Sydney Morning Herald political and international editor
March 20, 2013
Under pressure: Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Under intensifying pressure, Julia Gillard has not stepped back but has stepped up her combativeness.
With the government's proposed media regulations at risk of failing to pass the House, the Prime Minister has raised the stakes by making them a leadership issue.
Gillard might have chosen to let her Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, take responsibility for the media bills but instead she has taken personal ownership.
In an effort to take the stakes even higher, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott asked Gillard in question time whether the reforms were of such importance they represented a confidence matter. In other words, would she stake her government on getting them passed?
Gillard deflected the question by referring Abbott to the handbook of parliamentary practice.
But Abbott and Gillard know full well a bill does not need to be labelled a matter of ''confidence'' for it to become one. Eight governments have fallen after losing votes in the House on apparently innocuous matters, as in 1941 when the opposition successfully amended the size of the budget by £1.
Gillard taunted Abbott that she would win the election between a ''strong, feisty woman'' and a ''policy-weak man.'' The primary audience for her show of defiance, however, was the people sitting behind her, the Labor caucus.
Caucus confidence in Gillard's leadership is low and falling. Members were sobered by the Fairfax Media report on Tuesday that a senior minister, Mark Butler, was reconsidering his support for her.
Under pressure to declare loyalty, he tweeted that he was ''still a proud member of the Gillard team.'' This was not any contradiction.
The Fairfax report that Foreign Minister Bob Carr had also lost confidence in Gillard was met by a denial so enthusiastic Carr claimed he had never held any discussion with his colleagues about how the government was going.
This failed the laugh test, and the laugh is on Carr. His caucus colleagues know the report was correct and that he has complained long and loud to them about Gillard's misjudgements.
Gillard's combativeness is designed to discourage caucus from trying to remove her. It's a confidence game.
