Julia Gillard's self obsession knows no bounds. Rather than attempting to effectively deal with serious issues affecting the nation she's turned her prime ministership into a grotesque and sanctimonious soapie that revolves entirely around her hurt feelings. The way she's twisted her unpopularity into a po-faced diatribe about the evils of sexism is shameless and cynical in the extreme.
Sure, most Aussies don't like her one bit. But that's got nothing to do with her being a woman. It's because she's incompetent, nasty, duplicitous, and a world class hypocrite to boot. The fact that she has the gall to then hide behind her gender just annoys people even more.
Now, brazenly milking Howard Sattler's oafish interview (for which he lost his job, BTW) for her own political advantage, she's wringing her hands about its ramifications for the next generation of female leaders.
Speaking today, Ms Gillard refused to take questions on the controversy, but echoed comments from Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick that the treatment of high-profile women could send a damaging message to the next generation.
"I'm concerned about that, too. I don't want to see a message like that sent to those young girls," she said.
"I want young girls and women to be able to feel like they can be included in public life and not have to face questioning like the questioning I faced yesterday."
The sanctimony is breathtaking. Apart from anything else, the one with the greatest right to be angered by Sattler's line of questioning is actually her significant other. But she's cast herself as the biggest victim. Cry me a river, Toots!
And like pretty much everything that comes out of her mouth, she doesn't mean one word of it. Gillard doesn't give a tinker's cuss about Australian girls. She's just cynically exploiting the Perth broadcaster's faux pas to bolster her preferred narrative.
The Women for Gillard launch, along with the menu-gate stitch up, and possibly even that army sexism scandal that surfaced so conveniently, have all been aimed at building up a clear image of her as the brave, virtuous victim of eeevil male oppressors. Her clear hope is that it might get her over the line on September 14. But it has a more immediate goal too: to make sure that any internal move to topple her will be seen primarily in terms of gender politics.
If Rudd, Shorten or another bloke sticks his hand up for the gig Gillard knows that her armies of victim feminist harpies in the mainstream and social media will characterize her attempted ousting as the patriarchy's revenge. They'll all do their darnedest to cast her as a latter day Joan of Arc.
Knowing that Labor blokes like to see themselves as attitudinally reconstructed pro-feminist types (even though many are far more sexist than those in the Coalition) there's a good chance they'll balk at such a move.
But frankly I don't think it will work. Gillard is just so catastrophically toxic to the party's brand that even the Labor males' abundant moral vanity will not stop them from doing what clearly needs to be done. If some bloke in a blue tie doesn't tap her on the shoulder in the coming weeks (or even days) I'll be very surprised.
Matt - that is probably the most accurate picture of the whole silly week. I'm assuming a Gillard nervous breakdown or maybe a health scare is in the arsenal of stunts waiting for the right moment. Sympathy ploys are all she's got left.
ReplyDelete"If some bloke in a blue tie doesn't tap her on the shoulder in the coming weeks..."
ReplyDeleteIt won't help. The government has reached the point where nothing it does can improve its prospects.
Rudd is still Jooolya's only rival - his vanity is getting in the way of clear thinking, as usual. But he and his backers seem to have forgotten how unpopular he was in 2010. The voters had had a gutful of him. If Rudd hadn't been knocked off his pedestal they'd have lost the election.
And Gillard has just been Rudd with the knobs cranked up to 11.
Gillard or Rudd. It's like choosing between the Hindenburg and the Titanic.
The government has left itself balanced not on the edge of a precipice, but on the needle point of a pin. Any step in any direction means a fall.
I wonder what she thinks of the Blue Wiggle ? Police shirts ? The NSW Rugby League uniform ?
ReplyDeleteThat's some great " find sexism in everything ! " think tank Jules has working for her.
C