Julia Gillard - 1st female Australia PM
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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1065320/1/.html
CANBERRA : Welsh-born lawyer Julia Gillard became Australia's first female prime minister Thursday after the once hugely popular Kevin Rudd fell victim to a party coup less than three years after taking office.
"The next Labor prime minister, the first female prime minister of this country will be Julia Gillard," a party spokesman said.
Rudd stepped down as party leader, avoiding a ballot he was certain to lose. He conceded he had lost the support of key factional leaders and was sliding in opinion polls following a serious of policy back-flips.
Gillard's ascension was cemented in a parliamentary party ballot which a defiant Rudd had announced late on Wednesday night.
She was elected unopposed in a shock ballot which Rudd, struggling in the polls as elections loom, had called just hours earlier after powerful factions suddenly swung against him.
The flame-haired Gillard, 48, said she was "very honoured" to become Australia's 27th prime minister tasked with averting defeat in national polls expected this year.
"I feel very honoured, I will be making a full statement very shortly," Gillard told waiting reporters after emerging from the party vote at Parliament House in Canberra.
A grim-faced Rudd strode through Parliament House without talking to journalists after a dizzying fall from power which stunned observers and the country's political establishment.
Rudd had enjoyed record support since taking power in 2007 and topped the polls until recent months, when support fell away over a series of policy problems, notably a controversial mining tax and the shelving of a flagship emissions trading scheme.
Party factions saw Rudd, reportedly unpopular with colleagues, as an election liability after a sharp drop in public support over the emissions scheme and the mining tax, which was strongly opposed by the powerful resources sector.
The steep and unexpected fall from grace left the government in danger of becoming the first since before World War II not to secure a second term. Elections are expected later this year.
The highly-rated Gillard had been playing down prospects of a leadership tilt for several weeks after a poll showed her breathing down Rudd's neck as preferred party leader.
"There's more chance of me becoming the full-forward for the Dogs (Western Bulldogs Australian Rules football team) than there is any chance of a change in the Labor Party," she said last month.
Last week, top officials moved to scotch rumours of a leadership challenge. In recent days, the opposition targeted Rudd with attack ads portraying him as a cartoon lemon.
Rudd now becomes the first Australian prime minister to be deposed in office in 19 years, when Labor's Paul Keating ousted Bob Hawke in 1991.
"Kevin Rudd has always been a very unpopular person in the parliament," former foreign minister Alexander Downer, who served Rudd's predecessor John Howard, told Fairfax radio.
"He was just not a person that people liked, because he was so self-centred and so self-interested."
Treasurer Wayne Swan, credited with steering the country successfully through the global financial crisis, will be deputy prime minister once he and Gillard are sworn in by Governor General Quentin Bryce later Thursday.
Rudd had been expected to contest the Labor Party ballot against the Welsh-born Gillard, a childless single career woman, who entered parliament in 1998.
But after indications that he would have lost the vote, garnering the support of only around 30 parliamentary colleagues, compared to Gillard's more than 70 supporters, he stood aside at the last minute.
Centre-left Labor leader Rudd was riding high on opinion polls until recently, but his approval rating has tumbled after a serious of policy U-turns, including backing down on a carbon emissions trading scheme to combat climate change.
- AFP/de/jy -
sad fate for Mr Earwax-eater
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They lead the way! Maybe in the near future Singapore can have a female PM too.
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Originally posted by princessdiana:
They lead the way! Maybe in the near future Singapore can have a female PM too.
the male/female argument is pointless..if the person can lead a country well, it should not matter if the person is male, female or a hermaphrodite
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i do wish pap fall though
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Why have a charbor PM just for the sake of having one......?
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no big deal. i would only be impressed if the pm is a aborigine or from some other minority group.
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Originally posted by the Bear:
the male/female argument is pointless..Yeah, who cares about male/female? It's the first time a reptile has become PM!
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who is PM also no diff what ! just like US presidents, no matter who is president is just a puppet what !
the boss is always the private central bankers that create money out of thin air !
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Hope she is not a racist
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she'll act not like one becoz her boss's agenda is greater mass immigartion to reduce national identity !
that's why in all the Angmoh countries, the whites are slowly becoming the minority !
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Female PM better then Female President la...... Imagine Sarah Palin taking the seat that Obama is right now........
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Originally posted by Gedanken:
Yeah, who cares about male/female? It's the first time a reptile has become PM!
if MM Lee has his way, maybe leong ching will be spore first female PM
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Originally posted by Asromanista2001:the boss is always the private central bankers that create money out of thin air !
Ah, SGForums - so much fun you'll forget to take your medication!
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Originally posted by Asromanista2001:
she'll act not like one becoz her boss's agenda is greater mass immigartion to reduce national identity !
Reduce national identity? Junior, the sense of national identity here is not so weak that it could be toppled by a simple spill-and-fill.
Look, be brave. Don't break the tablet in half - just take the whole thing.
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Originally posted by Rooney9:
if MM Lee has his way, maybe leong ching will be spore first female PM
I've been out of town too long to know who Leong Ching is, but certainly she won't be the first PM without balls. Hell, she might even have more than her predecessors.
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Originally posted by Gedanken:
Reduce national identity? Junior, the sense of national identity here is not so weak that it could be toppled by a simple spill-and-fill.
Look, be brave. Don't break the tablet in half - just take the whole thing.
who's talking about S'pore ? we have NO national identity at all !
i'm talking about the Western countries - their govts were mass importing illegal and legal immigrants way before S'pore !
in US, there are countless millions of illegal and legal immigrants that the MAJORITY WHITES will become the MINORITY !
even now you see Spanish signs over there and also in the news and other media ! becoz so many Hispanics are in US now that US states bordering Mexico are swamped !
in France, over 50% of newborn babies are BLACK !
in Norway, over 50% of newborn babies are not of Norwegian descent !
in time to come, the NATIVE population will become the minority and that's the end of national identity !
DON'T BE A SMART ALECK when you're blindly following mainstream news and media and can't think !
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Originally posted by Asromanista2001:
who's talking about S'pore ? we have NO national identity at all !
Who's talking about Singapore? I live in Melbourne.
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Oh, and I've lived and worked in LA. The Yanks don't seem to have a problem with the Hispanic influence (although I still say Tamales are heaving), so I'm wondring you, from Singapore, are carrying on about it like a two-bob watch.
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DON'T BE A SMART ALECK when you're blindly following conspiracy news and media and can't think !
Get away from the paranoid fantasies, get out there and find things out for yourself.
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yah lah yah lah, whatever lah !
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and why is a S'porean hiding in Australia for ?
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and don't tell me there's no national identity crisis when the native people becomes the minority !
it's racial identity actually !
why are so many national soccer teams having so many foreigners in their squads ? if i wer a French guy, i'm wondering what it means to be a French supporter anymore, there's so many BLACKS !
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Hiding? I'm here telling you that I'm in Australia, so what makes you think I am hiding?
Fool, stop making yourself look stupid by trying to use your Internet scraps on someone who actually lives here.
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Originally posted by Asromanista2001:if i wer a French guy
Guess what, you're not. Stop trying to teach your father how to fuck.