Kellie, you state

"Gillard needs to immerse herself in the company of trusted and informed external experts. If she believes in man-made global warming then she should get on the blower to the best climatologists in the country - the real, practising ones - and have them flanking her at press conferences".

Do you mean the ones that agree with you? I am sure if Gillard listened to you at the expense of public opinion and reality, she would not even be competitive in this election. Costs about change are a real issue. To think that Gillard should change her ways at this stage of the election cycle over this issue borders on the ridiculous. Her position on the issue puts Labor in the best position of the major parties to pick up green preferences.

It may not be good enough, but short-term political considerations are real. For that reason I don't think Gillard will take your advice at this stage. Sorry.

"Did you notice that a Daily Telegraph online survey suggests that those polled felt that Gillard is a sneaky, calculating schemer while Tony Abbott is an intelligent, determined man driven by passion."

Funny about that. She has proved herself to be exactly as described. One day proclaiming her full support for KRudd whilst scheming with the ALP powers that be to slip in the blade.

At least the liberal leadership spill was open and we all knew what was happening. Unfortunately it is unlikely we will never know what went on behind the scenes in the labor dustup.

'Gillard’s gender should be her greatest strength'

Is her vagina stronger than her intellect or policies or her ability to sell her policies?

BTW: Always love a lefty that uses surveys from The Telegraph to make a point. The results couldn't be to do with the political leanings of the readership of course. Nothing also to do with a more recent leadership spill fresher in the publics mind, and one from a first term governmnet. Naaah, it's really all to do with gender schemas. Riiiight.

I don't care about Gillard's gender. I find her insufferable because of her actions against Rudd, and her ridiculous attempts to send refugees to East Timor, and her alleged lack of compassion towards pensioners and parents.I also am very irritated by her pedagogic and patronising manner, and I really wish she'd stop stroking everybody.

Tony is a tool. I find absolutely nothing about him to like, and that's nothing to do with his gender either. I am very irritated by his ignorance on just about everything that matters, and that he apparently doesn't care about his ignorance on just about everything that matters. He reminds me of George W Bush, without the recovering alcoholic syndrome.

We are in deep excrement, given these are our choices for PM.

Gillard learned early on to play the patriarchal games extremely well, otherwise she would not be where she is. Tony is the patriarchy.

Like I said. Deep excrement.

"Did you notice that a Daily Telegraph online survey suggests that those polled felt that Gillard is a sneaky, calculating schemer"

hahaha LOL .. yes, I did, and there's evidently a very good reason people think that and it's not because she's a woman, it's because she led a team who backstabbed PM Kevin Rudd and now is lining up to enjoy the benefits personally of doing that - some folks out there would find anyone who did that a sneaky, calculating schemer, like Bill Shorten and Mark Arbib are also now considered to be.

The ALP has spent years attacking Tony Abbot as being unpopular with women, a long and poisonous campaign.

I believe the first negative advert attacking his leadership went out 20 seconds after he was elected as leader of the Liberal Party, about how women hate him .. oh, and all the negative campaigning about his background, and there's Comrade Julia who doesn't want anyone invading her personal life - what hypocrisy.

The ALP machine is managing Julia's role, it's not as you describe in your article, poor Julia all alone against the world of men.

The ALP are horrified their Cinderella is unpopular with men, that's why so much is being done on the baby hugging and being kissed by men in hard hats oh dear oh dear it's so heavily stage managed and spun .. how ironic, maybe there is justice in this world.

It will be interesting to see if the ALP get away, once again, with massive spin .. they truly are the masters, if they get in, we deserve the rogering we'll get.

This is typical sexist drivel; the 'have it both ways' that we have come to expect from Feminists.

For one argument it is that gender should not matter, and for another it is that gender should be her greatest political strength.

Hello !!

The quotations from favoured whining psychologists who have never led a pack of girl-guides into a pub, about how hard women leaders have to work to gain attention, ignores the same hard work that male leaders have to do.

Whining is the empowered female lawyer's stock in trade.