Changing jockeys will not fix a dud horse

June 24 was a historic day in Australian politics.  Julia Gillard became Australia’s first ever female Prime Minister, which was a cause for celebration for women across the country. But it was also a historic moment because in the Australian Parliament’s 109 year history, no Prime Minister has ever been rolled by his own party in his first term. It was a historic day because it was not a clean change, brought about by the will of the people. This was a change brought about by the will of the union and faction warlords.

The reality is, changing the jockey will not solve anything if you have a dud horse. Labor has proven time and time again that it cannot manage money. The new Prime Minister can say what she likes to distance herself from Kevin Rudd and his Government’s poor decisions, she was a fundamental part of the inner sanctum which brought us the insulation debacle, a massive spike in boat arrivals, and a Youth Allowance scheme which made it financially impossible, in many cases, for Territory students to access tertiary education.

Added to this, Julia Gillard was personally responsible for the disastrous school hall rip off, with $16.2 billion spent on school halls, a $1.7 billion budget blow out, and at least $5 billion wasted through mismanagement. There was also the dismal computers in schools program which blew out by $1.2 billion, and of the 970,000 laptops promised only 300,000 were actually delivered.

While Australians will continue to pay the price for Labor’s debt - $100 million a day for the next two years – the Labor party continues to look for ways to impose new taxes that will cover up its Budget deficit. Julia Gillard has no intention of backing down on her damaging mining tax, which will see jobs and economic prosperity disappear from the Northern Territory. Mining companies will take their business to countries which do not have the highest industry taxes in the world.

It doesn’t matter whether Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard leads the Labor party. Australians cannot expect this Government to deliver on its promises or for Julia Gillard to improve her Government’s train-wreck record of bad policy decisions. The only way to fix the mess this Labor Government has created is by returning the Coalition to Government.