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| Julia Gillard: where did it all go wrong? | Julia Gillard: where did it all go wrong? |
| (3 months later) | |
| As the great Irish existentialist Samuel Beckett once wrote, the end is in the beginning, and yet you go on. That was Julia Gillard’s story, and Labor’s story since June 2010. | As the great Irish existentialist Samuel Beckett once wrote, the end is in the beginning, and yet you go on. That was Julia Gillard’s story, and Labor’s story since June 2010. |
| Gillard unseated a prime minister who had not yet served out his first term in office. Voters didn’t expect it, and they didn’t care for it. Gillard became the face of a treacherous assassination culture imported from Sussex Street, Sydney, a symbol of Labor’s absent moral core. Killing Kevin was an act from which she never fully recovered. | Gillard unseated a prime minister who had not yet served out his first term in office. Voters didn’t expect it, and they didn’t care for it. Gillard became the face of a treacherous assassination culture imported from Sussex Street, Sydney, a symbol of Labor’s absent moral core. Killing Kevin was an act from which she never fully recovered. |
| Perhaps she could have recovered if she had not compounded shock with aftershock – if she didn’t go on unsettling people. Gillard’s consistent failure to reassure is the common thread behind the series of events that have led her to this day, to this inexorable end. | Perhaps she could have recovered if she had not compounded shock with aftershock – if she didn’t go on unsettling people. Gillard’s consistent failure to reassure is the common thread behind the series of events that have led her to this day, to this inexorable end. |
| The revelation that nice girls do carry knives was compounded by her pre-election evasion on the carbon price, which in the hands of Tony Abbott and his amplifiers became The Great Lie. There were broken promises, a budget surplus promised for years and never delivered, the emissions trading scheme that became a “tax” in an authority-sapping compromise. Smaller retreats and stuff ups that turned ugly, such as the incident on Australia Day in 2012, where a member of Gillard’s staff unintentionally contributed to a violent protest which trapped the PM and Tony Abbott in a restaurant. (The staff member had to depart, and Gillard lost credibility.) The policy backflips: a mining tax that brought the government unremitting political hell but ironically raised only modest revenue. Then the problems without solutions: surging boat arrivals that left Gillard wedged uncomfortably between the moral purity of the Greens and the bareknuckle populism of the Coalition. Her brittle veneer of social conservatism on gay marriage, unconvincing and out of time. The recruitment of Peter Slipper in a naked attempt to boost parliamentary numbers and buy time. The overly long tolerance for Craig Thomson despite serious allegations against him. | The revelation that nice girls do carry knives was compounded by her pre-election evasion on the carbon price, which in the hands of Tony Abbott and his amplifiers became The Great Lie. There were broken promises, a budget surplus promised for years and never delivered, the emissions trading scheme that became a “tax” in an authority-sapping compromise. Smaller retreats and stuff ups that turned ugly, such as the incident on Australia Day in 2012, where a member of Gillard’s staff unintentionally contributed to a violent protest which trapped the PM and Tony Abbott in a restaurant. (The staff member had to depart, and Gillard lost credibility.) The policy backflips: a mining tax that brought the government unremitting political hell but ironically raised only modest revenue. Then the problems without solutions: surging boat arrivals that left Gillard wedged uncomfortably between the moral purity of the Greens and the bareknuckle populism of the Coalition. Her brittle veneer of social conservatism on gay marriage, unconvincing and out of time. The recruitment of Peter Slipper in a naked attempt to boost parliamentary numbers and buy time. The overly long tolerance for Craig Thomson despite serious allegations against him. |
| The stumbles and misjudgments stopped Gillard expanding into her office. They fed the public perception that Gillard’s prime ministerial identity was a protean thing, never entirely convincing, never entirely stable. Was she the “real Julia” or something else – perhaps just the sum of her latest grand bargain; perhaps an undisclosed agent of the Greens, or the unions? It pushed people back to the certainty and conventionality they saw in Kevin, or more precisely, projected on to him. | The stumbles and misjudgments stopped Gillard expanding into her office. They fed the public perception that Gillard’s prime ministerial identity was a protean thing, never entirely convincing, never entirely stable. Was she the “real Julia” or something else – perhaps just the sum of her latest grand bargain; perhaps an undisclosed agent of the Greens, or the unions? It pushed people back to the certainty and conventionality they saw in Kevin, or more precisely, projected on to him. |
| Gillard appeared to be a hostage because she was forced to bargain for everything. One more week. Five more minutes. An unsettling sort of contingency for Australians unused to their prime ministers living so obviously hand to mouth. There was no time to breathe and grow in a maelstrom. There was no certainty for Gillard to ease into, no time to work on her flaws and limitations, no practice runs. She tried to please, to connect, to speak slowly so as to be better understood, to utter the soundbites deemed right for the times to explain her convictions and her values, to knock off her sharper presentational edges in some evident quest to be prime ministerial, to remain calm against all provocation, to make the case why things must be so. | Gillard appeared to be a hostage because she was forced to bargain for everything. One more week. Five more minutes. An unsettling sort of contingency for Australians unused to their prime ministers living so obviously hand to mouth. There was no time to breathe and grow in a maelstrom. There was no certainty for Gillard to ease into, no time to work on her flaws and limitations, no practice runs. She tried to please, to connect, to speak slowly so as to be better understood, to utter the soundbites deemed right for the times to explain her convictions and her values, to knock off her sharper presentational edges in some evident quest to be prime ministerial, to remain calm against all provocation, to make the case why things must be so. |
