Julia Gillard: Labor Prepped Up for a 2013 Re-election
The Coalition mocks her 935 days of being the nation's chief leader, marked on Sunday, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard appears all geared up in further extending her grip on the job she inherited from former Labor leader Kevin Rudd.
Insinuations remain that she grabbed the prime ministership from her former boss while the Liberals insists that there's nothing to celebrate on a six-year Labor government that only created records of "more debt, deficits, waste, boats, broken promises and increasing cost of living pressures on families."
"The Australian people will not celebrate the record of either (Labor prime ministers)," the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported acting Opposition Leader Warren Truss as saying in a statement on Sunday.
In particular, the current prime minister bungled on her job by backtracking on her pledges about border security, the budget surplus and the mining tax that has yet to deliver the projected federal revenues, the Coalition said.
"Julia Gillard has failed on all three counts," Mr Truss stressed, insisting too that Labor's leadership and its handling of Australia took a turn for the worst with Mr Rudd and his successor, Ms Gillard, calling the shots.
The prime minister, however, is unfazed by the criticism though she allowed that 2012 proved a difficult year for her, both personally and politically.
In a piece she wrote for The Sunday Telegraph, Ms Gillard pointed to the tough task of introducing the carbon tax, credited by analysts as the biggest choke point for Labor in 2012, allowing the opposition to enjoy better popularity against the government.
But the "biggest and hardest things," are over, Ms Gillard wrote, adding that she looks forward to "getting the big things done to create more opportunity for all."
"I am determined to get them done," the prime minister vowed.
Setting her sight for 2013, an election year, Ms Gillard declared "I've never felt more ready," likely drawing strength from the fact that her popularity took considerable upticks in the second half of 2012, following dismal showing on national surveys from 2011 through the early part of last year.
Now, she is some points ahead of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in terms of popularity and approval contests, but the latter remains a shoo-in as the next prime minister. The Coalition closed out the 2012 survey tussle holding election-winning margins in both the primary and two-party preferred departments.
Ms Gillard, however, is upbeat of Labor retaining the federal government following the 2013 national election that must be held no later than November 30.
Her re-election is on the horizon, Ms Gillard claimed, anchored on Labor's thrust to further boost the country's education and family concerns.
An extension of the Gillard Government, the prime minister said, will preside over Australia's improvements on infrastructures, which include the national broadband network, welfare conditions and national security.
Australia, however, will opt for a new of government, Mr Truss said, adding that the Liberal-National alliance will deliver a "good, competent and stable government that our country deserves."
"Tony Abbott has plans to create a strong and prosperous economy and a safe and secure Australia," the Coalition said in statement.