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.