Saturday 18 May 2013

Julia Gillard First Girl PM

Think  'The Sound of Music'...



How do you solve a problem like Julia. ...
Blah de blah de blah ha ha ha.....

Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her
Many a thing she ought to understand
But how do you make her stay
And listen to all you say
How do you keep a wave upon the sand?'

Oh Blah de Blah de Blah de Blah ha....

When I'm with her I'm confused
Out of focus and bemused
And I never know exactly where I am
Unpredictable as weather
She's as flighty as a feather
She's a darling! She's a demon! She's a lamb!

She'd outpester any pest
Drive a hornet from its nest
She could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl
She is gentle! She is wild!
She's a riddle! She's a child!
She's a headache! She's an angel!
She's a GIRL!  

AND THERE IT IS! She's a bloody girl. The first girl to be PM which is ironic because Australia was one of the first countries in the world to give the vote to women but one of the last in the world to elect one as PM. 

The outrage, that we who spawned the likes of Germaine 'big arse' Greer, were not the first to elect a woman PM! 

Anyway....though initially the press thought Julia was going to be stoic and wooden throughout, she did reveal her emotions on a number of occasions, crying in parliament after the floods in Queensland and especially after the shocking inland tsunami in Toowoomba and the heroic actions of one young man. 

She held back when her Dad died, at least in parliament. When refugees were smashed to death on the Christmas Island rocks and during the terrible bush fires and cyclones and the shocking treatment of our cattle overseas and the meltdown in Fukushima, she was cool and professional throughout. Many, many tears must have been shed behind doors. I know they were in our house.

One does wonder if the spin doctors tell Julia exactly when crying would best enhance her chances of re-election...though this does sound a wee bit cynical and if she is anything like me, tears can be rather unpredictable and I'm sure those she wept in parliament after receiving a card from some disabled kids and their families, were indeed genuine. The photo taken by Sophie Deane is gorgeous.
AND of course how could anyone forget the Prime Minister's misogyny speech. We all cheered when she delivered her withering expose of Tony Abbott's puffed up sexism. Having a woman in the country's driver seat has created the opportunity to get the issue of sexism against women out in the open. It's a shame that Germaine Greer, Australia's most famous feminist export, was herself responsible for a sexist jibe toward our first girl PM. Oh, the irony!

http://media.smh.com.au/news/national-times/julia-gillards-misogyny--speech-in-full-3701787.html
 

My husband uses that term to describe something powerful, such as a big truck or an earth mover. So, in that sense, she is a big arsed PM; a powerful woman. Germaine however was unfortunately referring to her derriere and consequently our foremost feminist academic and author appeared to be perpetuating those old sexist attitudes she herself has declared war on. How strange! Anyway...I'd rather be 'big arsed' than 'dumb arsed' any day and I can think of a few in parliament who would fit that description.

AND, Julia, our first woman Prime Minister has attempted and in some cases achieved some admirable things, specifically the price on carbon, the NDIS, Gonski funding for primary schools, Marine Sanctuaries and the cancellation of the fishing super trawler The Abel Tasman. Although there are now new threats to our fisheries that the government has not responded to.  

Julia's legacy will be far from perfect as she missed the mark on some vital issues such as the watering down of the mining tax which has led to a a huge drop in revenue and consequently cuts to funding for universities and single parents. In this round, some really big arsed mining billionaires won and education, single mums, foreign aid, forests and the environment lost out.

Julia's government has reinstated inhumane measures against asylum seekers, such as off shore processing and the incarceration of children in detention. 

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young showed her despair in parliament, over the Government's treatment of asylum seekers. 

Sarah works directly with asylum seekers and refugees and sees first hand the effects our legislation has on them. Those of us who have fought for years winning some hard earned rights for asylum seekers, all felt despair when those rights were wiped out by short sighted politicians. And now it's back to square one.

 

This is what Sarah Hanson-Young had to say about it.

The Government is working with Libs to suspend standing orders in the Senate as we speak to excise the entire mainland from Australia's migration zone. Shameful & inhumane. Removing Australia from our own migration zone will not save peoples lives or care for refugees, but it will subject children to more harm.

Julia's government has approved new coal and coal seam gas exploration and mines and supported uranium mining. 

They have not encouraged renewable energy developments or the  manufacture of renewable energies here in Australia nor the development of sustainable manufacture or sustainable agriculture. 

AND our forests have suffered under Julia's big arsed government. More ecosystems have been damaged, more species are under threat and have become extinct, more forests destroyed, more rivers, land, ocean and air polluted thanks to her unacceptable policies on the environment. 

BUT don't get me wrong! It would be whole lot worse under Tony Abbott's big arsed leadership. It would be insufferably worse.

That's why I'm voting Green in the coming election because I know the Greens have the intellect and ethics to stay with the issues and not jump to the tune of the coal, uranium and coal seam gas mining industries, or the racists, sexists, homophobes and the extreme right or left. Have I forgotten anyone?

The Greens have the forbearance  to stay with problems until they find long term solutions. The Greens are not afraid to stand up for what is right; to stand up for the vulnerable who cannot speak for themselves, to stand up for vulnerable ecosystems, animals,oceans, forests and for standards of education and those who are marginalized including asylum seekers.

We support sustainable and ethical industrial development, agriculture, manufacturing, forestry practices, mining with conditions and fair and sustainable business practices. 

We believe that renewable energy is the way of the future and that if governments continue to support dirty fossil fuel energy, they will take the country backwards.

We know that there is no time to waste and that the decisions we make now will determine our survival into the future.  

So if you are sick to death of short term, knee jerk reactions and want big 'arsed' sustainable, humane, long term solutions, then simply vote 1 Green. 














  

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