What went wrong for Julia Gillard: Minority government and misogynistic politics

By: Vidya S Sharma

Why did Julia Gillard lose the confidence of her party and resign as the prime minister of Australia? On many counts, she led a good government from 2010 till the last week of June: it was largely free of corruption, and inflation was well within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target range of 2-3%.

Also, Australia did well compared with the battered Western countries. Since the 2008 financial crisis, in contrast to the US and EU economies, the Australian economy grew by 13%.


Under Gillard, Australia also enjoyed triple-A debt rating from all three ratings agencies, something unprecedented. According to a recent IMF report, the tax to GDP ratio averaged 21.1% of GDP in the five years of the current Labor government (three years of it under Gillard). These levels were last seen under Paul Keating’s Labor government in the early 1990s.

It averaged 23.4% under the conservative Howard administration — described by IMF as “the most wasteful” of all. So what went wrong for Gillard? Though Kevin Rudd led the Labor to victory in 2007, his egotism, chaotic management style and non-existent people skills saw him becoming unpopular within the party. It was at this juncture that Gillard challenged Rudd and became the prime minister in June 2010.

Sexist Politics

In the August 2010 elections, both the Labor and the Coalition (of Liberal and the National Party) won 72 seats each in the 150-member House. Four crossbenchers chose to support Gillard, thus allowing her to form the first federal minority government since 1940. But Rudd, never a team player, could not accept the decision. Whenever Gillard seemed to gain traction with the electorate, his supporters leaked cabinet deliberations that would undermine and embarrass her.

With a woman prime minister at the helm for the first time, gender came to the fore in Australian politics. And it laid bare a starkly misogynistic political culture. Sexist comments were pointedly made at her. Personal became political in the most unseemly way, as the fact that she was an atheist, unmarried and childless got raked up: she was called “barren by choice”, banners screamed “Ditch the Witch”.

Costly Mistakes

Gillard also made political errors. To breathe life into her 2010 campaign, she said it was time for “the real Julia [to be] well and truly on display”. This was a heaven-sent gaffe to the Opposition, which tore into her. Later, when she toppled Rudd, she erred again in not explaining to Australians how dysfunctional his administration had been.

Then there was a U-turn that proved disastrous: during the last days of the 2010 campaign, she promised that she would never introduce a carbon tax. She had to change her stance to get the support of a Green MP. The introduction of carbon tax enraged many, including a right-wing commentator who called her “Ju-liar” on his show. The right-wing media went all guns blazing at her.

Even when she toppled Rudd, the media painted it not as a legitimate political victory, but as a coup — from the very beginning Gillard’s government, therefore, had to contend with this image that it was somehow unworthy. Leading a minority government severely handicapped her, more so when Gillard could not discipline unruly MPs or leakers within her party.

On every issue, she had to negotiate both within Labor and with the independents, as it was a hung parliament, and she was quickly portrayed as a weak leader. Another big challenge she faced was from Tony Abbott: an aggressive opposition leader. He often made exaggerated claims but she failed to put a blow-torch to them. All these incidents chipped away at her authority and led to her unwarranted exit as prime minister.

(The writer, based in Australia, advises on country risk management)