Labour in turmoil in Australia;
Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister, has thrown open her job to challenge by Kevin Rudd after senior figures of her Labor party called for the man she deposed to come back and replace her.
A combative Gillard said in parliamentary question time that a leadership ballot, known as a spill in Australian politics, would be held on Thursday afternoon. Gillard batted away taunts from the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, who called for a vote of no confidence in the House of Representatives. The prime minister opened question time by challenging the opposition to “take your best shot”.
Caucus going to drag Gillard out of office by her feet. Claw marks in the carpet.
— grace collier (@MsGraceCollier) March 21, 2013
She’s called a leadership ballot for 4:30pm (12:30 am EDT). Tim Blair has the blow by blow. (link fixed)
Tim Blair link goes to Harper’s cat.
She should convince her sister Redfraud to do likewise.
Try this
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/
Redfords moves today were great Chris, she let the breathless media and the old talk show host hang themselves royally on the Edmonton arena funding, they were both horny to hang her on the 122 million she was “giving” Cates. Last week she let Manson/Mulcair have it for his stunt with the like no-minded Pelosi over Keystone, not quite good enough, but its a start, takes a while, lets see what she’s got over the next 2 years, might surprize us.
Buttinsky crawl back to daveberta you moron.
I see that Rudd failed to answer the call. Don’t much care for Gillard, but Rudd should be a laughing-stock now, if he wasn’t already.
She won so the ALP is going down in flames for ever.
Good.
As for Redford … go WildRose.
“Yesterday the boyish-looking boss of one of Australia’s most powerful unions was holding fast to that position. ‘’Absolutely’’, he would still stake his house on Ms Gillard, Mr Howes told the Herald.”
I think I can guess what the media/opposition response would be if a similar situation arose in the Conservative Party of Canada, and the President of the Canadian Bankers’ Association made similar bold public comments, reflecting his superior insider knowledge and influence over the process, about Stephen Harper’s chances of retaining his job: outraged howls of “cronyism”, “old boys club”, “undemocratic”, “the Tories are showing their true colours”, blah, blah, blah, with Bob Rae all red-faced and gesticulating wildly.
On the other hand, it’s just about the most natural thing in the world for union bosses to have Mr. Howes’s kind of influence and access, isn’t it? Kind of stirs found memories of the James Callaghan-TUC relationship in the last days before Margaret Thatcher.
lets see what she’s got over the next 2 years, might surprize us.
~bartinsky
She(Redford) like Gillard, luvs her some carbon taxes.
I’m not surprised at all, are you?
http://tinyurl.com/ct8zrzn
“take your best shot”? She might want to rephrase that lest some Aussie get the Lee-Enfield out of the closet.
I am not in favour of more laws, but I think that when a premier or prime minister gets caught being a lying, wasteful corrupt b@#c% or a son of one (I’m thinking about Dolton Mcguinty, Lyin’ Brian and the Cretch) they should be forced to lead their party into another election to face the wrath of the voters.
Let’s hope there is some wrath. Most of the denizens of this blog (myself included) thought that Wildrose was a shoo-in; and many of us had great hopes for Mitt Romney last November.
I guess knowledge and common decency disqualify one not only to participate in the public arena but even to anticipate what will happen there.
“…I can guess what the media/opposition response would be if a similar situation arose in the Conservative Party of Canada, and the President of the Canadian Bankers’ Association made similar bold public comments…”
Holy mackerel, I don’t know anymore, DS.
I mean, 2 days ago Flaherty gave a lending institution crap for lowering its rates and Bob Rae and Mulcair leaped to the big bad bank’s defence – the same two clowns who harped on endlessly about the colusion between banks and gov’t in the US subprime mortage mess.
Strange tmes. But nice to see them both setting themselves up. Too bad there weren’t some real journalists around to to expose their hypocrisy.
Epitaph for Tilting Tom
Here lies the body of Tommy Mulcair
Both ears on the ground,
His arse in the air.
If you won’ted, he won’ted,
And willed if you willed,
He screwed you all royally,
But your kids pay the bill.
I’m like you Rose, I don’t like Gillard and the media are circling like sharks, so she’s done. But Rudd? I’d definitely shower after shaking his hand