Gillard gets down the business
"Game on." With her first two words in the parliamentary chamber, the new Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a telling insight into her style of politics. She uttered them to the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, as he reached out a congratulatory hand when she made her entrance.
Although trained as a lawyer, Julia Gillard has long been a professional politician, and a proudly political animal. Just 48 hours before she made her move on Kevin Rudd, the ABC's popular show Australian Story reworked its 2006 profile of the then deputy Labor leader and broadcast it again in primetime. It presented her as self-deprecatory, charming, family-loving and genuinely funny. But she also came across also intensely, myopically and ruthlessly political. As she spoke of her entry into electoral politics, one particular quote leapt out from the television. "I had to fight hard to get preselected," she said. "I had to play a factional game to do that, I had to count numbers, I had to make deals and I'd do all of that again tomorrow if I needed to." Two days later, in a new factional game, she had the numbers once more, this time to oust the prime minister.
One of the ironies of the elevation of Australia's first female prime minister is the behind-the-scenes role played by macho, political chieftains - the powerful factional leaders who dominate the Labor party and who work in rooms that are not only full of smoke but choked with testosterone. You can read more about that and I would love you to weigh in. Along with Gillard, male powerbrokers were the central players in last week's political game. They had lined up so many votes behind her that she did not even have to make a phone call.
"The polls have already suggested a Gillard bounce, and that the government has restored a commanding leading over the Liberal-led opposition. There's no sign yet of a backlash from voters who have taken pity on Kevin Rudd, and who did not feel that he truly got a "fair shake of the sauce bottle," as he himself might have put it.
In her first remarks as prime minister, Gillard has presented herself as a champion of the battlers, as John Howard once did. But her rhetoric was borrowed from Bill Clinton, who was particularly adept at finding points of convergence between liberal and conservative America. In his famous mantra, Clinton claimed to be the president of those who "work hard and play by the rules". Here is Gillard's variation on that theme:
"I believe in a Government that rewards those who work the hardest, not those who complain the loudest. I believe in a Government that rewards those who, day in and day out, work in our factories and on our farms, in our mines and in our mills, in our classrooms and in our hospitals, that rewards that hard work, decency and effort.
The people who play by the rules, set their alarms early, get their kids off to school, stand by their neighbours and love their country."
Gillard has already demonstrated her political smarts by signalling a change of course on Australia's population policy. Kevin Rudd had favoured a Big Australia policy, which would have seen a 60% rise in the population. But Gillard has said she wants to put the brake on the population surge. She knows that in the crowded and congested suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, in particular, the Big Australia policy was damaging the government in marginal parliamentary seats. Doubtless there is also a dog whistle element to her announcement as well, for it implies that she will place limits on immigration.
In language which echoes Bill Clinton, with conservatism tinged with progressivism, she says that she feels the concern of Australians over the arrival of asylum seekers, the most paranoiac issue in Australian politics. As she told the political veteran Laurie Oakes of Channel Nine news: "I can understand that Australians are disturbed when they see boats arrive on our shores unannounced. I can understand that Australians are disturbed by that.....I've got no truck at all with elevating and fear-mongering about a problem for political advantage which is what I believe the opposition is seeking to do, but I am full of understanding for the perspective of the Australian people. They want strong management of our borders and I will provide it."
My hunch is that Gillard's strongest card will be her sense of humour. You can watch it at the end of her first interview as prime minister with the presenter of ABC's 730 Report, Kerry O'Brien. "It's a great day for redheads, too, Kerry", she said to her fellow red-head.
With an election probably now just months away, it's "game on" in Julia Gillard's new political world. Don't forget to set your alarm.
UPDATE 06:34 UK time: Setting the alarm early has just got a whole lost easier now that England have been dumped from the World Cup - and with Teutonic flair as well as efficiency. But even after the hang-over of Bloemfontein, I was up in time to see the start of Julia Gillard's first full week as prime minister. It began with a tour of a shopping centre in the bellwether seat of Eden Monaro which borders Canberra, a Labor-held marginal. By lunchtime she was unveiling which looks very much like her predecessor's last.
The main headline is that Kevin Rudd has not been offered a job, despite reports that he wanted to become the foreign affairs minister. The sub-headline is that some of those factional chieftains who provided her with the numbers have not been rewarded with promotions. Again, both look like smart politics.
I'm 
Comments
or to comment.