Prime Minister Gillard and the Spill that confused the World

Wednesday night many of you were probably confused at the talk of a "Spill", you may have quickly figured out that we weren't talking about the Gulf if Mexico (which is still going, don't worry about that.)  We were all talking about a different sort of spill a leadership spill.

Here's what happened.
Basically Wednesday night, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard received word that a major Trade Union had withdrawn its support for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, in the face of plummeting opinion polls and an election that must be held before April next year.  She asked the PM to either resign or she would call for a vote on his leadership.  He initially refused to resign but just before the vote was taken it became clear that he would lose by a huge margin and that that would be embarrassing so he withdrew his name from the ballot and Gillard ran unopposed.

Still confused? Its probably because many people, including Australians, are very ignorant about our political system.  Let dear Carolyn explain it to you.

Australia uses the Westminster System like Canada, New Zealand and other countries.  Our government is essentially run by the Prime Minister and Cabinet.  Unlike the USA the Prime Minister is a Member of Parliament as are members of the Cabinet.




In Australia we don't vote for Prime Minister.  Each person lives in an electorate and on election day we vote for someone to represent that electorate.  The representatives are most probably from one of the major parties (Labor or Liberal), once the election is over one party will have more seats than the other and the leader of that party is Prime Minister. 



Parties chose their leaders by different methods but since we are talking about the Labor Party lets stick with them.  If the position of leader is open all the members of the Labor Party who are currently sitting in Parliament go into a room and vote for who they think the leader should be.  Simple right?  Well it is pretty simple, if you are a Member of Parliament you put your name on the ballot and the 115 or so people will vote for you or for someone else.  If your party is the party with the most seats (the Government) and you win the vote you are Prime Minister! Congratulations, you should probably go call you mum.

Of course its not that simple, don't be silly!  There needs to be a Federal Election by April 2011 (we don't have set election dates but it will probably end up being around October or November 2010), and swapping leaders especially PMs this close to an election is a very risky move.  It kind of screams desperation and a lack of unity which is not something you want to take to the People on election day.  And in 2007 Kevin Rudd led Labor into a landslide, he was an exceptionally popular leader.  So what happened?

The Liberal Party who used to be in Government left the last election leaderless and there was a period of infighting and bickering and many changes in leadership which has settled down and they are at least on the surface firmly behind Tony Abbot.  While the party was concentrating on stabbing each other in the back there wasn't a coherent voice attacking or questioning the Government's performance.

There have been failures of a few key policies namely a home insulation rebate that ended up killing a couple of workers, a carbon trading scheme that was eventually dropped rather than lead to a minor constitutional crisis, a mining tax created without the involvement of major interest groups and of course the internet filter which is a whole bucket of trouble.

Rudd's popularity started to plummet and he began to lose the backing of the Unions (who remain Labors major base).  There had been rumblings of complaints from within Caucus that Rudd hadn't been including them in his decisions.  Basically acting like a President, that his staff and a few key advisers had been writing all the policy.  One of the main complaints was that the mining tax had been written without the consultation of any Western Australian Members (WA being home to the majority of mining operations).

From what I understand Wednesday night Gillard found out that Rudd had lost the support of the AWU (a very large, very powerful union), it is unlikely that Labor could have won the election without their support.  Traditionally Labor Leaders have the support of either the left or right Faction of the party (basically a group of like minded party members, not necessarily in parliament, who are very, very powerful), Rudd never had the support of either faction but became leader because he was popular in the general public.  Once he lost the support of the Unions and the Population and had no factional support it was only a matter of time before there were moves against him.

It all seemed to happen very quickly Gillard appeared to start circling the wagons Wednesday afternoon and evening, Wednesday night she called the "Leadership Spill" that confused you all.  The spill is basically an announcement that there would be a vote on the leader of the party.  I had never heard the term either, I think it was invented so people on twitter could have a simple hashtag.

So now Australia has a female Prime Minister, an unmarried, foreign born, childless, nonreligious Prime Minister who grew up in Adelaide.  Yes I am slightly put out that she stole my thunder but its ok I can be the first unmarried, childless, atheist, female US President.  Its ok.

Has this made sense? If you want clarification I will happily give some more information or answer your questions.  I've got a degree in Australian Studies I may as well use it for something.

Seriously, ask me any question, it can't be any dummer than our own Former Prime Minister thinking he was elected by the "people of Australia" when he was elected by the exact same process that Gillard was elected by.

June Etsy Feature Fabulry

Fabulous + Jewelry = Fabulry.  Clever right? Know what else is clever? I'm writing this in Oakland but by the time you read it I will be in Australia.  That's right the blog schedule feature and I are having fun.

If you go visit Keren at Fabulry (which I know you will because you love me) you will find some amazing jewelry.

Like these super cute earrings:

Or this sweet necklace:

Go visit Fabulry and Carolyn's Collection, buy things, tell your friends while you are reading this I am at my mother's house not earning money. I need it!

Going Back To Australia

Well I leave for Australia Wednesday night for about 10 days.  I've been busy packing, working and dealing with things. 

I'm going back for my friend's wedding and to see family and friends in Melbourne.  I'll be missing the baby I look after's 1st birthday party which is a bit sad but I'm looking forward to going home.

My laptop is half broken and I'm wrestling with Dell to get them to fix it but their tech support is apparently run by a robot that doesn't speak English well at least that is what the emails sound like, and you all know how well I deal with robots.

Also my ipod touch decided today was a great day for the screen to crack, I have NO idea how it happened I pulled it out of my bra (where I keep it) and it had a huge crack in the screen.  How am I meant to survive a flight to Australia without my ipod without killing anyone?

Have I mentioned I have almost no money to fix these things if insurance or warranty doesn't? Oh I also got a traffic citation the other day and I don't believe Alameda Country accepts payment in awesome bags.

If you buy something from Carolyn's Collection, unless I get your order by Wednesday morning you will have to wait until I get back for me to ship it.  However you can still donate money to my paypal if you so desired.