I Love Julia

The quality of political debate in Australia is as good as the air quality in Bangkok, so I take my hat off to the federal opposition spokesman on communications, Malcolm Turnbull for his strong criticism of Parliament's question time. Apparently, Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, saw Turnbull's speech before it was delivered in Perth during the week, and approved it. A remarkable situation, given the fact that Abbott himself has been the prime mover in this deterioration, the major agent for the rot that has undoubtedly set in. Although he almost certainly blames everyone else, Abbott leads the Opposition and he is, without equivocation, the most negative and annoying Opposition leader in my lifetime.

And yet, sadly, there are those who like Tony Abbott and want him to be the next prime Minister of Australia. God forbid! The world has not ended with the introduction of either the mining tax or the carbon tax. Public opinion is turning on those issues, with polls indicating people feel that the forecast catastrophic impacts of these taxes has not, and probably will not, eventuate. The Government has adopted the Coalition's asylum seeker policy and the popularity numbers for the the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the wannabe PM, Tony Abbott, are moving, albeit very slowly, in the right direction for the former, and the wrong direction for the latter.


I don't really know why people dislike, Julia Gillard. She rubs some people the wrong way: they don't like her voice, the fact that she doesn't have children, they don't trust her because she said no carbon tax, and then introduced one, they feel she stabbed her predecessor in the back in a cowardly coup, and the list goes on.

Although I don't actually love Julia Gillard, I do like her. I like the sound of her voice and I like the way she does business. I like the fact that she is leading an efficient reformist government who makes unpopular decisions because they believe they are acting in the best interests of Australia. If I sound like a Labour man, that's because I am.