Welsh-born lawyer Julia Gillard became Australia’s first woman prime minister yesterday after the once hugely popular prime minister Kevin Rudd fell to a party coup less than three years after taking office.
The tough, flame-haired Gillard was elected unopposed in a shock Labor Party ballot called just hours earlier, saying she could not “sit idly by” as public and factional support swung dramatically away from the former leader.
“I asked my colleagues to make a leadership change because I believe that a good government was losing its way … and at risk at the next election,” Gillard said. “I was not going to sit idly by.”
Gillard, 48, pledged to seek a popular mandate within months and set about reversing the issues that sank Rudd by pursuing a dropped carbon trading scheme and urging mining chiefs to cancel a TV campaign against a planned new tax.
The plea drew immediate dividends as BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, cancelled its TV ads as a “sign of good faith.”
Yesterday’s quickfire developments cemented a remarkable rise for the unmarried Gillard, who battled through the party ranks, and sneers over her lack of children and strong Australian accent, to become Labor’s leading light.
However, analysts raised questions over the manner of her ascension, which came through shady backroom deals hatched by political power-brokers and ended in a hasty dismissal for Rudd, elected by a landslide in 2007.
Rumblings of a leadership change surfaced only late on Wednesday, when Rudd emerged from talks with Gillard to announce the surprise parliamentary party vote yesterday.
Analysts were stunned at the fall from grace of Rudd, who plummeted from record support levels to become the first Australian prime minister deposed in office since Labor’s Paul Keating unseated Bob Hawke in 1991.
The bookish, center-left technocrat rode high in the polls after ousting conservative Australian prime minister John Howard and only slumped in recent months after shelving the carbon trading scheme and suggesting the unpopular mining tax.
Rudd’s policy bumps and somewhat stiff persona gave rise to a public image of being long on rhetoric and short on real accomplishments, as well as something of a control freak.
An emotional Rudd, 52, repeatedly paused to choke back tears as he faced the press in Canberra flanked by his family.
“I was elected by the Australian people as prime minister of this country to bring back a fair go for all Australians, and I have given my absolute best to do that,” Rudd said.
“What I’m less proud of is the fact that I have now blubbered,” he said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2