Wow. What a week.
It began with Julia Gillard copping flak for knitting the Royal Baby a Kangaroo, despite being a supporter of Australia being a republic. I thought that was nice and thoughtful. It ended with a new PM.
It was entertaining, at least for news and political junkies (much like yours truly), and for once, might have had the nation sitting on the edge of their seats. If you weren’t paying attention on Wednesday night you can read what happened in the links at the bottom of this post.
In short, we now have a new Prime Minister – Kevin Rudd.
Not only that, but many people have decided to resign and leave politics, including Julia Gillard, Greg Combet and Peter Garrett. You can see who is staying and going here on the ABC News website. The media did pretty well, especially the ABC and Sky News.
In his first speech as the new PM, Kevin asked for a ‘gentler’ brand of politics and that politicians be nicer to each other. No such luck. By Tony Abbott’s second sentence, he’d taken a stab at Kevin Rudd.
Before I go, I have to say that the Liberal’s rally in Melbourne on the 29th has a distinctive US feel to it. Here’s a picture.
Personally, I don’t think we should go in this direction – but that’s just me. What do you think?
Oh well, let’s hope that next week is a little less frantic – I have a holiday planned!
Quotes of the Week
“I remind the Leader of the Opposition that he is speaking on the indulgence of the chair, and it is being tried” – Anna Burke, Speaker of the House, the day after the spill. Tony Abbott had started getting a bit too vocal about the previous nights shenanigans. (from Hansard)
“Before I conclude, let me say a word or two to young Australians. It’s clear that many of you, in fact far too many of you, have looked at our political system and the parliament in recent years and not liked or respected much of what you have seen. In fact as I rock around the place, talking to my own kids, they see it as a huge national turn off. Well I understand why you have switched off. It’s hardly a surprise but I want to ask you to please come back and listen afresh. It’s really important that we get you engaged, in any way we can. We need you. We need your energy. We need your ideas. We need your enthusiasm and we need you to support us in the great challenges that lie ahead for the country. With your energy, we can start cooking with gas.” Kevin Rudd in his speech after winning the spill, encouraging young Australians to come back and pay attention to politics, ended with one of his signature quips. (from Kevin’s website)
Tweets of the Week
https://twitter.com/hamishNews/status/349856913917345792
(Context: Leigh Sales was on the ABC from 7pm until about 10:45 (she is normally just on between 7:30 and 8pm). She and Annabel Crabb were talking for a good hour or so, holding the fort while the media awaited a slightly late Kevin Rudd to speak)
Links
Speeches
Part 1 (Gillard and Swan)
Part 2 (Rudd and Albanese)
Part 3 (Abbott)
Kara L 