My initial thoughts on tonight's developments * in terms of long-term effects is that this could lead for a push for a republic with an executive president and/or longer government terms which give the prime minister more time to implement the government's policies and show that they are working before an election needs to be called. Both ideas have been floated before, of course, and the first is what sank the referendum on the republic back in 1999.
* Note for my non-Australian readers: There will be an election for leader of the Australian Labor Party among Labor members of parliament and, therefore, for prime minister on Thursday morning. Candidates: Kevin Rudd, prime minister and Julia Gillard his deputy. Rudd is a first term prime minister elected in 2007. Only one other Australian prime minister has had a single term and that was back in 1932 in the depths of the Great Depression. The Labor party lost the election in that case. I don't know if any other prime minister has been challenged for the leadership by his party in his first term.
This leadership spill is nothing to with the push for republic. Although the Labor party promised referendum this coming election, I guess they will not implement their promise. There are a lot people in the government and Liberal party who would like business as usual when it comes to the issue of republic, even though more than 60% Australians are for the republic.
ReplyDelete