>>They are also a great way to ensure any government that has one will be a one term government only.<<

Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister for 11 years which makes her the longest serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century. Something tells me that Gillard will not hold the position for as long.

Cheers,

Tony

There seems to be a lot of sexist rubbish written about Julia; and or political proponents that have started to believe their own patent propaganda?
A one term Govt and Mr Abbott in the Lodge? Oh goody. Then all those busy rubbishing Julia will likely realize she was far and away, one of our best most inclusive Leaders.
Yes she has problems! Did she hold Thomson by the hand and direct him to the best up market brothels? Well listening to the daily rant from show pony phoney Tony, you'd be forgiven for thinking so?
Did She break a promise, in saying, that any govt She led, wouldn't introduce a carbon tax?
Any reasonable person would at least acknowledge that the promise was sincere at the time it was given and or, entirely predicated on a solid majority in govt, which the then polls were predicting!
Only to see that lead and all that depended on it, whipped away by treacherous leaking! Leaking which by and large indicated She is one of the more financially astute, fiscally responsible leaders.
I believe in a fair go, and believe it is high time She was given one, as opposed to all the mindless odious mudsling, that has so marked her leadership to date.
Yet in spite of everything She has had to deal with, including white anting from within, we still outperform every other western style economy, with the lowest debt burden.
Study and compare what conservative policy settings have wrought in Europe and then bless our lucky stars, we have someone like Julia, and her new deal style leadership and fiscal stimulus, keeping us and our outperforming economy where it is, all while Europe stares down the barrel of a double dip recession, which is edging ever closer to a new Great Depression, given the idiotic obsession by conservative thinkers, on economy shrinking Austerity.
Fair go and credit where it is due! Rhrosty.

Back to topic, what about Christine Milne?
She's our only real female political leader at present, at least in my view, and as an avid listener of parliamentary broadcasts I'd rate her as the only currently sitting woman parliamentarian with any real leadership qualities.

Well Jay, that would be right if you wanted someone to lead a pack of vipers, she'd be right in here element there.

Oh its not my fault,they're being mean to me whines the deserving one. In this case Julia. She is disliked for concrete reasons, she is a liar, has never worked in a real job, is divisive (overtly hating the the North Shore), has been complicit in the deaths of at least 600 boat people (probably more) and has heavily damaged health, education et al by the mind numbing waste on NBN, batts, school tin-sheds and more.
Enough reasons?? Whats female got to do with it; find another hammer, no-one in the real world cares about gender any more.

If I were a long term forward thinking Labour strategist, which I'm not; I'd give the Gillard detractors exactly what they want. An election.
Moreover, I'd break with tradition and simply preference conservatives for both the lower house and the senate.
That would reduce the power of the greens and their claims of popular support; and indeed, hand the reins of govt to economic illiterate Abbott; at the worse possible time, and indeed, empowered to ram everything he wants through the senate; in record time, like say, a relabelled work choices.
An Abbott led govt, would confront a world, where revenue continues to fall and the GFC deepens, terms of trade weaken and the major economies turn to populist policies and the attendant isolation. Virtual wall to wall conservative govts would likely cause our own economy to shrink very significantly, with massive business bankruptcies, unprecedented foreclosures; a completely collapsed equity/real estate market, as foreign property/equity speculators, cut their losses and flee from our markets and consequently, leave floundering conservative govt(s) very much on the nose, blaming each other, or anybody else?
My bet would be, that Abbott left to impose any policy/economic paradigm he wanted, would stuff up so significantly, his would be the party sent to the political wilderness; and or, never ever trusted with the economy again for at least a generation.
If the people want Abbott; then they should have him, in one "GREAT BIG" entirely unpalatable dose; that they are forced to choke on! Given, that is all the gormless Gillard detractors deserve. Rhrosty.