Australia’s Gillard told Obama it’s hard being her
AUSTRALIA: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has
reportedly told US President Barack Obama it is hard being a single,
atheist, female leader as support for her slumped in a new poll Monday.
Gillard, who became the country’s first woman prime minister in June
2010, has struggled for more than a year and the latest Nielsen poll
shows her Labor Party crashing seven percent to 27 percent as voters’
first choice.
The poll of 1,400 voters published in The Sydney Morning Herald
showed the conservative opposition would score a thumping win should an
election be held now -- winning 57 percent of the overall vote next to
Labor’s 43 percent.
According to the Herald, Gillard has privately conceded it is hard to
be in her position, reportedly questioning Obama on which of them had
the tougher role -- the African-American president or the unwed woman
prime minister.
“I’m good mates with Barack Obama,” Gillard was quoted as telling a
recent private fundraising event in Sydney.
“I tell him, ‘You think it’s tough being African-American? Try being
me. Try being an atheist, childless, single woman as prime minister’.”
Gillard reportedly told the gathering of cabinet members and business
people that despite the current low support for Labor, her minority
government -- held together with the help of two independent lawmakers
-- was defying expectations.
“If you are judging by normal political rules, it’s impossible to
explain how I became prime minister,” the newspaper said Gillard told
the function.
AFP |