Australia’s new Prime Minister Julia Gillard defended her ruthless disposal of predecessor Kevin Rudd yesterday as she used her first day in office to target the policy blunders which triggered the shock takeover.
The country’s first woman prime minister said deposing Rudd was “the right thing to do” and immediately set about ending a damaging row over a mining tax that fatally drained the ex-leader’s support as national polls loom.
Gillard was elected unopposed on Thursday in a party vote announced only hours earlier as a tearful Rudd, facing a humiliating defeat, stepped aside, just two-and-a-half years after sweeping to a landslide election win.
“They were not easy decisions. I have taken them because I thought they were the right thing to do,” Gillard told reporters. “I felt it was in the best interests of the nation to get the government back on track.”
The flame-haired, Welsh-born lawyer promised greater teamwork than Rudd, whose controlling tendencies alienated him in the party and finally cost him the job as his enduring public support came down from record highs.
But she denied being a puppet of Labor’s factional power-brokers, who are widely credited with orchestrating the first unseating of an Australian prime minister since Paul Keating deposed Bob Hawke in 1991.
“I can understand that the opposition and others will try and put a character on the events of recent days,” Gillard said. “But ... it is completely absurd for anybody to look at my track record in this place and to conclude anything other than that I have made my own decisions. I am a person of strong mind and I made my own decisions.”
Gillard said it was her “priority” to deal with the planned 40 percent mining tax, which has incensed the influential resources industry and further sapped Rudd’s support after he shelved his flagship carbon-trading scheme.
She said she had already discussed the tax with key ministers and hailed early progress after both the government and the miners called a truce and agreed to cancel their TV campaigns respectively for and against the levy.
“My priority is to ensure that we deal with the question of the mining tax,” she said. “It has caused uncertainty and I think that uncertainty has caused anxiety for Australians. I want to make sure Australians get a fair share of our mineral wealth, but I want to genuinely negotiate.”
She said she had spoken to US President Barack Obama and assured him of Australia’s commitment to keep troops in Afghanistan, and would also “introduce herself” to other world leaders including British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Her appointment has met with a quiet international response, with Obama, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key among the few to offer congratulations.
“The United States and Australia enjoy a special and productive relationship and alliance that will continue to prosper under her leadership,” Obama said in a statement.
Meanwhile media picked over Gillard’s rise and the spectacular fall from grace of Rudd, a once-adored prime minister known for ousting conservative former Australian prime minister John Howard and making an historic apology to Australia’s Aborigines.
“What a day,” said the Sydney Morning Herald’s front page, while a comment piece’s headline cautioned, “If in doubt throw another leader on the barbie.”
“I think she needs to be careful,” former Labor leader Mark Latham told Sky News. “The moment Gillard’s popularity drops, as inevitably it will — the honeymoon will end — I suppose she’ll be the next one for the knife.”
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