The catalyst that brings public opinion into the fray and sees people on the street worried about their own finances, their own lives and the effect that politics is going to have on them, inspiring anger and hatred toward an individual or group is the media.
The media was used so well by John Howard to inspire hatred of people on the dole, "Dole Bludgers", to inspire fear and hatred of asylum seekers who arrived through desperate and unofficial channels, "Boat People", to erode public opinion of other political members and to lead us into an unjust war which would see thousands of innocents and dozens of Australian soldiers lives lost for nothing more than a shift in power and a plunge into instability for countries far from our shores. Kevin Rudd used the media to inspire love and hope. This was his strength in the Kevin'07 campaign and after years of feeling shame for the way Australia and Australian's were thinking and behaving I started to see a way that our country would be shaped to be an intelligent and progressive one.
When Julia Gillard took over I was happy to have a female atheist leading the country and interested to see if we were, as a country, progressive enough to handle it. The answer has been no, absolutely not but I do not know if that is because of the way that Australian's think or because of media inspired public opinion. Australia is still racist and it is still sexist but it is progressing and mostly these are outdated and unacceptable ways of thinking. Gillard did not do herself any favours with the media, she didn't make herself as available as Kevin Rudd did, she tried to push in legislation to control media's bad behaviour, she upset the people who own the media. So the media hated her and we saw every petty rumour "leaked", more appropriate to say injected, by those opposed to the government reported as fact and any good work done by the Gillard government overshadowed by stories of party turmoil and sexist personal attacks on the Prime minister.
I am happy to see Rudd return but only because Abbott is such a back stabbing, cheating, egotistical, hate monger that I am fearful of what he would do to the country I love.
I am sorry that there has not been an appropriate farewell and gracious thanks given to Australia's first female Prime minister. Thank you Gillard for championing change to Australia's treatment of people with disabilities and to the effectual equality of education. These are the things that Gillard believed in and the things that I hope she is remembered for but the victors write the history and the media has won this war.
Political hatred: its genesis and its toll
"Voting for Abbott because you hate Gillard is like eating shit because you hate spinache." Jessica Xu
“What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it’s going to go up in price, and their own power bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up.” Tony Abbott
"Abortion is the easy way out” Tony Abbott
“If it’s true, Stavros, that men have more power generally speaking than women, is that a bad thing?” Tony Abbott
''Tony Abbott has said of himself that he is John Howard and Bronwyn Bishop's political love child. Heaven knows that's bad enough but the truth is he is acting more [like] the love child of Sarah Palin and Donald Trump." Julia Gillard
"The concept of social inclusion in essence means replacing a welfarist approach to helping the underprivileged with one of investing in them and their communities to bring them into the mainstream market economy. It’s a modern and fresh approach that views everyone as a potential wealth creator and invests in their human capital. My reason for adopting such an approach is simple: at a time when Australia needs more skilled people and has an ageing population, we simply can’t afford to have one in ten or more of our people out of the workforce due to unemployment, low skills or the effects of chronic poverty. Social inclusion is an economic imperative. " Julia Gillard
"All my life I’ve believed that men and women have equal capacities and talents…consequently there should be equality in life’s chances. " Julia Gillard
"The best days for this country are ahead of it, not behind it. " Julia Gillard
