Australia got its first unmarried female Prime Minister on June 26th 2010 after a bloodless coup within the Labor Party. And it is now time to see whether she or opponent Liberal party leader Tony Abbott will win the election. On August 21st, the citizens will elect their 43rd Parliament of Australia.
Of course there is the Green Party and the Sex Party in the race (I am dead serious!!!), but the true main parties are the Liberals (Abbott) and the Labors (Gillard).
Former Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd (notice Gillard's face in the background, already plotting) had been Australia's Prime Minister since 2007, but as he lost support from his party 2 months ago, he had to step aside as Gillard took his place within the Labor Party, thus becoming Australia's Prime Minister by default.
Gillard was the Deputy Prime Minister since Labor's victory in the 2007 federal election, also serving as Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. She was born in Wales and immigrated to Australia as a child. Her family settled in Adelaide, South Australia, and she is an example of a successfully public school educated role model - "pubic" school as Aussies say with a smile.
She has been the target of countless parodies, such as this one on Aussie show "Double Take":
So has Kevin Rudd! Australian humour is quite good:
One of the main issues in this campaign is massive illegal immigration - a.k.a. the boats!
Aussies are usually very tolerant, but they have had it with hundreds of boats filled with illegal asylum seekers from mainly India, Afghanistan (yes!) and Sri Lanka. I kid you not, it is a burden! And it is such an important issue that it is quite prominent in Gillard and Abbott's political campaign.
Abbott will most likely get senior and business votes as he promises the return of the Pacific Solution, whereas Gillard is talking about setting up a regional refugee processing centre, which is just a bit too unrealistic if you ask me. Illegal immigration is a massive problem here and it has been for a long time.
Former Prime Minister John Howard had put in place "The Pacific solution" (basically hardening border control and its dealing with illegal immigrants) but this shall be the topic of a whole other post.
We shall see who will win this election tonight!
Here are few videos (both official and parodies) for your entertainment.
The Labor Party:
The Liberal party:
The Green party:
The Sex Party (hahaha good one!!):
