A great political speech in the Australian Parliament
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A great political speech in the Australian Parliament
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfo3SGIiSE0 I'd heard of Ms.Julia Gillard, the Australian PM as a fiery politician, but Gosh! This is jagged, personal politics. The background is barel
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Forums » Off duty » News & media » A great political speech in the Australian Parliament
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A great political speech in the Australian Parliament
posted at 12/10/2012 8:43 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2044
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 21/5/2013 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfo3SGIiSE0 I'd heard of Ms.Julia Gillard, the Australian PM as a fiery politician, but Gosh! This is jagged, personal politics. The background is barely explained in the comment to the video, but more comes out in Ms.Gillard's speech. While she had clearly prepared the quotes, the devastating quotes, that destroyed the Opposition leader Tony Abbott, this was clearly an unrehearsed speech, so different, so heartfelt, so telling, so much more so than those by our UK party leaders at their recent party conferences. While I don't want a party leader like Mr.Abbot, and I'd be scared of one like Ms.Gillard, this is more like it! Ms.Gillard's put me in mind of another speech by a Welsh Labour Party leader. Kinnock, destroying the Militant Tendency, 1985, another brave and pivotal political event. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWLN7rIby9s John |
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Re: A great political speech in the Australian Parliament
posted at 14/10/2012 1:58 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1264
First: 13/4/2010 Last: 20/5/2013 |
Thanks for this John. I have passed it on to so many people I have lost count. Politics as it could and should be instead of the banality we see every day in Westminster and Holyrood. |
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Re: A great political speech in the Australian Parliament
posted at 15/10/2012 9:47 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
I am fortunate to live in a society we are open speech is still permitted and where a woman can be Prime Minister. There are many patriarchal societies where misogyny prevails and where women are little more than chattels. The very idea of a woman rebutting the comments of a male politician eloquent a must be an anathema to many men and even women in some societies. Robust and and open debate in Parliament is one of the essential ingredients of a healthy democracy combined with freedom of the press, an independent judicial system and the rule of law. Many however eschew democracy. I see that all these are under threat even in western democracies. We must be vigilant lest we lose these hard-won rights and have how tongue is bridled. Universal suffrage was instituted in 1901 in Australia when we became a federation and some Australian states gave women the vote even earlier than this. France, that birthplace of equality gave women the vote in 1946. I recently watched the vice-presidential debate in the United States and was dismayed by its superficiality which was later adjudicated by the television commentators. Such adjudication would be regarded as facile by a junior high school debating team. If you are looking for a reasoned debate about the current American malaise, I recommend a book I recently read called, "That he used to be us. How America fell behind in the world it invented and how we can come back", by Thomas L Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, Picador Press, 2011. I found strong analogies between the US malaise and Gibbon's description of the fall of the Roman Empire and I did not feel optimistic as to the outcome. I fear that we are engaging in too much double-talk in politics. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, you can't fool all the people all of the time. Many Australians may disagree with our prime minister's policies but I believe that most would support her stance in Federal Parliament seen in this video. It is ironic that she has just visited Afghanistan where rights of girls and women are just beginning to be asserted and where a return to the Dark Age of Taliban is an ever-present threat to their emancipation and education. If only half of the population has any power and the other half are enslaved, the potential of that society is diminished. Mr Abbott would appear to prefer women with an iron board. She then went to India where there have been women prime ministers presumably without irons. Thus I see Prime Minister Gillard's address in Parliament has more than just words but symbolic of a greater freedom we enjoy as well as a greater responsibility to preserve it. P.S. The Right Honourable Tony Abbott, Opposition Leader once entered training has a Catholic priest. He did not complete his training. This may give viewers some a perception of his point of view with regards female humans and ironing boards. It is ironic that his faith places a woman in such divine perspective but only after her ascension into Heaven, presumably without an ironing board. For a contrary view to his position may I suggest De Rerum Natura by Lucretius who lived over 2000 years ago. As outlined above, healthy debate leads to a healthy society. Humour is also eschewed by the religious and politically correct zealots of societies as humour invokes irony, satire and self-examination. Odysseus |
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