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Hypocrisy and Dodgy Politics
I fully believe in merit based success. I firmly subscribe to the view that it should be irrelevant whether you are male or female, young or old, religious or non-religious, short or tall, black or white, hell, even green or yellow for that fact, working hard and doing the best job you can is all that should matter to validate you.
BUT having said that, as a female and a mother of a daughter, I have to
confess, to being a Hypocrite. There was
a part of me yesterday that was absolutely thrilled to see a Female become
Prime Minister. Obviously the
circumstances were not good (and we will get to that later), but it does not
change the fact , that the seal is now broken.There would have been so many little girls sitting around dinner tables
last night, hearing their parents talk, and thinking, hey, I might rule
Australia one day... Kids are really
simplistic, reminds me of my Grandma's saying, "Monkey See, Monkey
Do", and human nature being what it is, we can't help but compare
ourselves to others.
Yesterday brought back a memory for me of my daughter when she was 6 or 7, we
were reading 'Snugglepot and Cuddlepie' and somehow the conversation got around
to the author May Gibbs, how back in the early 1900's there were not that many
women authors and how May Gibbs even had difficulty getting a bank account in
her own name for book sales. My daughter
thought that was 'stupid', "Why Not?, I have a bank account". And so the females voting etc. chat ensued. This conversation illustrated how kids see the
world, and cannot envisage not being able to aspire to something when they can
patently 'see' that others have done so.
Nasty stuff how we got our first Female PM and the blogs seem to have a recurring
theme in the comments about how 'We did not elect her'... A worry really, if that is the majority consensus,
as it shows a major lack of understanding ofthe Political Process by a majority of Australians, (maybe seriously
teaching Government in school would be a good idea to add to the 'Education
Revolution'). We NEVER elect a Prime
Minister, regardless of the pretty pamphlets and all the polling asking who do
you want as PM, the sad fact is, that we have no choice whatsoever, and never
have. It is an odd irony that Political
Parties, by their very nature, are Non Democratic which is particularly
perverse in a Democratic country where it is illegal not to vote. Every Political Party have their 'men in grey suits' (normally men), high flying members of the party, normally
called 'Caucus', who sit down, look at all the members in the party,
decide who is going to look good for them to win the 'hearts & minds'
of the voters, and that is who leads.You and I have nothing to do with it. In fact, even when you vote, you are not
voting for the leaders, you are voting for your Local Representative, and this
is where Political Parties can become even more un-democratic.
Hypothetical... I am using Labor in my
example here, but all the major parties are basically the same.
Let's say the Labor Party policies seem
ok to you, and your local Labor Candidate seems like a good bloke, so you vote
him in. He says "I feel so privileged that you
have honoured me with representing you in Canberra blah blah...". But later down the track, Labor decide, Right,
we are tidying up the beaches of Australia.We will be putting into law that you need to get a licence to use the
beach... (Yes, I know ludicrous, but
stay with me here). Now, obviously being
a beach loving area, we would not be very happy about this. In fact we would scream blue murder and
expect our Labor Guy that we voted in to do everything in his power to stop
this stupid law, which the 'Majority' of the electorate here hates. Guess what, even though his first responsibility
should be to represent the wishes of the majority of his electorate, he won't! He will apologise, tell you it was out of
his hands, stress how he tried, blah blah, but the fact is, he will always vote
in Parliament as per what the "Party" wants, not his Electorate. So even though in a democracy, the Elected
Representative is supposed to responsible to his electorate first & foremost,
if they belong to a Political Party, they are not, and in most cases, Political
Parties will not allow a conscience vote, nor will they allow any sort of
dissension as they think it will dilute the 'message' or 'brand'. Sort of fraudulent if you think about it?
Your guess is as good as mine as to whether Julia Gillard will be a good PM or
not? I hope so, as from a purely
non-political perspective, it would be great to see more females aspire to the
top job because she was (hopefully) a
good role model. Regardless of their
Agenda, maybe the 'Men in Grey Suits' have done the future female generations
of this country a Favour? Either way, it looks like the fun and games of
a Federal Election are about to heat up, and as our new PM said yesterday,
"Game On"!
What do you reckon? Think She will be a
good PM? Feel Sorry for Kevvy07? Think things will change? Let us know your Thoughts...
Noely
The MSC Editors Desk 25 June 2010
Permanent Link: Hypocrisy and Dodgy Politics
Publish Date: 25 Jun 10
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Comments / Have your say
I think Ms Gillard may well make a great PM, however she is part of a team and she needs them as much as they need her. There will be compromise and there will be decisions that are against HER better judgment.
As you say we vote for our representative not the leader, but the leader is a key to what sways the swinging voter in every case other than independents.
I believe there is a law against subliminal advertising and I wonder if political advertising is ever scrutinised for that.
With any luck the Red Head will still be firing come election time so that the mess they made during the change of leaders means that the parties are fighting on policy not personality. (if only)
It is unfortunate that the party deemed fit to oust him, and presumably put Ms Gillard forward in his place. I have always felt she had the makings of a Prime Minister, but would never have wished this method on her. Now she has to not only do a better job than any male in the same position, but to fight the back-lash of people loyal to the Prime Minister they felt they had elected. I hope people give her a fair go - though with the way Kevin Rudd was treated, it makes you wonder if it is possible.
Well done Noely
Sorry but have to totally disagree with you re: Julia. Despite the obvious legal position about us not electing the PM, the truth is I (and probably a million other Aussies) don't even remember the name of the member we voted for at the last federal election. We never see them anyway after they are elected, till of course the next election.
What we DID vote for was the person who had Kevin's picture pasted on all their publicity material. I can assure you that had the picture on that poster been Julia's and not Kevin's, John might still have been the PM. In any case, "Brutus" Gillard won't get my vote.
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