Julia Gillard not only unpopular, she also lacks authority - John Howard

From the former PM who was so unpopular he's got the record for being the first sitting PM to lose his seat...



FORMER prime minister John Howard has re-entered the political debate with a blast for Julia Gillard who he says "lacks authority''.

The nation's second longest serving PM also predicted independent MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott would lose their seats at the next election and says the Greens have "peaked''.

He urged Liberals in Victoria to put Adam Bandt last in the seat of Melbourne even if it meant Labor won back the seat because the ALP was less extreme than the Greens.

However, Mr Howard predicted the Gillard Government was "very likely'' to last another two years because the independents would not withdraw their support.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/julia-gillard-not-only-unpopular-she-also-lacks-authority-john-howard/story-fn7x8me2-1226125851646

Her parliamentary performances are very assured - she's articulate, quite often amusing, and can recite reams of facts without ever referring to notes. But put her in front of a microphone in public, and she becomes robotic, monotonous, boring and speaks as though she has no conviction at all. She'd be better off not making speeches, but just talking off the top of her head, the way she does in parliament.

It's one very big thing that Kevin Rudd had going for him and still does - he's a very good communicator, for all his long phrases. He always comes over as a real person.

And the reality is that he's the one person who could save Labor, but there's no way they could put him back this side of an election; they'd have to admit they got it totally wrong last year, and they'll never do that.

Looks like we're doomed to have Prime Minister Abbott, God help us! The only consolation is that I'm sure he will stuff up, because he has no real policies, and neither do his cohorts Hockey and Robb. He'll be a one-term PM, but I hate to think of the damage he'll do to the country even in the short term.

But I do think Howard is right about the Greens - they've gone about as far as they can go.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=199x2308



It looking increasingly likely that the unthinkable will happen and we will get Abbott as PM. Hopefully not for another two years though - despite all the media hoopla at the moment re Gillard being dumped - in favour of Rudd of all people.

As for the Greens being a spent force - just because the right wing media want it to be doesn't necessarily make it so. They continue to get around 12% in polls which pretty much will give them another 6 senators at the next election which will raise their number to 12. As for a double dissolution - according to Antony Green it can't realistically happen for a few years. Even so, I would expect the Greens to get 2 senators per state keeping their numbers at 12; although the Greens very rarely do as well on polling day as they do in opinion polls. But in the event of a DD, Abbott would have been in power for some time which I think will harden up the Green vote.

I am hoping Gillard can tough it out, get the MRRT and Carbon Pricing up as well as come up with a truly humane asylum seeker policy before the destroyer gets his chance at the reins.

Peace

This not only affects her performance when addressing the public, but it doesn't allow her to read the mood of the people either.

I'm banging my head on my desk as I contemplate her latest attempt to change the law to allow asylum seekers to be sent to Malaysia. When an arch right-winger like Clive Palmer can say "process them onshore" and get huge applause, Julia's misreading the signs. People have had enough of one off-shore solution after another blowing up in Labor's face, and all but the hardline conservatives are over it. She should drop the off-shore idea and not let it haunt Labor any longer.

If ever we needed proof that Julia isn't the socialist left-winger she's always claimed to be, this is it. The Labor Left want on-shore processing, but she's not listening. She's determined to take the hard Right stance and stick to it. That she can even think of reintroducing TPVs is appalling – Labor pledged to end the cruelties of the Howard years, but Julia's determined to take us right back there.

Her political judgment is way off beam, and she's handing the country to Abbott on a platter.

It's sad to think that after the next election we most likely have Prime Minister Abbott. Oh how I can imagine the damage he will do to us. However with that said, he can't be much worse then Gillard

I really think he's done well in difficult times. We have a good Finance Minister in Penny Wong (surely one of the most able members of Cabinet), and we have a good Foreign Minister!

Abbott has Joe Hockey - while I think Hockey is probably a decent man, he's clueless when it comes to Treasury matters - he never seems to be able to get his head around hard facts and figures. Ditto and more for Andrew Robb as Finance Minister. Last time I saw Robb interviewed by Tony Jones, he was sweating, stumbling over his words and drinking copious amounts of water, which couldn't disguise the fact that he hasn't got a financial clue.

They worry me just as much as Abbott does. Not a coherent policy among them.

Oh yes he can. He is a policy free zone surrounded by Howard's losers as Matilda said. Hockey, Pine, Bishop x 2, Robb, the horrid hypocritical Morrison, Mirabela, Bernardi, Brandis, Hunt, Abetz, Andrews (may he rot in hell forever) et al - and I am sure I have forgotton some. If these people back in power don't worry you ...

Gillard's major problem is she is unable to get any air due to the media's bias. 180 odd pieces of legislation passed in this current parliament - most, if not all, unamended and unchallenged by the opposition. This in a so called unworkable, paralysed parliament.

Imagine for a moment if the press went after Abbott the way they go after Gillard. She fronts the media most days and stays until all questions are answered. Mostly from a hostile press. When was the last time you saw Abbott being pushed in any interview to answer policy questions. He either won't answer or walks away after half a dozen questions.

The press would rather concentrate on peripherals - Thompson which happened before he entered parliament; the asylum seeker issue somehow being an attack on the High Court - which the Liberals have a track record of. Pointing out inconsistancies in a judges precedents does not IMHO constitute an attack. Ear lobes, how she dresses, how big her ar.. is etc.

I thought (well before my political awakening) that Howard could not be worse than Keating. How wrong I was.


Peace

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