“Australia prides itself on being a classless society. It is certainly the most egalitarian I have worked in. The belief that everyone should be given a ‘fair go’ runs deep, but at the same time there exists a very powerful sense of mateship, of male values and a male-inscribed culture. And it is the tension between these two characteristics of Australian life that is the backdrop to the abrupt end this week to Julia Gillard’s prime ministership.”
It’s hard to disagree with John McTernan, the snappy Scot shipped to Australia to shape Julia Gillard’s image, who mused about his stint on the Australian political landscape to the motherland in The Telegraph overnight.
Gillard, he says, is the best “parliamentary performer of her generation” who energised women by calling out misogyny and “lifting a cloud in their society”:
“Gillard has faced serial abuse as a woman on a scale I believe is unprecedented in modern politics. I know that the phrase ‘The Iron Lady’ was coined by the Russians as an insult to Margaret Thatcher, but it became a mark of their admiration. That negative, corrosive, anti-woman rhetoric that Gillard endured for so long has damaged Australian politics, and public opinion.
“… she became a lightning rod for deep-rooted misogynist forces in society. As a politician she was more than a match for the men around her. If Sir Alex Ferguson was picking a team of premier league world politicians, she would be there in the starting line-up.
“The irony is that, though she could have done so, Gillard never sought to gain advancement in her career by playing on being a woman. She ended up reaping all the disadvantages and none of the benefits.”
Which is well said. But the examination of the failure of Gillard — at least in the eyes of the majority of voters, and eventually the majority of the caucus — must go further. There was an ugly undercurrent of s-xism to the criticism of Gillard, no doubt. But there was also a botched communications campaign which failed dismally to sell the strengths of the woman and the positives of her agenda. A campaign orchestrated by McTernan.
If he’s now going to offer himself as a commentator on the Gillard years, he should tell the whole story.
“an undercurrent of sexism to the criticism of Gillard”????? You must have typed this one handed. Keep up this standard and you might get to play for the real wankers at news crap.
Thanx for reporting McTernan’s analysis which is informative and mostly right in my view.
you’re right in that it wasn’t only a sexist issue, in fact that nor a poor communications were not the main cause of her downfall.
As I expect the new book on her downfall to show, it was the unremitting underhanded treachery from K Rudd and his crew of minions that caused firstly, the near loss in 2010 and eventual minority government and secondly their constant leaking and undermining of the PM, all aided and abetted by creeps such as Hartcher and Grattan, never mind the ferals at News and on talk-back.
How that Scumbag Traitor Rudd is now the PM is beyond me. While I could never hope for an Abbott win due to the damage he would do to the major reforms implemented by the rightful PM, perhaps a a major K Rudd mishap and medical forced medical retirement would be justice in action. One can but hope
Sheesh Crikey. It’s facile crap like this editorial, that’s causing your readership to wonder where you’re headed.
No wonder there’s been an air of desperation in the subscription drive of late.
Scolding McTernan for “not telling the whole story” has a definite echo of “We warn the Tsar.”
Grow up.
McTernan is a Scot, rather than a “Scott”, I think.