Caucus Summer Collection 2012

When you lead a team there will always be those who would put poles in your back, poles in your chest and poles in your side. There will always be those who do not support you. All you can do is attempt to get them onside but carry on regardless if you don't. The nay sayers and black hatters will always be there. A 71-31 win at the caucus vote was pretty impressive for any leader. When your opponent is well liked and respected and has some high level skills, then it is a remarkable result. It is unfortunate it had to be done this way but when you have two really competent leaders in one party and they both have good things to offer, there will be a power struggle and in the end the party has to decide and they did. Julia Gillard is not at all flimsy. She has stood up to an onslaught of of challenges and one at a time she has been able to rise above them and keep a clear head. Her resilience is remarkable as is Anna Bligh's and one day both those women will be given credit for their capacity to endure exceptional circumstance. They are worthy leaders and they are able to withstand the battering of life in Australia and Australian politics. If Kevin Rudd will now use his talents and skills to continue his own good work for the party in his state and his country then he will see that he is still able to lead but not in the way he thinks. He actually needs to be flexible in his thinking. His sporting loss means he can walk away and get on with his new life and new Kevin in that comfortable, assured manner we like. That said, I'd now like to appreciate the fact our politicians got out on the runway today with some pretty dapper clothes. Conservative, yes, but they were impeccably dressed and it is something I'd like to see continue. I do not expect Canberra to be the fashion capital of Australia but I'd like to see our politicians show, as they did today, that Canberra is worthy of quality clothing, good cut, a certain je ne sais quoi and a dash of panache when it comes to dress. Clothes do not maketh the man but a certain standard and style of dress is what we need and what has been missing. Perhaps I am with Mr. Slipper and his attempt to put a level of finesse into our federal parliament. I do like what I saw today. Even our reporters showed a real sense of occasion with their dress and demeanour. I like it and it suits us!

Kitchen Cabinet

Kitchen Cabinet  is a delightful half hour show where you get to dine with politicians and Annabel Crabb. I managed to catch up with it today and thought it capitalises perfectly on something we do well - lunch. We are very good at relaxed dining.  It breaks through  the stereotype, barricaded media representation of   politicians and we see them on our own turf - lunch. I could never have imagined myself watching a programme with Amanda van Stone and Christopher Pine and yet having lunch with them and Annabel Crabb was convivial. It was proof again that we actually want to see our politicians as people and not media images. We want to engage with them. I guess that is the impact of social media and Facebook , in particular. We can know people in a more detailed way these days if we want to and we know them warts and all . It isn't a problem. It's good. A media image is exactly that - an image and neither we nor the politicians have been able to sustain it in any kind of viable way - hence our hung parliament. If we were more accepting of the fact people are people and can be quite lovely or quite horrible depending on where and when,can say one thing and then another, then we'd go a lot further. Analysis paralysis through media scrutiny has made it impossible for some really good people to survive. Already they are writing off Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. There's a scenario, a narrative and then people are bashed into the shape. So to have a chit chat and a leisurely lunch was so refreshing. I could see Amanda van Stone was in command, that her face changed to very serious over political questions and she just talked away. Christopher Pyne was full of banter and not one nasty word. He was just very sociable and straight forward. He is never like that when I see him. It was the stuff of a good Australian lunch - some good stories, some lovely food, an appreciation of the food and then the valuing of being in the company of others. There is a real disconnect between what the media engineers as the story and the real story. It is pretty presumptuous to write someone off. Besides, if I walked into work tomorrow, challenged my boss for her position , lost - I'd still be in my job doing my job and taking pride in that. What my colleagues or anybody else think is none of my business.Amanda van Stone and Christopher Pyne talked about that quite well because she was very much disliked and it put a really human face on it.  My business is to do my job well and be responsible for that. If I lost a challenge, well, the job is still there and needs doing and I am still there with control over my own destiny. No one would be describing me as terminal. No one would be talking me down - we'd have lunch and sort out the next step. Life goes on with or without the hackneyed phrases.

The divine oracle of the polls

Image: News

I feel like saying divine orifice. Honestly. I am waiting to hear we have brought out the sacrificial goat or virgin to seal it all. The media always point to the polls as though there is something divinely , mystically right about them. They are a small sampling of the population. They are by a biased media because so much of it is owned by one interest . They are not at all independently or scientifically constructed and yet we have polls in our heads. Polls , polls, polls. Polls are another form of media manipulation as are comments. It is far too easy to create a bias one way or the other and , frankly, polls are not helping us at all and we know it. There is no way we should be running our country and its people by polls.