| But try as she might, she lacked convincing shorthand to deploy to voters. She was intensely private, contained, reserved – stubbornly enigmatic and withholding for a person so long in the public spotlight. She rationed appearances by her best self. There were glimpses of something that rang clear and true: the enduring values that drove the Labor agenda in this difficult term despite all the obstacles; the quest for a coherent legacy in the delivery as well as the dreaming; Gillard’s ferocity over the dispatch box; the exocet precision of that misogyny speech. Her pre-prime ministerial self would expand and fill a room, but would then retreat, abashed, in silent apology. | But try as she might, she lacked convincing shorthand to deploy to voters. She was intensely private, contained, reserved – stubbornly enigmatic and withholding for a person so long in the public spotlight. She rationed appearances by her best self. There were glimpses of something that rang clear and true: the enduring values that drove the Labor agenda in this difficult term despite all the obstacles; the quest for a coherent legacy in the delivery as well as the dreaming; Gillard’s ferocity over the dispatch box; the exocet precision of that misogyny speech. Her pre-prime ministerial self would expand and fill a room, but would then retreat, abashed, in silent apology. |
| It wasn’t just the voters who doubted. It was colleagues. Even those loyal to her and completely steadfast throughout the chapters of the self-indulgent and unhinged civil war between her and Rudd feared the consequences of her political tin ear. Gillard lacked the essential alchemy of prime ministers, the deep instinct, the second sight, the magical tricks that propel leaders inevitably to the top of the cabinet table. Her colleagues all knew it, the friends and the foes. This was not a judgment made in anger, it was the sum of long observation. | It wasn’t just the voters who doubted. It was colleagues. Even those loyal to her and completely steadfast throughout the chapters of the self-indulgent and unhinged civil war between her and Rudd feared the consequences of her political tin ear. Gillard lacked the essential alchemy of prime ministers, the deep instinct, the second sight, the magical tricks that propel leaders inevitably to the top of the cabinet table. Her colleagues all knew it, the friends and the foes. This was not a judgment made in anger, it was the sum of long observation. |
| Departing backbencher Sharon Grierson noted recently that no one apart from Gillard could have propelled Labor through this period of stubborn policy achievement – through a carbon price, through tax reform, through education reform, through the beginnings of a national disability insurance scheme. No one apart from Gillard had the work ethic, the courage, the resilience, the attention to detail, the ruthless self-belief to shrug off all the naysaying in the single-minded belief that there was a job to do, and every day you are in government is better than every day you are in opposition. | Departing backbencher Sharon Grierson noted recently that no one apart from Gillard could have propelled Labor through this period of stubborn policy achievement – through a carbon price, through tax reform, through education reform, through the beginnings of a national disability insurance scheme. No one apart from Gillard had the work ethic, the courage, the resilience, the attention to detail, the ruthless self-belief to shrug off all the naysaying in the single-minded belief that there was a job to do, and every day you are in government is better than every day you are in opposition. |
| It is absolutely true, as is the discomfiting reality that Gillard faced gratuitous attacks that were entirely gender-based. Over and over, we saw confirmation that there was a proportion of people in Australia who struggled with Gillard as a public manifestation of feminist progress. This pushback against the prime minister was, at times, extraordinary – and for a woman of my generation, depressing. | It is absolutely true, as is the discomfiting reality that Gillard faced gratuitous attacks that were entirely gender-based. Over and over, we saw confirmation that there was a proportion of people in Australia who struggled with Gillard as a public manifestation of feminist progress. This pushback against the prime minister was, at times, extraordinary – and for a woman of my generation, depressing. |
| Julia Gillard is incredibly brave, astoundingly resilient, one of the toughest people we have seen in The Lodge. Through all the difficulties of her prime ministership she was stoic, dignified, composed, resilient. She departed in that style on Wednesday night. Shoulders back. Head high. In the circumstances - the provocation, the consistent undermining by colleagues, the terrible erosion of her authority executed by her enemies within Labor, Kevin Rudd's slow terrible revenge - she exited with class. | Julia Gillard is incredibly brave, astoundingly resilient, one of the toughest people we have seen in The Lodge. Through all the difficulties of her prime ministership she was stoic, dignified, composed, resilient. She departed in that style on Wednesday night. Shoulders back. Head high. In the circumstances - the provocation, the consistent undermining by colleagues, the terrible erosion of her authority executed by her enemies within Labor, Kevin Rudd's slow terrible revenge - she exited with class. |
