Julia’s valedictory

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, September 15th, 2013 - 35 comments
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Julia Gillard on power, purpose, and Labor’s future. Well worth a read.

35 comments on “Julia’s valedictory ”

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  1. Tigger 1
    15 September 2013 at 10:05 am

    Hopefully it’s the last we hear of her.

    “But ultimately it has to be grieving for the biggest thing lost, the power to change our nation for the better. To protect those who need us to shield them. To empower through opportunity. To decide what future we want for all our nation’s children and then build it.”

    What is the good of making such statements now? When gay Australians needed her she ran for the hills so I call BS on her vision of Australia, as it includes one where being gay is second class.

    • Sable 1.1
      15 September 2013 at 11:01 am

      Gillard’s a back stabber and will be remembered as such…

      • millsy 1.1.1
        15 September 2013 at 8:37 pm

        I would say more of an oppurtunist than anything else. Had it not been Gillard it would have been someone else. It was the fault of caucus for panicking when the polls werent in their favour.

  2. Morrissey 2
    15 September 2013 at 10:11 am

    She failed to stand up and support a real Australian hero. He did manage to embarrass her on live television however….

    • Te Reo Putake 2.1
      15 September 2013 at 10:30 am

      Yeah, you may have the wrong link, Moz. Gillard wasn’t embarrassed in the clip you supply, but Lordy, what a pompous bore that accused rapist chappy is … no wonder his party flopped at the recent election.

      • Morrissey 2.1.1
        15 September 2013 at 10:43 am

        That’s it, Te Reo, keep recycling the official lies. The Morgans should have taken you with them to North Korea; there’s nobody more dependably on-message than you.

        • lurgee 2.1.1.1
          15 September 2013 at 10:54 am

          Branding the allegations against Assange ‘official lies’ shows you are are completely close minded on this. TPR only described him as an ‘accused rapist’ which is true; he’s been accused of rape by the Swedish prosecutors. He’s also a bail jumper, of course.

          Previous generations had Rosa Luxemburg and Che Guevara as their icons. We get Julian Assange. What a comedown.

      • Lanthanide 2.1.2
        15 September 2013 at 10:45 am

        Seemed like a completely reasonable response by Gillard, IMO.

        • Morrissey 2.1.2.1
          15 September 2013 at 10:50 am

          Comparing a political prisoner to a drug trafficker is reasonable to you? That’s the sort of rhetoric that the Soviet regime used.

          Perhaps her smooth, smiling delivery obscured the menace and cynicism of what she was actually saying. Which is, of course, exactly why she has perfected that smooth, smiling delivery.

          • Lanthanide 2.1.2.1.1
            15 September 2013 at 11:25 am

            That comparison is only relevant if you assume he is a “political prisoner” in the first place.

            • Morrissey 2.1.2.1.1.1
              15 September 2013 at 11:28 am

              That comparison is only relevant if you assume he is a “political prisoner” in the first place.

              Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! That’s a good one!

              Seriously, though, Lanthanide, let’s ease off on the drugs now…

              • lurgee …
                15 September 2013 at 11:31 am

                He’s a bail jumping fugitive not a prisoner. He can leave the embassy at any time. Unless you’re suggesting the Ecuadorians are holding him against his will.

              • Te Reo Putake …
                15 September 2013 at 11:40 am

                It did make me giggle when the TV host on the clip said Assange was ‘under house arrest’, Moz. You must share the same researcher.

              • Lanthanide …
                15 September 2013 at 11:57 am

                Not sure what’s funny about that, it is a fundamentally true statement.

                It is only relevant to compare A and B, if you assume the object you are talking about is in fact A to begin with.

      • Sable 2.1.3
        15 September 2013 at 11:03 am

        If you want to look at really useless lazy self serving party how about starting with the Maori party Te Reo?

    • Sable 2.2
      15 September 2013 at 10:59 am

      +1000 dead right Morrissey! A slimy pro US sycophant like Keys.

    • sockpupppet 2.3
      15 September 2013 at 11:05 am

      Oh Morrissey you are such a paragon of virtue without your moral compass to show us the way in politics and sport and life in general what would we do ?

      • Sable 2.3.1
        15 September 2013 at 11:11 am

        Hmmm Sockpuppet maybe pass snide, vacuous comments devoid of any actual argument like you?

        • Morrissey 2.3.1.1
          15 September 2013 at 11:20 am

          Hmmm Sockpuppet maybe pass snide, vacuous comments devoid of any actual argument like you?

          Thanks for the gallantry, my friend, but sockpuppet and I are old mates. We get along like a Reichstag on fire.

      • Morrissey 2.3.2
        15 September 2013 at 11:11 am

        You don’t need my moral compass, my friend—you’ve got your own. Unless you are a member of the S.S. Trust, the ACT party or your name is David Farrar, you have a basic sense of right and wrong, a respect for international law, and a reverence for free speech.

