politics... wow. Just, wow.

So apparently today was an historic day in Australian political history: we now have our first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

But this bothers me. She was not voted Prime Minister by the general populace, many people were unaware about the political spill (buzzword on Twitter for the past 24 hours) until after it had happened... and still, it is apparently a historic day.

It reminds me a lot of past shifts in leadership. There was the time Paul Keating knifed Bob Hawke in the back, for example. This behaviour from political parties is not new, and I doubt it will be the last time it will ever happen. The Labour government saw it's popularity declining and made a move to fix it. Poor Kevin Rudd just happened to be the necessary casualty.

Was this really a necessary move? Is a change of leadership just before a federal election really going to boost voter opinion, or will it simply cement the Labour's demise?

I know that this whole fiasco has annoyed many of my friends. Labour supporters are astounded that the political party they had so much faith in had such little faith in them. Many voters saw Rudd as the lesser of two evils, so who should they pick now that Gillard is Labour leader? Then there are those who are just sick to death of the whole thing and want Australia to "go back to sleep".

Well I think it's about time Australia woke up. This kind of political soap opera isn't new, and it will simply keep on happening if people don't take an interest in the politics of this country and the people they vote to run it.

Don't like the way things are now? Maybe we should all be paying closer attention next time.