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FOLLOWING WEEKS OF disputes and haranguing by fellow Labor Party member – and predecessor – Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called for a leadership ballot.
She hopes to protect her job in the vote on her leadership next Monday on the back of public criticism from the man she ousted just two years ago.
Announcing the ballot at a press conference in Adelaide this morning, Gillard said she made the decision following Rudd’s resignation.
I have formed this view that we need a leadership ballot in order to settle this question once and for all.
She added that it is in both the interests of the party, as well as the nation to determine the leadership issue.
Rudd, who had been foreign minister, quit the cabinet following a public protest at Gillard’s performance. She only took over from Rudd – who is popular nationally, but despised within the party – in June 2010 but he now seems likely to seek a return.
Gillard said she was disappointed that Rudd expressed his concerns publicly before raising them with her privately. She also made it clear that he did not discuss his intention to resign with her prior to his public statement.
Rudd resigned while on duty in Washington DC, bringing domestic politics onto an international scene. He said he had no option but to leave the front bench after attacks from senior colleagues.
Going out with fighting words, Gillard’s predecessor made it clear she would have a fight on her hands. Echoing her words of 2010, he told reporters in the US capital that he thinks Labor will lose next year’s elections if Gillard remains leader.
Monday’s ballot could either quash any question of a Rudd comeback or place the party in severe difficulty as it tries to hold onto its single-seat majority in the house of representatives.
Gillard said she will abandon her leadership ambitions if Labor lawmakers choose Rudd over her Monday, and she called on Rudd to do the same if he loses.
-Additional reporting by AP
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Disgraceful the way this woman is been treated by a super power country.She should not be in prison in the first place!
It is a human rights issue and not limited by any national borders.
Even prisoners have rights. And even as a hunger striker, water is one of those.
Vladimir, you sound brainwashed.
Wow, your anger and aggression leaps off the page which totally negates your argument.
Hah..I wonder by whom.. I am living in ireland for te last six years..
In fact I’ve a rather good idea. I’ve lived in Russia. I speak fluent Russian. I don’t know first-hand, thankfully, of the state of Russian prisons, but I’ve read a lot. Care to read this?
http://www.rosbalt.ru/blogs/2013/09/24/1179492.html
I know full well that Russia is multi-ethnic and multi-religious and that, unfortunately, the regime since 2000 has been very favourable towards Orthodox fundamentalists and no other religions. Nobody needs to provoke the extreme Orthodox believers and incite hatred: they incite themselves! Remember that time they got “Jesus Christ Superstar” banned in Rostov-on-Don?
All this woman and her fellow dancers did was dance in a cathedral (not sing: the song was added to the video later). This is classed as an ‘administrative’ offence, not a criminal one (more precisely as ‘minor hooliganism’) and so should have been punished with a fine, not prison. Especially not Russia’s most notorious prison.
Vlad, every tyrant and supporter of tyrants always claims that their campaign of terror against their own people was born of necessity, a claim rarely supported by truth, are you saying that the Russian Orthodox Church is such a violent, short-tempered religion that even a minor criticism could set it off on a violent crusade.
I doubt Putin’s forces would be so quick to act if the protest was held in a mosque or synagogue but then again, unlike the Jews and Muslims, the Russian Orthodox Church has been the friend of every Russian tyrant from the Tsars, to Stalin, to Putin with only a brief hiatus under Lenin.
I wonder, when are the Russians are going to realize that Putin is turning Russia into a state with every trait of another violent, racist, homophobic regime that their grandparents fought and died to contain?
Many, many Russians have. They’re either leaving Russia en masse or they can’t have their voices heard in their own country, where 70 years of disconnecting people from any possibility of affecting the outcome of their lives under the Soviets has made for a conveniently manipulable pool of ‘voters’. The mightiest tool of the Soviet governments wasn’t brainwashing – they were actually relatively bad at that – but rather decoupling people and the fruits of their labour, so that any form of effort or activism to change the world seemed pointless. Result: mass apathy and an extremely fractured collective consciousness. Only 50% of Russians turned out to vote in the Duma elections of 2011, to illustrate the point.
You love you’re country so much ? Well go home so
Sharon, since when did someone being angry negate the substance of their message? And 53 people are as stupid as you to believe that nonsense you spouted also?
That’s worrying.
Anger is a natural response, neither good nor bad. It has absolutely no bearing on the legitimacy of an argument so put that in your pipe and smoke it you level headed boremonger.
What a muppet
Re Frank Brady.
Disgraceful the way she is being treated by a superpower you say?
Another superpower, the US, detains people for over ten years in cages without trial.
Re Seoirse MH
I am quite aware of that ,but its not the topic on this thread.
True.
Russia’s an awful kip.
Re Frank.
Fair enough. However, it is relevant that an even worse injustice in relation to prisons be highlighted.
Then dont live here for another year mive back to the beloved motherland it has so much to offer you anyway ..
You’re crazy.
B lowe can’t get away frpm America bashing.
Anyway Russia a land of greed and corruption. Its not a super power any longer. The USA and China are only two at present
The quicker people realise that Russia does not F-about when it comes to the interests of mother Russia the better. There are no gay rights, disabled rights, rights of free expression, stop confusing Russia with the rest of Europe. They hold the power, they make the rules.
Excellant comment most of the things you listed are Western liberal concepts that have no real meaning or merit outside of Europe and North America.
Linda …get à grip u heartless woman ..this is 2013 isnt it …..
This is old news as her husband announced on Twitter today that she’s been hospitalised. The prison administration won’t give any documents to prove that and won’t allow her husband to see her.