| There was no self pity. She was confident it would be easier for the next woman, and the one after that. She had done her best. She had achieved difficult things in tough times. She had blazed a trail. | There was no self pity. She was confident it would be easier for the next woman, and the one after that. She had done her best. She had achieved difficult things in tough times. She had blazed a trail. |
| But the deep personal flaws were there too. Gillard could command admiration, but not respect. She shape-shifted. She confounded rather than connected. She was, in turns, too loyal and then too ruthless. The tempo of project Julia was ragged. She could not nurture a fractured government back to functionality. She did not command the caucus, the cabinet, the voters. She became a solo act, shrinking before our eyes. | But the deep personal flaws were there too. Gillard could command admiration, but not respect. She shape-shifted. She confounded rather than connected. She was, in turns, too loyal and then too ruthless. The tempo of project Julia was ragged. She could not nurture a fractured government back to functionality. She did not command the caucus, the cabinet, the voters. She became a solo act, shrinking before our eyes. |
| Of course she would say her failure to reassure was an unnatural condition imposed on her by her enemies – the people who made it their business to keep her in tumult, to make sure her feet never touched solid ground. Abbott was utterly pitiless, forgiving his own severity and minimising it before highlighting hers. The hung parliament and its freewheeling characters were a backing track of instability. Rudd would not accept defeat, no matter how many times she outflanked him and won. He remained on the field, resolutely on the moral high ground, camped out in luxury, plotting and scripting revenge of the nerds while she dragged Labor behind her in a singular act of will that was as terrifying as it was admirable. | Of course she would say her failure to reassure was an unnatural condition imposed on her by her enemies – the people who made it their business to keep her in tumult, to make sure her feet never touched solid ground. Abbott was utterly pitiless, forgiving his own severity and minimising it before highlighting hers. The hung parliament and its freewheeling characters were a backing track of instability. Rudd would not accept defeat, no matter how many times she outflanked him and won. He remained on the field, resolutely on the moral high ground, camped out in luxury, plotting and scripting revenge of the nerds while she dragged Labor behind her in a singular act of will that was as terrifying as it was admirable. |
| She would point in her defence to the toxicity of the media cycle. Before she could unpack her bags in the official residence the news cycle fragmented, chasing its own increasingly desperate shadow. Media outlets seemed to lose their will and their capacity to cover complexity, seemed to lack the courage to stand still. Gillard watched as her prime ministership was transformed into a soap opera. Heads she lost. Tails she lost. Commentators she had declined to flatter and court and appoint keepers of her personal mythology elevated rivals and critics at her expense, recording their laments in minute detail, playing gleeful stenographers to the disaffected. Her disintegration became grist to the hourly mill, a habit that the media could not kick. “Gillard’s woes” was a standing item on every news list in the country. | She would point in her defence to the toxicity of the media cycle. Before she could unpack her bags in the official residence the news cycle fragmented, chasing its own increasingly desperate shadow. Media outlets seemed to lose their will and their capacity to cover complexity, seemed to lack the courage to stand still. Gillard watched as her prime ministership was transformed into a soap opera. Heads she lost. Tails she lost. Commentators she had declined to flatter and court and appoint keepers of her personal mythology elevated rivals and critics at her expense, recording their laments in minute detail, playing gleeful stenographers to the disaffected. Her disintegration became grist to the hourly mill, a habit that the media could not kick. “Gillard’s woes” was a standing item on every news list in the country. |
| And then she would point to those haters. The culture warriors who resisted the progressive threat on principle. The type of Australians who could not accept a lady in the Lodge – and certainly not an unconventional one, with a sub-optimal boyfriend, no husband, no children, no God, no instinct to defer. Her steady prevailing, without flourish, without self-indulgence, without self-pity only gave fresh succour to their hatred. Who knew there were so many of them, lurking and fulminating in their self-righteous loathing? Stuffing her in chaff bags. Peeping through her window. Dinosaurs in a last desperate act of fire-breathing, consuming her and themselves – a bizarre and terrible immolation. | And then she would point to those haters. The culture warriors who resisted the progressive threat on principle. The type of Australians who could not accept a lady in the Lodge – and certainly not an unconventional one, with a sub-optimal boyfriend, no husband, no children, no God, no instinct to defer. Her steady prevailing, without flourish, without self-indulgence, without self-pity only gave fresh succour to their hatred. Who knew there were so many of them, lurking and fulminating in their self-righteous loathing? Stuffing her in chaff bags. Peeping through her window. Dinosaurs in a last desperate act of fire-breathing, consuming her and themselves – a bizarre and terrible immolation. |
| She’d be right in these assessments, more or less. | She’d be right in these assessments, more or less. |
| It’s all been part of the Julia Gillard story, an incredible tale where Australia chewed up and spat out its first female prime minister. | It’s all been part of the Julia Gillard story, an incredible tale where Australia chewed up and spat out its first female prime minister. |
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