Post by LaFace on Jun 23, 2010 19:15:58 GMT -5
After taking the reigns as Prime Minister in 2007 after the Labor party had been in opposition for 11 years, Kevin Rudd this morning resigned as PM, with his deputy Julia Gillard being elected unopposed to the top job.
A bit of a shock, as Kevin Rudd was initially our most popular PM in history (along with Bob Hawke in the 80's), however his popularity dipped over the past month, most notably in relation to the Emissions Trading Scheme, and in particular, his policy on Mining Taxes.
I'm a fan of Rudd's, and though I still like Gillard, I feel for Rudd particularly because of the manner in which he has left as PM.
He made a number of achievements - led the Labor Party into Government for the first time in over a decade, apologised to the Stolen Generation and acknowledged the hurt that these Aboriginals felt in our nation's history, initiated the largest health reforms the country has ever seen since the commencement of Medicare, and prevented our country from going into recession when every other developed nation on the face of the planet was going into recession because of the Global Financial Crisis. I also agree with his immigration view for a 'Big Australia' to increase our quotas significantly, the view to have a digital education revolution, and the innovative Australia 2020 summit, the former two he won't really get to see implemented the entire way through as PM now.
According to official polls, he was still our preferred prime minister over opposition leader Tony Abbott, and by quite a margin.
Still, with the swearing in of Julia Gillard, this marks a first for a number of aspects in our country's history:
1. First ever female Prime Minister.
2. First ever Prime Minister born outside of Australia.
3. First ever Prime Minister without any children.
4. First ever Prime Minister that is not married.
This is one of the biggest news days I've seen in quite some time, with Australia's do-or-die match at the World Cup being the other leading headline, as well as an important world tennis record being annihilated at Wimbledon and the US commander in Afghanistan being stood down by the Obama administration in bipartisan support making foreign headlines as well.
For those interested in reading a little about Julia Gillard, here is her wikipedia article, sure to be updated numerous times today:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gillard
A bit of a shock, as Kevin Rudd was initially our most popular PM in history (along with Bob Hawke in the 80's), however his popularity dipped over the past month, most notably in relation to the Emissions Trading Scheme, and in particular, his policy on Mining Taxes.
I'm a fan of Rudd's, and though I still like Gillard, I feel for Rudd particularly because of the manner in which he has left as PM.
He made a number of achievements - led the Labor Party into Government for the first time in over a decade, apologised to the Stolen Generation and acknowledged the hurt that these Aboriginals felt in our nation's history, initiated the largest health reforms the country has ever seen since the commencement of Medicare, and prevented our country from going into recession when every other developed nation on the face of the planet was going into recession because of the Global Financial Crisis. I also agree with his immigration view for a 'Big Australia' to increase our quotas significantly, the view to have a digital education revolution, and the innovative Australia 2020 summit, the former two he won't really get to see implemented the entire way through as PM now.
According to official polls, he was still our preferred prime minister over opposition leader Tony Abbott, and by quite a margin.
Still, with the swearing in of Julia Gillard, this marks a first for a number of aspects in our country's history:
1. First ever female Prime Minister.
2. First ever Prime Minister born outside of Australia.
3. First ever Prime Minister without any children.
4. First ever Prime Minister that is not married.
This is one of the biggest news days I've seen in quite some time, with Australia's do-or-die match at the World Cup being the other leading headline, as well as an important world tennis record being annihilated at Wimbledon and the US commander in Afghanistan being stood down by the Obama administration in bipartisan support making foreign headlines as well.
For those interested in reading a little about Julia Gillard, here is her wikipedia article, sure to be updated numerous times today:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gillard