Australia: unmaking of a woman prime minister

S P SETH

Last year when Australia’s then-prime minister, Julia Gillard, made a speech in the parliament accusing the opposition leader, Tony Abbot, of misogyny, it went viral over the internet; making Gillard the poster-girl of the feminist world. It resonated with many women all over the world who have been patronized and put down by men in different situations. Gillard had it with Tony Abbot for all the invectives in the world he had used against her in her position as the country’s first woman prime minister. The last straw probably was when he said in the parliament that it was “another day of shame for a government [led by Gillard] that has already died of shame”; seemingly endorsing a jibe by a shock jock (radio host), given to outrageous comments about Julia Gillard, including that her father had died of shame because of her daughter’s lies.

The opposition leader, Tony Abbot, had also appeared in public with his supporters carrying placards with signs saying, “Ditch the bitch.” Another shock jock, sympathetic to the opposition party, had asked her point blank if her male partner, living with her, was gay. His argument was that since her partner was once a hairdresser, he must be gay because they generally are. She was taken aback, and just dismissed the question as absurd.

Australia is a sexist society, and the country couldn’t handle the fact that they, for the first time in the country’s history, had a woman prime minister. Her problems started when she became prime minister in a Labor party coup that removed Kevin Rudd as the party leader and hence the country’s prime minister. Rudd had brought his party out of political wilderness after 11 years of conservative rule under John Howard as prime minister, in which the latter even lost his parliamentary seat. His axing by the Labor party and replacement by Julia Gillard, came as a shock to many people in Australia, especially as the coup was led by a woman. And Julia Gillard never really recovered from it. She became, in some ways, the Lady Macbeth of the Australian politics.

And it didn’t help much when the elections held in 2010, that might have legitimized her, returned a hung parliament with Prime Minister Julia Gillard ruling with the help of a few independents and Greens. Which made her position even more precarious. She was seen as shifting her position out of political exigency (and not principles), and increasingly appeared untrustworthy, further reinforcing the Rudd-betrayal factor. Even though the legislative achievements of her government have been impressive, her political image never recovered. Indeed, it got worse in opinion polls.

Why did that happen? First of all, because of the divisions in the ruling Labor Party. Rudd refused to take his axing lying down, continuing to haunt Gillard by challenging her leadership. Even though losing in early leadership challenge he kept up the flag of revolt, finally wearing her down and winning the leadership by a convincing margin; and returning as Prime Minister to prepare for the new elections in a few months. Gillard, as prime minister, was in a constant state of fighting off not only Rudd and his supporters within the party, but also the opposition that was constantly hammering the message of her untrustworthiness and incompetence.

At the same time, she was also managing a minority government, responsive to a handful of independents and Green MPs pushing their own political agenda. And all this, even while suffering the slings and arrows only a woman prime minister had to suffer. Some of the invectives, slander and insults hurled at her were never experienced by a man as Australia’ prime minister. For instance, at a Liberal party (opposition) dinner in a Brisbane restaurant, the menu contained a special dish with servings of Julia Gillard’s sexual parts. It is gross and revolting but was explained away as a private joke between the owner and his son.

Politically ensnared on all sides, she was constantly experimenting with all sorts of messages for a breakthrough, only compounding her image of being shifty and incompetent. Towards the end she tried to rally women voters around her. At a women’s forum she dwelt on the spectacle, time and again, of a revolving door of Australian politics where men in blue ties continue to replace each other. And it backfired with a 7 per cent fall in opinion poll among men voters, and a negligible increase among the women.

Increasingly, one opinion poll after the other was suggesting a virtual wipe out of her Labor party in the elections a few months away. She was simply failing to connect with the voters as they appeared to have switched off in favour of the opposition led by Tony Abbot. Even as she looked like leading her party into virtual oblivion, her nemesis, Kevin Rudd, appeared to be the only one with the necessary popular appeal to retrieve the situation, possibly saving the party from a political catastrophe.

In a graceful short speech following the loss of her leadership, she didn’t over-emphasize her gender as a factor in her political demise. She said that being a woman didn’t explain all her political problems, though her gender did explain something about her situation. In other words, it certainly contributed to her political demise, though analysts would debate its relative role in the time to come.

In the meantime, Kevin Rudd’s return as Prime Minister has electrified the Australian political scene with his own personal popularity gaining by a 22-point over the opposition leader, Tony Abbot. And, according to a recent opinion poll, the two political parties, the ruling Labor Party and the conservative opposition, are now pegged at 50 per cent each on Australia’s preferential voting system. And if this upward trend continues it won’t be surprising if the Labor Party were to romp once again into power, as it did in 2007, under Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister.

What is it that makes Rudd into a game changer? To put it simply, he has a charisma that exudes optimism in another wise relentless atmosphere of political negativity. And people relate to it, because they are sick and tried of being fed negativity. His problems will start after the elections if he is elected Prime Minister because, as happened not long after his 2007 win, while he is good on the message he is not so good at translating it into action. He is a one-man show, not good at delegating. He is also over-bearing, as many of his cabinet colleagues testified after he was axed in 2010. But Rudd is promising to be a changed man but that would remain to be seen.