【英语国际】细说澳大利亚首任女总理

Australia's first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, entered federal politics in 1998 as a liberal railing against big business and opportunism but has since displayed a pragmatic streak her Labor Party supporters hope will help correct the mistakes that led to her predecessor Kevin Rudd's downfall.

The 48-year-old has always stood out in the male-dominated world of national politics and was tipped as a future leader years before ousting Mr. Rudd in an uncontested party ballot on Thursday morning. A key ally in Rudd's landslide win over John Howard's conservative government in 2007, she takes the helm with Labor trailing in opinion polls and smarting from a voter backlash on a number of issues, most prominently the resource 'super profits' tax, which has enraged the mining industry.

Where Mr. Rudd was seen as a control freak whose inability to delegate eventually cost him the support of Labor's factional chiefs, Ms. Gillard is viewed as a consensus politician who will consult her peers to avoid the missteps that dogged Mr. Rudd's final months as prime minister. She began by extending an olive branch to the mining industry, saying she wanted to negotiate, and ordered the cancellation of government advertisements supporting the new levy.

Victorian Premier John Brumby, who once employed Gillard as his chief of staff, said he also expected her revive the emissions-trading proposal that was shelved by Mr. Rudd earlier this year, to the dismay of the Labor Party faithful. 'The quicker the Federal Government can get back on track on that issue and get focused on it again to make a really meaningful change in this area [the better],' he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Ms. Gillard's position in Labor's left faction means she may also come under pressure to amend social policies such as tough treatment of asylum seekers, gay-marriage legislations and Aboriginal welfare restrictions in the Northern Territory, although the conservatives who delivered her Thursday's victory are likely to stymie any change deemed too unpopular.

Born in Wales to a father who worked in the coal mines and a mother who was a psychiatric nurse, Ms. Gillard came to Australia as a 4-year-old and grew up in the South Australian capital Adelaide before moving to Melbourne in her 20s and joining a law firm where she specialized in representing employees embroiled in workplace disputes. She forged close links with the Labor movement and with the union-aligned Labor Party, including working in Mr. Brumby's office, before her election in 1998 representing the gritty electorate of Lalor in Melbourne's western suburbs.

While RBC Capital Markets economist Su-Lin Ong said her union roots meant she supported government intervention and spending, Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary Jeff Lawrence said she was nobody's puppet.

'I don't think Julia Gillard is controlled by anyone,' he said. 'I've known her a long time, and she's a very independent, forceful person. She will set the agenda for the government and the country.'

In opposition, she took the portfolio of workplace relations, where she tangled with the current opposition leader Tony Abbott over industrial overhauls and helped deliver labor's 2007 victory by turning public opinion against the changes. It was around then that polls showed many voters preferred her as prime minister over Mr. Rudd.

After the election, she became deputy prime minister and was part of the Rudd inner circle that pushed through massive government stimulus spending, which has been credited with helping Australia escape the worst of the global financial crisis. However, the stimulus spending in her portfolio of education has faced criticism for being wasteful and poorly targeted, representing the major hiccup in her ministerial career.

All the while, Ms. Gillard has faced scrutiny in Canberra because of her status as an unmarried, childless woman-with one conservative political opponent accusing her of being 'deliberately barren' and not understanding families. University of Melbourne politics lecturer Lauren Rosewarne said this would only intensify with her election to the leadership.

'Stay tuned for the inevitable-and archaic-media obsession with discussing the PM's hairstyle, unweddedness and hairdresser boyfriend!' Ms. Rosewarne said.

澳大利亚首任女总理吉拉德(Julia Gillard)于1998年进入政界，当时她是自由主义者，反对大企业和机会主义，但自那之后就展现出注重实效的特点，她在工党(Labor Party)中的支持者希望这一点能够帮助修正导致她的前任陆克文(Kevin Rudd)下台的那些错误。

Getty Images吉拉德48岁的吉拉德在周四上午的党内投票中毫无争议地胜出，取代陆克文。在由男性主导的政界，吉拉德一直引人注目，而且在此前很多年就已经被暗中视为未来的工党领袖。她是陆克文在2007年大选中以压倒性优势胜过霍华德(John Howard)率领的保守派政府的重要盟友，当前接掌大任正值工党民调支持率节节下滑，同时在许多问题上遭到选民强烈反对，其中最突出的就是针对矿产资源“超额利润”征税，此举激怒了矿产行业。

陆克文被视为控制狂，不肯放权，最终失去了工党小派系领袖的支持，而吉拉德则被视为重视多数人意见的政治家，她会寻求同侪意见，以避免陆克文在任总理最后几个月期间那些错误之举。她上任伊始就向矿业伸出橄榄枝，说她愿意谈判，并下令取消为新税造势的政府宣传活动。

澳大利亚维多利亚州州长布伦比(John Brumby)曾将吉拉德任命为其幕僚长，他说，还希望吉拉德重启陆克文今年早些时候搁置的碳排放交易计划。陆克文搁置该计划令工党的忠实支持者大失所望。布伦比对澳大利亚广播公司(Australian Broadcasting Corp.)说，联邦政府要重启此事、重新对此关注，在这一领域实现切实的变化，行动越快越好。

吉拉德在工党属于左派，这意味着她也会承受修改某些社会政策的压力，比如对寻求避难者的严苛待遇、同性婚姻立法以及澳大利亚北领地(Northern Territory)的土著福利限制等等，不过周四支持她当选的保守派也可能阻碍他们认为过于不得人心的变化。

吉拉德出生于威尔士，父亲在煤矿工作，母亲是精神病科的护士。她四岁时来到澳大利亚，在南澳首府阿德雷德长大，20多岁时搬到墨尔本，加入了一家律师事务所，在那里她的工作是给陷入职场纠纷的员工做代理律师。她与劳工运动和支持工会的工党建立了密切的联系，包括在布伦比的办公室工作。1998年，她被选为墨尔本西郊拉洛选民的代表。

投资银行RBC Capital Markets经济学家Su-Lin Ong说，吉拉德与工会的渊源意味着她支持政府干预和政府支出，而澳大利亚工会理事会(Australian Council of Trade Unions)主席劳伦斯(Jeff Lawrence)却说，她不是任何人的傀儡。

他说，我认为，吉拉德不受任何人的控制，我认识她很长时间了，她是一个非常独立、坚强的人。她会为政府和国家制定议程。

在野时，她担任职场关系部长职务，与现任反对党领袖艾伯特(Tony Abbott)在行业改革问题上争论不休，并引导公众舆论反对改革，进而帮助工党获得了2007年的胜利。就在那前后，民意调查显示很多选民更倾向于让她而不是陆克文担任总理。

在选举之后，她担任副总理，成为陆克文推行大规模政府刺激支出的内部核心圈的一员。政府的刺激支出被赞为帮助澳大利亚摆脱全球金融危机深渊的功臣。不过，她负责的教育领域的刺激支出却因铺张浪费和目标不明而受到了批评，这也是她部长生涯中最重大的失误。

一直以来，由于她未婚、无子女的身份，吉拉德在堪培拉还面临严格的监督。一位保守派政治对手曾说她“故意不生育”，不了解家庭。墨尔本大学政治学讲师鲁斯瓦恩(Lauren Rosewarne)说，随着她入选领导层，这样的言论只会更加甚嚣尘上。

鲁斯瓦恩说，媒体必须又会拿出过时的老一套，热衷于讨论总理发型、未婚、当美发师的男朋友这类事情，请随时关注。