• Julia Gillard (Australian PM) leaves APEC to come home after hearing about her father's death
    13 replies, posted
[IMG]http://smartrecoveryaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/the-sydney-morning-herald-logo.jpg[/IMG] [QUOTE]The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has been rocked by her father's death, saying it came as a shock despite being aware that he had battled an ongoing illness for some time.John Gillard died aged 83 in Adelaide. The cause of death is not yet known. Ms Gillard's office confirmed that she has cut short her visit at the APEC summit in Russia to return to her family home in Adelaide. Ms Gillard has issued a formal statement about the sudden loss of her father. "He has battled illness in recent years but his death is a shock for me and my family," she said. "Dad lived a long and full life. He was brought up in a coal mining village and left school at 14, but transcended these humble beginnings to become a man with a love of ideas, political debate and poetry." Ms Gillard had been due to attend the opening session of APEC but did not appear. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, told the conference Ms Gillard's father had died and she would be returning to Australia. "At the onset of our meeting I would like to say that one of our colleagues, the Australian Prime Minister had a very unfortunate tragedy in her family," he said. "Her father passed away so I would like on behalf of all of us to express condolences to her and members of her family." Ms Gillard will be represented by the Minister for Trade, Craig Emerson, for the remainder of the meeting. John Gillard, a psychiatric nurse, moved his young family from Wales to Australia in 1966 for the sake of the young Julia's bronchial health. He and his wife, Moira, settled in Adelaide and the Prime Minister liked to refer to them as "ten pound Poms". Mr and Mrs Gillard were favourites with the media who they used to invite into their home and offer tea and biscuits during election campaigns. During the nail-bitingly close 2010 federal election, Mr Gillard said watching his daughter throughout the campaign had been one of the proudest moments of his life. ''I'm proud of my daughter all the time,'' he said. ''The English language doesn't contain enough words - awesome, great, fantastic, tremendous, it is all of those multiplied by 10.'' The Prime Minister has credited her parents with instilling in her the values of hard work, straight talking and decency. In a 2010 interview, Mr Gillard said being born into an impoverished family in a small Welsh mining town as the second youngest of seven siblings made him determined to see his daughter Julia succeed. ''Because I had been deprived of a proper education I made a firm affirmation, and Moira agreed, that if our children had the academic potential we could bring it to fruition, and we made sure that happened,'' he said. He told how he made ends meet in the Welsh town of Barry by taking a string of jobs including working in a grocery shop, as a coal inspector and as a policeman, after his father told him at age 12 he could no longer afford to send him to school. Julia was an ill child who suffered from recurring chest infections and had to stay indoors during the harsh Welsh winter. ''The doctor said that if we stayed in Wales she would develop pneumonia and bronchitis so we decided that the correct place to go was Australia,'' he said. Ms Gillard often referred to her parents in her speeches and interviews. In a speech in May she said her parents had taught her many things, to cherish family, to work hard, respect other people and "to always, always, always carry your union membership card". Mr Gillard is survived by his wife Moira and daughters Alison and Julia. Meetings Ms Gillard held bilateral meetings earlier today with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill. Ms Gillard and Mr O'Neill signed a memorandum of understanding to allow Australia to send asylum seekers to PNG's Manus Island. She also discussed asylum seekers and other topics with Mr Najib. She was to have used the APEC summit to push for an accord to further open up the region's higher education market. She was also expected to try to shore up support for an agreement that would see APEC's 21 nations slash tariffs on environmental goods to no more than 5 per cent by the year 2015. She was then to have met the leaders of Japan, Peru, New Zealand and Vietnam. It is expected Dr Emerson will continue to represent her at the summit and on the sidelines. [/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/gillard-to-leave-apec-because-of-fathers-death-20120908-25ktc.html#ixzz25vmAch7S[/url]
Fair enough, don't see why anyone would expect her to stay.
He worked in the same industry as my mum (psychiatric nursing), so he was rather well known to my mums coworkers, though my mum never actually met him
Question for the Aussies - what is the general population's feelings about her?
[QUOTE=blacksam;37601547]Question for the Aussies - what is the general population's feelings about her?[/QUOTE] Basicly we're choosing between an idiot (her), and a crazy nutter (Abbot, the opposition leader); we have the make a decision between the two. Personally I go with idiot over crazy
I wouldn't say she an idiot, just boring. She doesn't do anything outstanding, and her voice could put someone on a caffeine high to sleep.
She is perfectly competent but slightly ruined by all the leadership issues within labor
[QUOTE=Whomobile;37601708]I wouldn't say she an idiot, just boring. She doesn't do anything outstanding, and her voice could put someone on a caffeine high to sleep.[/QUOTE] I don't think she's an awful prime minister or something but I confess I had high hopes for Kevin Rudd and I think there is still a huge rift between the labour party over that. She took over after Kevin Rudd backed down from his carbon trading scheme, and had Gillard propose basically the exact same thing after pretty much back-stabbing him. [editline]9th September 2012[/editline] After that I think many see her as rather cold and calculating, when they would prefer a Prime Minister they can empathise with. Rather depressingly I'd bet that having her father pass away will boost her in the polls as people can see that she is indeed human, and can sympathise with her.
[QUOTE=blacksam;37601547]Question for the Aussies - what is the general population's feelings about her?[/QUOTE] I don't mind her but she is definitely an idiot on how she handles situations, however if I was in a voting booth and had to decide I'd just do a donkey vote because I really don't like both sides.
I preferred Kevin Rudd.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yDXpFHC3ds[/media]
Basically the population still holds mild resentment towards her because she 'backstabbed' Rudd when in reality Labor just wanted Rudd gone because he was such a bad boss to work for, threw things at people and screamed and threw tantrums and shit
She's got a better attitude than Rudd, but doesn't get stuff done because of how disliked she is with the public and the fact she's leading a minority party.
[QUOTE=Asmaedus;37608554][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yDXpFHC3ds[/media][/QUOTE] I can't fucking stop laughing this is genius
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