Melody Green

Melody Green
Australia

The bloodless coup (Rudd accepted without opposition his demise) . . . brought mixed results. While many (especially women) were keen to see a woman at the helm, Julia Gillard’s method of getting there was likened to the actions of Lady Macbeth.

It’s the week after the election ―usually a period of celebration and commiseration for the winners and losers of the major parties in Australia.

Our extraordinary times have brought some interesting changes to what is traditionally a two-party system. For the first time since 1940 we have the very likely event of a hung parliament.

I think this is a telling result.

In times of crisis people want petty politics set aside from the issues―and as an optimist, I see this hung parliament as an opportunity to stop the two-party point scoring and move to a mature, enlightened sense of cooperative governing.

How does the government run in Australia?
Elections can occur any time in the third year of a term, as early as August and as late as the end of November. If it had not been for the ousting in June of the incumbent Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, by Ms Julia Gillard, the first woman to become prime minister in Australia, we would not have gone to the polls this early.

Labor’s own polls were showing there would have been a major loss of support with Kevin Rudd at the helm. The bloodless coup (Rudd accepted without opposition his demise) was designed to give a fresh face to the electorate. The action brought mixed results. While many (especially women) were keen to see a woman at the helm, her method of getting there was likened to the actions of Lady Macbeth.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard

I live in New South Wales, where I have a female Premier, as well as a female Prime Minister and Governor General. This is a momentous time for women in politics in a country that is by nature quite conservative, even though Australians would like to think otherwise. Ms Gillard reflects the truth of where the country stands, but not necessarily the myth of where Australians think they stand.

She is a migrant (albeit from the UK), and from a working class background in South Australia. She went to university, graduated as a lawyer, and joined the Labor Party while she was at university. She pursued her career and then shifted to politics. So far so good. But she has not married or had children, and while the electorate would look askance at a woman with children (doesn’t she have enough on her plate running her family and keeping her husband happy?) they are also not comfortable with a single woman (how can she put her career and desire to serve her country before the traditional wife/mother role?). Her “brutal slaying” of Kevin Rudd has only added to her “unfeminine” way of doing politics. But if we look at history, while the PM has usually not been ousted while in power, the change of political leaders in opposition looks like a game of musical chair murders!

Ms Gillard called the election early to clear the way for the public to say she can govern. I simply cannot imagine a man doing that when in power. It is really a woman’s way of wanting approval showing here―and it may yet be her undoing.

Her roller coaster campaign was punctuated by salacious leaks and gossip from her own side and the illness and hospitalisation of Kevin Rudd during a long run (5 weeks compared with the usual 4) that would have undone a woman of lesser capability. The opposition had a field day at her expense.

So where to from here?
We have some of the most challenging issues to address, and they cannot be put off any longer. They are: climate change, unstable world financial markets, mining of Australia’s resources at unprecedented levels, water and land management for population growth, an aging population with an overly burdened health system that needs massive overhaul, skill shortages, tax reform, national broadband update to remove issues of isolation and enable re-population of regional areas of Australia, and more, including equity for our indigenous in health, education, and housing.

I finish as I began: I am optimistic. The week ahead will reveal if either party has won or whether we indeed have a hung parliament. We need vision to overcome the issues facing us. We need courage to explore what is best, to try things that have not been done before, to put our individual wants on hold while we work for the overall benefit of our nation and the world at large. We need new ideas and, clearly, new people. Maybe with a woman at the helm and a hung parliament we might achieve this. I am hopeful.

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Melody Green works to enhance the wellbeing of senior Australians over 50. She is a poet, author and mother of an 18 year old son. She lives in Sydney, Australia.

She is not a political journalist or affiliated with any political party. She offers her opinion as a woman and poet choosing peace.