I turn off the news when the current Leader of the Opposition is interviewed, I hit the "mute" button when the Prime Minister is speaking. We appear to have no Australian political leaders in whom we can have any faith at all. So, as a general rule, I figure there are better ways to spend my time than listening to creepy people who don't represent my interests, and who just piss and whinge at (and about) each other.
Our previous PM was an articulate intellectual who worked people to hard and made enemies by appearing smug and overly aware of his own intelligence. However, I never actually felt that he would ever put the welfare of his people in jeopardy to serve his own political needs. As the daughter of an academic, and as a graduate and long-time employee of a tertiary institution, Rudd and so much about Rudd was familiar to me. But, you never know what goes on behind closed doors.
Today, despite my desolate feelings about our current Prime Ministerial options, I found myself quite moved by footage of yesterday's Question Time in parliament, which has today gone viral.
For the first time in a very long time, I saw humanity and genuine raw emotion in a woman who has been looking hard and cold - and more than a little bit lost - of late.
The video is here (it's long, but worth sticking out to the end for her closing line): Julia Gillard Destroying the Joint
(For anyone who is not in Australia, or who may have avoided all news over the last few weeks, our PM's father died recently, and one very charming radio "personality" decided it might be appropriate to state that the Prime Minister's father had actually "died of shame" as a result of his daughter's political performance... and he said this in a speech to a dining-room full of young Opposition supporters and media representatives)
Anyway, not wanting to get preachy and political-like, but I really just wanted to record here and now how this video made me feel.
Take care and be proud, my lovely Bloggamigos.
xxx
