Julia Gillard – Australia’s First Female PM
While I’m sure it’s barely registered as a blip in the North American news, something monumental happened in Australia this morning: we now have a female Prime Minister for the first time ever. The whole process has been rather dramatic and bewildering for this Yank, even though I’m happy with the outcome. (I’m just not used to changing leaders outside of an election. But hey, that’s how the Westminster system works, right?) I remember blogging in December 2007 about the “little seismic shift” that happened when she became Acting PM while Kevin Rudd was overseas. And now she’s got the job. It’s pretty amazing.
That said, I didn’t really have any big problems with Kevin Rudd. I still prefer him over Tony Abbott by a country mile. I don’t actually think having Gillard in place over him will mean any radical changes before the next election. It’s just nice to see the smile on other women’s faces, to know that we finally cracked it. (Similarly, some of the comments I’ve seen from men on Twitter and Skype have been predictably depressing. But we knew that would happen.)
Bex
June 24, 2010 — 1:09 pm
Yay for Julia! The scary comments have actually been coming from women here at work – but most of them were liberal supporters 🙁 fail.
Emily
June 24, 2010 — 6:38 pm
Yahey!!!!!!!!
A woman PM, and not a maggie T clone!
Congrats all you Aussies.
SallyO
June 24, 2010 — 8:21 pm
It isn’t STRICTLY how the Westminster system works because it doesn’t work this way in Westminster. The leaders of political parties in Britain are elected by ALL paid-up members of that particular party which takes weeks if not months. So although Gordon Brown tended his resignation as leader of the Labour Party after the last UK election, the ballot won’t take place until September. In Australia only parliamentary party members get to vote and they seem to do this within 24 hours of the vote being called.