So, the media today have reported much with regard to the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard power struggle . We still have no idea what it would look like should Tony Abbott become PM. Mr. Abbott tried to give us an idea but the media have avoided this notion completely even though they are quite happy to claim certainty with regard to a Labour defeat at the next election. I love the crystal ball gazing which goes on.  To be honest, I have enjoyed what has been brought to me today via the media. I feel like I am getting to know my politicians in a very real way and a way which has been denied me until this hung parliament. Julia Gillard took Kevin Rudd into her cabinet because it would have been foolish not to. He is highly competent, hugely popular and the job as foreign minister suited him and us well. She battled those early days with great courage because the way she was treated had our mouths gaping and that is the thing we are still talking about now in SA. Perhaps it is because we were the first state to give women the vote. We are always conscious of how systems and institutions can harm and disadvantage women and it's one of the first things we note. So we are talking still about the way she was treated, what she had to put up with, how men just assume they can be Prime Minister. Remember when Costello wanted to be Prime Minister? Bad luck. John Howard was the Prime Minister and his party did not want to remove him. We vote in the party. The party decides on its leader. Labour is showing us this time that you can actually do that out in the open and it's quite nice being included. It is better than being excluded. We've noticed the Labour strategist just expects Ms Gillard to give up being Prime Minister because Kevin Rudd wants to be Prime Minister. He is popular. He is certainly very popular in his home state of Queensland.  Yet you don't judge your good boss by how popular they are nor if they can draw a crowd in the street. Sometimes bosses are unpopular when they try to bring about structural change and it is not fully understood what that means. Popular is important but John Howard stayed in power for far too long and I don't think anyone would claim that popularity was what kept him there. So I think we need to think a bit harder here. We have two really good politicians and it is a shame they are in the same place at the same time but history will depict it more clearly. Their style is different and they both represent something we want to see. We want a Prime Minister who can give us a good image internationally and both of them can do that. We want a Prime Minister who can effect the changes we need. They can both do that. Is it really about Tony Abbott? So where's that part of the picture?

Gillard vs Rudd vs Abbott

Image: Cheezburger

Both Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd care about their party, that much is clear and it is also clear they care about Australia. I watched the whole thing unravel today because I could and because  it was really hot and I wanted something quiet to do. They were both calm and composed. They were both confident and capable and they both delivered rational, well thought out speeches. Kevin Rudd probably thought he was evening the score a bit? It's not a war. It's not a crisis. They are both strong, skilled people who represent the same policies but have a different way of approaching things. A differing leadership style. I really valued the input we had today from other party members. You could see there was no animosity and they would be glad to relieve the air because they had all reached the stage where the power struggle between Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard needed to be resolved. Julia Gillard is representing our nation, her party and then has the responsibility of being the first female Prime Minister in Australia. Given that countries like America and France haven't been able to achieve that, then it is a very unique flag for her to be flying. It really is important in a free nation that girls and women can see themselves holding the top job and that there is a model for that. Kevin Rudd is still flying the flag that Australia did clearly elect him in  and gave a very firm and resounding defeat to John Howard. Much was made today of how Australians will send their leaders packing with a baseball bat. That is so wrong. We hate people taking to others with a baseball bat. It is anathema to us. It is more the feeling of a grand final victory that we achieve. We also need to be constantly reminded we only elect the party. We do not elect the leader and there is room for debate on that, but as it stands, the leader is picked by the party we elect. At one stage we really wanted Kevin Rudd back. Then we went through a phase of wanting to see Kevin Rudd go up against Malcolm Turnbull. We have since seen a female Prime Minister go through the hoops and rings of fire and then grow into the job of being a female Prime Minister and it is not the same as having a male Prime Minister yet we are still  coming back to the mindset the only right way is to do it the men's way. I don't have a problem with exploring how to get a woman to succeed in this job. I do not have a problem with having a party sort out its balance of power and for me to know how that is happening. The media brought us all the information but it was focussing on what would happen if Kevin Rudd won and then if Julia Gillard kept her leadership position and then the belief Labour was now in the position of being well set up to lose the next election. This was echoed by Adam Brandt of the Greens. That's where it stopped. With all this ill founded and idle speculation. I was really surprised they were not looking at how we would look under an Abbott Government. Much was said about how Tony Abbott would win the next election but nothing was said about what that meant in terms of changes, policies, likely ministers etc etc and yet that was examined in detail with regard to the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard scenarios. If it is such a certainty why hasn't the media got onto it?

Labour of love

Has she cancelled her trip? 

Hope not, why would she?

 Oh, because of the Rudd situation. 

What? Prime Minister Gillard cancel her trip to Adelaide because some man is having a situation? Oh right.

