Seminar 11
Date: 13th May, 2014
Time: 4 - 5.15pm
Venue: Building 24, Copland, Room 1171, LJ Hume Centre
Speaker: Mary Walsh is Associate Professor of Politics in the Faculty of Business, Government and Law and a Research Fellow in the Institute of Governance and Policy at the University of Canberra. She is the convenor of the Bachelor of Politics and International Relations, the Bachelor of Australian Politics and Public Policy and the Bachelor of Philosophy Honours program at the University of Canberra. She is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Australian Politics, ANU. Her research interests are political theory and Australian politics. Mary has published on Hannah Arendt, Luce Irigaray, Machiavelli and Simone de Beauvoir. She is the co-author of Government and Democracy in Australia (Oxford University Press 2009). Her recent research on the Gillard Government, the Coalition and Asylum Seekers appears in The Gillard Governments (edited by Chris Aulich, MUP 2014).
Paper Title: Game On: A Defence of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Paper Abstract: This paper outlines a defence of Australia’s former Prime Minister Julia Gillard from the 2010 change of leadership in the ALP to recent times. When the former Prime Minister negotiated with key independents to form a Labor minority government in 2010, there was an immediate reaction of impending crisis manufactured by the Coalition and parts of the media. The Prime Minister had gone up against the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, and defeated him. Yet, there seemed to be a pervasive sense of denial about this, including from the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who later claimed that he was the only one who could defeat Tony Abbott. This paper charts the Opposition Leader’s strategy of ‘relentless negativity’ and outright obstructionism in the national Parliament, as well as the way in which Gillard was undermined by Team Rudd with constant media leaks that damaged her government. It highlights the incredible policy successes of former Prime Minister Gillard against all odds and demonstrates the capacity of the former Prime Minister to achieve remarkable outcomes. Overall, this paper argues that the Gillard government’s legacy was substantial and that former Prime Minister Gillard was one of the most accomplished Prime Ministers Australia ever had.