloody incredible. If she appears to have not taken enough risks, it may be due to the fact that she was walking the edge as close as it is possible to get.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Watkins Absolutely.
ReplyDeleteIt has always irked me that the media keeps referring to the current Labour government as a minority government as if any federal Liberal governament has been anything other than a minority government without the NCP. IIRC a couple have been minority governents even with the NCP.
Have people seen this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2013/jun/28/australia-productive-prime-minister
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by Bob Hawke's rating I mostly remember him cancelling the reform policies en-masse at the start of his term.