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?