Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday angrily denied opposing popular welfare increases after damaging Cabinet leaks rocked her campaign for next month’s elections.
The center-left leader admitted raising questions about a A$50 billion (US$45 billion) boost to old-age pensions and paid leave for new parents, but said she had always supported the measures.
“I understand that some might say that if you don’t sign on the bottom line as soon as a proposal is put in front of your nose, somehow you lack passion or enthusiasm for it,” she told reporters in Adelaide. “Frankly, I believe that analysis is completely ridiculous and absurd.”
She also flatly denied telling Cabinet colleagues that she objected to the pension increase because “old people never vote for us.”
The passionate defense from Australia’s first female prime minister was a departure from her low-key campaign for Aug. 21 elections, which has been hit by policy blunders and a slump in the latest opinion poll. Gillard, 48, is seeking a popular mandate after coming to power in a sensational Labor Party coup that ousted former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd late last month.
“You can be passionate about doing something and hard-headed in getting it done,” said Gillard, adding that she was “angry” about the leak. “So if people want a prime minister who will have a A$50 billion expenditure before them and sign away without even a question asked, well I’m not it.”
The damaging leak to Australian media apparently came from a Cabinet source, raising questions about whether it was linked to a disgruntled Rudd, but the former prime minister denied trying to destabilize Gillard.
“Mr Rudd remains committed to the re-election of the government,” his spokesman said.
The opposition Coalition leaped on the story, claiming Gillard’s government — largely unchanged from Rudd’s administration — lacked unity and was in disarray.
“There is a terrible malaise at the heart of this government when you have this kind of leaking going on,” opposition leader Tony Abbott said.
However, Gillard received a boost yesterday as lower-than-expected inflation data eased expectations of an unpopular interest rate rise when the central bank meets next week.
The elections, where Labor is fighting to avoid becoming the first one-term government since World War II, are seen as a battle over immigration, the economy and climate change.
However, Gillard’s plans for a refugee center in East Timor have been mired in confusion, while her 12-month consultation of a “citizens assembly” on introducing a carbon tax outraged environmentalists and the Greens party.
Meanwhile, the opposition has contrasted its leader, father-of-three Abbott, with the unmarried, childless Gillard, who has faced repeated questions about whether she plans to wed her partner, former hairdresser Tim Mathieson.
“It’s not that I have anything against the institution of marriage, it’s just the accumulation of a set of life choices that has led me to this point,” she told Women’s Weekly magazine.
Meanwhile, East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta said yesterday his country had “no plans” to build a detention center for asylum seekers as proposed by Australia, but remained open to discuss the idea.
“The government of Timor-Leste has no plans to build or authorize a processing center to be opened in Timor-Leste,” he told reporters, using his tiny country’s formal name. “It’s not true that we have any plan to build a center. What’s true is that my government and I are studying the idea and proposal by the Australian government and then we’ll see whether Timor-Leste will accept it.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese