http://www.ElizaMcNamara.com To find out more go to http://www.ElizaMcNamara.com My source is http://www.ElizaMcNamara.com Kevin Rudd speech
Julia Gillard's elevation to prime minister of Australia has led to a spike in opinion polls, boosting the ruling Labor party into a potentially election- winning lead.
Kevin Rudd speech
Labor's electoral support rose 8 percentage points to 55 percent, while the opposition Liberal-National party fell the same amount to 45 percent, the Age newspaper reported, citing a Nielsen poll taken after Gillard replaced Kevin Rudd on June 24. The government leads 52 percent to the opposition's 48 percent, according to a separate Galaxy poll in the Herald Sun newspaper.
kevin rudd speech
After winning a party-room ballot unopposed, Gillard moved to fix two of Rudd's most unpopular decisions by revisiting the carbon-trading system he shelved in April and agreeing to talks with the mining industry on a proposed tax increase. The 48- year-old Wales-born lawyer had been deputy prime minister since Rudd defeated John Howard's coalition government in 2007.
"It will take a while for the Liberal party to work out how to handle Julia Gillard," Alexander Downer, who served as Australia's foreign minister in Howard's government, said in an interview on Sky News. "I think she will have an election in August."
Gillard, who can decide on the timing of the election, this week said a poll would be held before the end of 2010. She met yesterday with Treasurer Wayne Swan and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson to discuss tactics to negotiate with mining companies over the tax, after suspending government advertising promoting the levy.
Major Parties
Electoral support in the opinion polls is on a two-party preferred basis, under which votes from smaller parties are distributed to the two major parties under the nation's preferential voting system.
Gillard also leads opposition leader Tony Abbott as the preferred prime minister, with 55 percent of respondents supporting her against 34 percent for Abbot, according to Nielsen, which polled 993 voters on June 24 and 25. The poll's margin of error was 2.6 percent.
The 52-year-old Abbott, a former Rhodes scholar and priest trainee, also trails in the Galaxy poll of 800 electors, with 32 percent preferring him as the country's leader compared to 58 percent for Gillard.
Abbott, who became opposition leader on Dec. 1, had managed to win back support from the government by opposing the emissions-trading plan and Rudd's proposal for a so-called "super profits" tax on mining earnings.
Abbott's Pledges
He today addressed the Liberal party's national conference in Canberra, announcing promises to voters as he seeks to win election.
Abbott's pledges include enforcement of border security, the provision of paid parental leave and changes to welfare rules. He also matched a Labor promise to restore the budget to surplus within three years, offering spending cuts rather than the government proposed tax increases.
"People are not disillusioned with this government because of Kevin Rudd, they are disillusioned with this government because it hasn't delivered," Abbott told the conference today. "Our promises will be prudent, they will be possible, they will be desirable measures."
To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Fenner in Melbourne rfenner@bloomberg.net
http://www.pm.gov.au/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gillard
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/libs-push-policy-over-personality/st...
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/rudd-unfit-for-foreign-minister...
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