        Now all you need is the courage to point out when politicians are making a mockery of all that. Of course, that’s the hard bit. Speaking plainly and truthfully in an environment where the likes of Julia Gillard are in power is a risky, even life-threatening thing to do. Speaking out is a radical and dangerous action, for both the speaker and the regime. That’s why these rogue regimes are deadset on making an example of those who DO speak out.

        I don’t need to tell you that of course, the moral compass is in you already. Whether or not you have the courage to heed it is up to you.

  3. red blooded 3
    15 September 2013 at 10:47 am

    Gotta say, I thought Gillard handled herself really well, there, and explained her reasoning effectively and articulately. Don’t know that I agree with everything said, but she certainly wasn’t “embarrassed”.

    • Morrissey 3.1
      15 September 2013 at 11:05 am

      She claims that she respects whistleblowers. She reckons Deep Throat did the right thing with Watergate. But not Assange though—he fails to measure up to some sainthood and purity test. She claims her objection to Assange is based on his “motivations”. That’s utterly invalid, and vacuous.

      You need to read, and listen, to people who, in contrast to people like Julia Gillard, have thought long and hard about issues of justice, human rights and freedom of speech….

      Daniel Ellsberg…
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9ExSqnuwyk

      Noam Chomsky…
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Qkon2A0sw

      Chris Hedges…

  4. Murray Olsen 4
    15 September 2013 at 2:12 pm

    I saw Gillard as a competent bureaucrat. She lacked the ability to sell any sort of vision she may have had and has the most fundamentalist Christian values of any atheist I have ever come across. Given her limitations as a right wing social democrat, she did an amazing job against the forces of Murdoch, Abbott, the miners, Rudd, and the dishonest fake intellectuals of right wing think tanks.

    She took an incredibly bad stand on a number of issues – refugees, intervention in the Northern Territory, marriage rights, and even Assange. She made some progress with education and the disability scheme, which Kiwi residents get to pay for, but are excluded from. I suspect history will be kind to her because of the PMs surrounding her term. Rudd and Abbott would make almost anyone look good.

    • Macro 4.1
      15 September 2013 at 5:06 pm

      +1
      Unfortunately it was her very principled stand on the Carbon Tax that was her undoing… She was up against an unprincipled media and the monied propaganda of Rhienhart et al from the get go. Australia has done an incredibly stupid thing in voting principally with the intention of removing the Tax. Hugely short sighted and they will pay handsomely for that decision in years to come, as they already are beginning to do so.

      • andyS 4.1.1
        16 September 2013 at 3:07 pm

        How was her stand principled?
        She said “There will be no carbon tax”, and then backtracked

        • Macro 4.1.1.1
          16 September 2013 at 6:18 pm

          Sorry andy – but you wouldn’t see a moral/ethical argument if you fell over one.

          Just because one says something – but then recognises the moral imperative lies in different action does not make the new action unprincipled…

  5. Greywarbler 5
    15 September 2013 at 2:18 pm

    Murray O
    A masterly summation which sounds likely to be completely true, though I haven’t watched the polly in question.

  6. millsy 6
    15 September 2013 at 8:34 pm

    JG, whatever the rightness or wrongness of her policy stances (which were pretty much right of centre, in NZ terms), really copped a lot of nasty crap from those that opposed her. It was way worse than Helen Clark copped during her time here. Ive read the posts, the reports, and seen the photoshopped images. I doubt that even Volitaire would defend the bile that she had to cop every day. I would imagine that it would have been a relief for her that she was dumped, then she can just live out her life in peace without talkshow hosts making digusting comments about her father’s death.

    • Murray Olsen 6.1
      15 September 2013 at 10:07 pm

      For anyone that hasn’t seen how she was attacked, imagine WhaleSpew with a major TV station and several major newspapers. It was disgusting, absolutely disgusting.

  7. tracey 7
    16 September 2013 at 8:12 am

    +1 murray

    kevin rudd, hang your head in shake.

    aussies now have the leader they deserve…

  9. tracey 9
    16 September 2013 at 8:20 am

    As Tony Abbott has proved, being relentlessly negative can pay huge political dividends. But at some point in the political cycle, the public will want to know the genuinely new way in which you describe your purpose, not just your critique of the other side. For social democratic parties, the historic deliverers of the big reforms, this moment comes earlier and with more force than for conservatives. Indeed, for Tony Abbott and his team this moment never came at all.

  10. Sable 10
    16 September 2013 at 3:26 pm

    Australia has one of the most concentrated mainstream media’s in the world and from what I have seen when I lived there for about 8 years, its almost universally right wing. Perhaps the only real dissenting voice being SBS.

    Both Rudd and Gillard suffered at their hands. If Gillard and her cohorts had remained loyal and weathered the storm then Labour may well still be in office today. Kevin Rudd’s only crime was not watching his back and trusting the people he worked with. Guess he now knows better.

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