"Queen" Julia of Australia?
The above title has a ring to it, but has Julia Gillard been handed a poison chalice going into an election which could be as early as October?
While many women across the nation are welcoming Julia's promotion to become Australia's first female Prime Minister, she has a lot of fence mending to do if she hopes to restore Labor's credibility in the coming months.
Julia has already opened the door to the mining industry after Rudd and Swan got offside with the rent tax.
While not saying she is against the tax, she has won some support among the heavyweights of the industry and also the worker's union.
Let's hope she can finally get the same quick action on the Murray Darling Basin and not let the impasse of water ownership continue until 2015 or later.
Julia Gillard's promotion places Labor in a better position to counter the Opposition and one has to wonder if Tony Abbott was quietly backing Rudd to remain in the top job.
Abbott will be tested in his debating skills with Julia Gillard. Will he back-off because she is a woman? Will he be able to contend with a woman who some say has not lost a debate since her Unley High School days?
There is no doubt Julia Gillard is a highly intelligent woman and worthy of the top job, but some question just how she got it.
In the coming weeks and months she will have a battle to prove to the voting public she has the ability to revitalize Labor and reverse the slide in polling trends of the past few months.
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Julia Gillard will have to prove she is not a factional player and not a puppet of the Far Left or the Union powerbrokers that put her in the top job, in what many have said was the political execution of a Prime Minister.
This is a real breakthrough for Australian women and with this lady's political nous she has always been a good bet for leader of this nation, albeit not in these circumstances.
Her performances over the coming months will determine if Labor is a one term wonder and whether it will be cast to the political wasteland for many terms to come.
Mining tax, the handling of refugees, the Murray Darling Basin, health reform and many other issues will map Labor's and Julia Gillard's future.
TEXT TALK
Last week's Hot Topic:
Do you agree with the Maternity Pay legislation and will it impact adversely on employing women?
Eighteen weeks paid maternity leave is a great idea. It means the main care giver will get $544 a week for the first 18 weeks after the birth of a baby. It will certainly help all families and take some of the financial pressure off. Just hope it still goes ahead after the next election.
Mum to Be. Roxby
Now Kevin Rudd has gone there is opportunity to revisit the whole maternity pay bit. I am scared I will be forced out of the workforce because I am married, of child bearing age and only work in a casual job at the moment. I love my job and the people I work for, but if they have to help cover maternity pay and hold my job open if I have a child, I understand why they would be reluctant to employ women my age and in similar positions. Don't get me wrong, maternity pay would be wonderful but at what cost - my job?
A H.
The hot topic last week will now have more impact. With a female PM we r sure to get more maternity allowance and guess who will be paying? If you can't afford kids without maternity pays, don't have em!
Con Traception.
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Kevin has gone! Julia Gillard is the first female Prime Minister and what happens with the mining tax is open to conjecture. Let's hope at last there will be serious consultation over the mining tax and a consensus is reached for everyone's benefit.
JR. RoxbyRudd or Gillard, who cares? Anybody would be better than Abbott and the extreme right Conservative Liberal party.
Nugget. FN
Let's be honest... The Mining Tax is the Nail in the Coffin of Labour with or without Kevin.
Simon
HOT TOPIC
Now that the Government and Miners are talking do you think the OD expansion will go ahead?
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Letters to the Editor
Face Book - The Forum of Folly.
Sir - It is amazing that such a wonderful tool such as facebook again is the centre point of mindless bigotry and abuse by those that know nothing of what they are talking about.
This is in reference to discussions in facebook, on and around the 19th June relating of the township power outages. Seriously some people have small minds and can gossip only mistruths and misinformation, and this makes those that do know the truth, sick to their stomach and extremely disappointed in the mindlessness of some people. It is fine to have an opinion but the opinion must be based on facts, not fiction and hearsay.
Simply the maintenance outage plan undertaken by Roxby Power is to ensure that unintended power outages do not occur. Without the testing and maintenance we would no doubt be blamed intensely and vehemently for not having maintained the equipment should it fail.
The second point of misinformation - Roxby Power was blamed for the total township outage that was a BHP issue and not related to Roxby Power at all. Time to put your minds in gear and think and check before making unsubstantiated comments on the facebook forum.
It was simply unfortunate timing that the BHP issue occurred simultaneously to Roxby Powers planned outages, neither were connected, it was just coincidence.
As another issue, I would personally wish to thank the BHP staff for attending to the failure on the 19th of June promptly and with great professionalism. I know personally that they worked hard to locate the fault and then to restore the power as quick as possible.
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