By the way, the rules for Russian prisons (to the extent that they exist on paper) say a hunger striker has to be allowed tea, water, cigarettes and matches. As far I understand the first three-four days of the strike are the worst, so she could have been relatively (stress on that word) well had she been allowed water.
Prison isn’t supposed to be a picnic. Your not supposed to want to go back. It’s not supposed to he cushy with home comforts.
Water isn’t a ‘home comfort’. It’s a basic human right, even for prisoners.
My comment was in relation to the long working hours. Should have made that clear.
As for water I quote Shakespeare ‘though this be madness, yet there is method in it’
[Insert dry pussy joke]
Not the right time for dry humour.
I guess I’m on the wrong side of the irony curtain.
She protested on the altar of s church… Not outside . Get ur facts in order before u comment
So many red thumbs you’d think my name was Vladimir Punit.
She could have protested naked on top of the alter if she wanted, it doesn’t justify in humane treatment by refusing her water. My point was that just because worse could have happened her in other countries (your comment) doesn’t make what happened to her right or just
why is she complaining? she’s put herself on a hunger strike. Is she that naïve to think they care? It’s Russia, not Rhode Island. Sorry but it’s common sense.
It’s a protest to highlight an injustice Cathy. You’re not that dim are you?
She’s gone on hunger strike to protest against 16-hour days, near starvation and death threats from prison guards. Yes, it’s not Rhode Island: so she shouldn’t be given any water to drink?
She shouldn’t even be in prison in the first place. Her ‘crime’ is supposed to be classed as an administrative, not criminal, offence, according to Russian legislation, and so she should have been fined or perhaps given some community service, but not a prison sentence.
Get on with serving your sentence…no sympathy whats so ever for her..you can not desecrate a place of worship for your own gain..well done to Putin for laying down a marker with this
I can only hope you are a troll Linda. Such treatment of prisoners or the very act of incarceration for voicing descent has no place in the 21st century.
“Get on with serving your sentence…no sympathy whats so ever for her.”
The fact that someone else’s pain and suffering makes you happy, speaks volumes about you as a person Linda.
Linda….. Brilliant
I agree with you Linda, she shouldn’t have gone into a church to do that. Have some respect! Hope this little kid learned her lesson. Ok lets see the red thumbs do gooders!
Linda has commented many times on other articles with any reference to homosexuality and she does seem to genuinely have no sympathy for anyone who is gay or stands up for gay rights
Linda you should pray for her salvation or something.
Your comments are not very christian.
I have no sympathy for her…if she did that in Saudi Arabia in a Mosque she would been met with a lot sterner punishment
If she had protested outside a church in other countries very little would have happened! Her treatment has not been right and is not humane.
Oh linda, Jesus wouldn’t want you for a sunbeam with that attitude. What happened to hate sin love the sinner? Shouldn’t you be volunteering to wash her feet?
Linda is not a true catholic as it is obvious she has not read or understood the bible.
Linda is a legend. I agree that this persons behaviour should not be tolerated, the problem in this part do the world is that everybody is too afraid of offending the next person if they say something others may find controversial. Half of it is PC nonsense the rest is just appeasing the others.
Why should people be allowed to perform a protest dance on an alter in a church, the church is a place of worship for millions and the altar is where the liturgy is celebrated,
It’s an insult to people who have faith. But I’m sure many of you here will have something against the church, perhaps you’ve been seduced by Richard Dawkins
How very Christian of you Linda.
Richard Dawkins wouldn’t need to seduce anyone with a brain.
And prison is there for if you break the law of the land you live in.So wheres the problem ?
She didn’t break the kind of law that calls for prison. Russia has two types of offence, administrative and criminal. Her dancing in the cathedral was really what the legislation calls (or used to call before they introduced that ridiculous law on “Insulting the Feelings of Believers”) ‘minor hooliganism’ and is traditionally punished by a fine.
I believe it was Saint Augustine who said ‘an unjust law is no law at all’.
And Jesus said ‘if a man strike you on the face, turn the other cheek and allow him to strike that too’.
Too bad the Russian Orthodox Church shares the rest of Christian’s (less the peace churches) la carte view of their own teachings.
Ian, ‘traditionally’ not punished by jail time is quite a hollow statement. The offense either is or is not legally punishable by jail time. Which is it? If the offense is potentially punishable by jail time then that’s that.
Sacrilege may not mean anything to you but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the viewpoint) you are not the lawmaker in Russia. There are plenty of laws in Ireland I would gladly trample all over but that’s not the way things go. The Russians, just like any other state, are allowed to have their laws whether they fall in line with Ian’s viewpoint or no.
This type of one-sided post by you know it alls makes me feel like Putin
has impregnated me with his angry seed and the young’un is suffering from some severe restless leg syndrome deep in my dark, damp places.
I see VLad has a lot of respect for women ? Seems a lot if hatred in what you wrote for your country and women in general and we do have the right to comment here if we wish !!
Is Vlad Putins secret love child by any chance?
Putin…. Hero…. Leader…. Legend
Steo…..moron…..troll….plonker
In fairness Scarr suggesting Steo is a troll is an insult to most trolls.
Steo – you forgot peacekeeper, humanitarian and potenrial nobel laureate for keeping the US missiles being launched resulting in more deaths.
That’s disgusting how can you do that to someone!
I’m just a little confused, is she in prison, or Mosney.
Are you that thick that you can’t tell the difference? Because if that was a stab at humour you missed
Should that not read “Vlad the impaler”
So… if she starts eating, will they give her water?
The video gives me the creeps. She shouldn’t even be there.
have your say