Julia Gillard has her own sad sack

Julia Gillard

This was part of my column in The Malta Independent on Sunday, last Sunday.

It’s time for Lawrence Gonzi to ring his Australian counterpart, Julia Gillard, to commiserate and have one of those “I know! Isn’t it awful when they…..” conversations.

Eighteen months ago, Gillard mounted a challenge to Kevin Rudd’s leadership (he was her predecessor as prime minister). They wound up in a bitter battle, but she won the party leadership and then went on to win the election, though only just.

The defeated Rudd, instead of returning to the diplomatic service from whence he originally came, kept his parliamentary seat and then accepted the post of foreign minister. So far, so familiar.

Now he has announced his resignation at a press conference in Washington, a mere 24 hours after insisting that he would not leave office. At his press conference, he was vicious and personal, and spoke about attacks on his integrity by “faceless men”, complaining that PM Gillard did not support him as he faced these attacks. Again, so far, so familiar.

Julia Gillard has now called a leadership contest to try to get rid, once and for all, of the night-hag on her back. She is prepared to die (politically) trying.

We like to think that these things happen to us because Malta is so small. Well, seemingly not. There is one thing at least of which PM Gonzi can reassure PM Gillard: she can stop thinking that she would have been better off had Kevin Rudd resigned his seat and re-entered the foreign service.

After all, just look at John Dalli – EU Commissioner for the last few years and still he’s back-biting.