Half Nelson
Former ALP member, motorbike enthusiast and earring-wearer Dr Brendan Nelson emerges as Liberal Leader after Australians resoundingly threw out John Howard.
Fresh from facing its one of its worst-ever electoral defeats, which resulted in former Prime Minister John Howard losing his own seat and apparent heir Peter Costello’s walk away from the top job, the Liberal Party has voted in a close ballot 45-42 votes against Malcolm Turnbull in favour of former Defence Minister Brendan Nelson to take on the party’s future with a fresh set of ideas. In a move shadowing Julia Gillard’s appointment as Australia’s first female Deputy Prime Minister, Julie Bishop has been made Deputy Liberal Leader.
In sharp contrast to the direly conservative John Howard, Former AMA President Dr Brendan Nelson was originally a member of the ALP, “had never voted Liberal in his life”, wore an earring, plays the guitar and has had three wives. Despite being a monarchist and supporter of the intervention in Indigenous communities, he is noted for taking a much more moderate stance on social issues.
During his presidency of the AMA, he presided over several initiatives, which saw improvements in the areas of Aboriginal health services.
It is even less well known that in his myriad of skeletons hidden in his Parliamentary closet, that he told Parliament about the pain of watching his gay brother Philip, die of AIDS just before he had gained preselection for the deeply conservative Upper North Shore Sydney seat of Bradfield in 1995. He went on to remark that “Homosexual people are our brothers and sisters, our aunts and uncles, our sons and daughters, and some are even parents, and they should be able to live in a society that is free of intolerance, persecution and hatred.”
Whilst Kevin Rudd swears in his new Cabinet, Dr Nelson is promising that him and his new Shadow Cabinet can present Australia with a formidable opposition, having to support various policies Labor has mandated after the Coalition’s defeat such as the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and various changes to the Industrial Relations laws, but maintains his opposition to a formal apology to the Stolen Generation. His views towards same-sex law reform are yet to be known however he supported various previous pieces of legislation supporting equality.
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chad_74
said ages ago