Recently Australia went to the polls and voted to make many changes.
Now we need to monitor the elected politicians and see that they DO change laws relating to ..... Australian Workforce Agreements and all the other promises.
We need to celebrate the first year of our first female Prime Minister by listing the achievments of her government. These have mostly been forgotten or ignored by the media which relies on instant gratification. We should remember the good things Julia Gillard has achieved - Paid Parental Leave, the Fair Work Act, the wonderful new infrastructure for all Primary Schools even if some were over budget, the MySchool initiative, the increase in pension rates, the new super plans and the National Broadband Network which will be applauded in future years as is the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
She has achieved lots of significant initiatives such as - cigarettes in plain wrappers, taxed alcopops drinks, increased child care rebates, removed the so-called Harradine restraint on contraceptive advice for overseas agencies, and put Nurse practitioners in GP clinics.
Discrimination against homosexuals was made illegal. She is supporting pay equity while being very careful of the budget. She has managed to get the miners to pay some resource tax, she is negotiating a carbon tax, and is trying to solve the almost impossible asylum seekers problem and also the problem of abuse of aboriginal women, of alcohol and the problem of getting the children to attend school.
The Rudd/Gillard government appointed our first female Governor General and signed the Optional Protocol on the UN Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. They brought troops home from Iraq and managed the Global Financial Crisis. With a hung parliament Julia Gillard has a more difficult job than any previous PM. We should all remember these things and give her credit for a job being well done under almost impossible circumstances, during a time when 151 bills have successfully passed in the 43rd Parliament.