That is how my morning started. People actually thought that she , Prime Minister Gillard, would just drop all her womanly interests to pursue the interests of some man. This is what a woman Prime Minister in Australia has to contend with. Julia Gillard  does, and with good grace, but she had to get the ruler out and rap the desk when some journalist just kept baa-ing out his questions. Whoever it was was ridiculous. He was so pushy, but the headlines read something along the lines of HER losing it? What? WHAT? The men politicians have been busy running to the media saying what she ought to be doing , or thinking, or how disappointed they are. I don't know how she puts up with it. Incredibly patronising. She doesn't need a brain she has all these men thinking for her.  Okay for Kevin Rudd to perform on video before the whole world landing us with his news, but Julia Gillard is not allowed to call a ballot on Monday to try and clear this matter up. That is a lot of warning. He gave none. Normally you would go and have a conversation with your boss if you were going to resign. 2012 and you have to develop positive, functional  relationships with all work colleagues. I have a lot of time for both of them. Kevin Rudd is a very caring, competent man who was hugely popular as a Prime Minister but the media confused everyone about who he was and what he was doing. He is a bit of a one man show but he has some very high level international skills which we need as a nation  to float ourselves world wide to gain the benefit of knowledge, trade and international relations. Julia Gillard has worked very hard to show us we can have a woman Prime Minister - that girls and women are just as entitled to want the top job. How many men are still suggested and how many men feel so entitled? There has been so much more discussion and open debate since we have had this government and the hung parliament . It has allowed us to learn about the politicians who lead us and the ins and outs of policy making. We are now getting good at animated debate based on information and fact. Still we come back to the easy out of the dumb cluck narrative. These two people are very competent politicians. Neither should be lost to politics and Australia needs to wake up to that  and learn. Our lunch time discussion at work was so far from the media tripe that I was glad to see we have come such a long way with our hung parliament and all that has happened. Most people are horrified with the way Julia Gillard has been treated as a woman in leadership. We were roaring with laughter because people thought her trip to Adelaide would be cancelled over some man. This is 2012. 2012, people. Get rid of the 1950s narratives and stop it at once. We thought Tony Abbott had made the best decision of his leadership by keeping quiet for once and we were all wondering where Malcolm Turnbull was because he still has a lot of clout in the community as someone we all value, labour, liberal or green ,as a politician who is of great value to us. We are fed up with the way our woman Prime Minister is being treated and blamed for everything. Must be her fault. Must be her fault. Classic abuse line. We all know it. We like Kevin Rudd. What we like better is seeing a woman lead our country and being allowed to. She has actually shown us it's possible but we are back to the argument that it takes a proper man to do the job. The media has been on and on and on about this and now it's happening they are having a lovely time at the expense of two really good politicians whom we can ill afford to lose. What happens Monday, happens on Monday, but I'd hate to see us throwing ourselves back into the knee-jerk formulaic, jargonistic thinking of a couple of years ago.

So, who's the President?

When the time comes, America will choose the president it wants. The presidential elections are being followed over here. Last time they followed the French ones as well, which are on again, but I have seen nothing about those this time. At this point I have to say the presidential elections in both countries are nothing like the last time. It is not as interesting for us and it is not as dynamic. For both countries  it was a very trying but important time. The same applied to us. In the end Twitter went off like a rocket and the whole world welcomed Barack Obama. This doesn't seem to be being taken into account this time. What the world thinks doesn't seem to be important this time. The Americans can choose who they want and they will. What matters to us is what has occurred with Barack Obama. The world has embraced him. They genuinely like him and his wife, Michelle. Everyone is talking about how fit she is now and how natural and then how she did all those push ups on TV. We watched it or we caught up with the video. This is a very likeable first lady who has a lot of personal strength.She is part of the presidential image in a very real way. Kids know Barack Obama and they like him. While they are focussing on who to pick, the Americans may well forget that who they pick has an impact on us. America sees itself as a world leader. People tend to think of it as a country which can have good leadership qualities. They can also think of it as a country which pushes its weight around. Barack Obama has done so much to soften this approach because people warm to him, can relate to him and they can relate to his family. The only time they don't relate to him is when he comes in as the talking suit on some predecided governmental position. He sounds very ordinary. When he is himself and he can talk as himself he gets through. He is a communicator and so many nations and so many age groups can identify with him and where he is coming from. We know he isn't perfect and we know he is not always right but he is someone we like a lot and we value his approach. If Barack Obama is not re-elected I shall actually miss him. He has made a significant impact on world politics and has started to draw nations together because he knows how to work with different cultures. So far I have seen no other candidate who would suit the 21st century and that has to be someone who can have a good global impact as well as a good impact on their home turf. I wish him well in his campaign.