Gillard gallops into same-sex marriage standoff
Julia Gillard chats with Lisa Wilkinson on HuffPost Live, Tuesday:
I think people should vote Yes in the plebiscite, the ballot, whatever we’re calling it.
Yes, Julia Gillard. The Gillard who blocked gay marriage for three years. The then prime minister in Emu Plains, NSW, August 1, 2010:
I … believe that marriage is a man and a woman. That’s the Marriage Act as we have it now and we’ve had it throughout the ages.
She changed her position a wee while ago. Gillard speaking at the University of Melbourne, August 25, 2015:
I also think it is important that the matter is now resolved through a conscience vote by the parliament … I would not have a vote in that debate. But if I did, I would vote Yes.
Why didn’t Gillard back gay marriage when she was running the country? HuffPost Live, Tuesday:
Well, it’s hard to put yourself back in that time. I had a very personal, some would say eccentric, 1970s feminist view about marriage …
We thought Gillard believed in traditional marriage because it’s, well, tradition. The then prime minister, The Daily Telegraph, March 21, 2011:
I think for our culture, for our heritage, the Marriage Act and marriage being between a man and a woman has a special status.
We thought it was a belief she held deeply. Gillard on ABC’s Q&A, June 11, 2012:
You know, it is a, you know, view that some people might look at me and think, oh, it’s an odd one for her to hold, but it is a view I hold and I hold very deeply.
This is Gillard we’re talking about. Channel 10 News, August 16, 2010:
There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.
She didn’t come out with the 1970s feminist excuse until she left office. Gillard speaking with Anne Summers at the Sydney Opera House, September 30, 2013:
When I went to university and started forming my political views of the world, we weren’t talking about gay marriage. Indeed, as women, as feminists, we were critiquing marriage.
Gillard may play the role of the rainbow advocate now that she leads Beyondblue. HuffPost Live, continued:
Beyondblue … said that we support marriage equality.
But don’t expect Yes or No supporters to take the former Labor leader very seriously at all. Gillard in Melbourne, June 5, 2013:
Journalist: Do you think that you will ever change your stance on it?
Gillard: I have made my stance clear …
Gillard was a famed parliamentary negotiator but New Zealand Labour leader Jacinda Ardern takes the cake. New Zealand Herald’s Claire Trevett on Twitter, yesterday:
Jacinda Ardern is really upping the game today — she’s said to be taking home baking into the meeting. A ginger loaf apparently.
Canberra has its own notorious baker. The Sydney Morning Herald, November 25, 2015:
(Tony) Abbott arrived on Tuesday (at a meeting with like-minded conservatives) with chocolate cake baked by his new “landlady” Peta Credlin …
Baking is a good way to get rid of your enemies. Sweeney Todd, 1979:
We have some shepherd’s pie peppered / with actual shepherd on top. / And I’ve just begun. / Here’s the politician so oily / It’s served with a doily …