Who will be Australia's first elected female Prime Minister?

PM Julia Gillard Photo: Guardian

What a provocative headline!

But really, when you think about it, Julia Gillard cannot really lay claim to being Australia's first elected Prime Minister. On one hand, she gained an increased majority of votes in her electorate of Lalor in Victoria, and she was chosen by caucus to be the leader of the party. Therefore in that way, she is the 'elected' member who is Prime Minister. But on the other hand, a majority of Australians did not give their first vote to Gillard's party, so she was not really chosen by the majority of Australians.

Jenny Shipley Photo: largeherds.co.nz

As we saw yesterday, she was actually chosen by three independent members of Parliament, after Labor gained the support of the sole Green Party member Adam Bandt, member for Melbourne. The people of the seats of Denison (Tas), Lyne (NSW), and New England (NSW) are responsible for voting in the independent members, who have effectively held the country in political limbo over the last 17 days. The three men: Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor threw their support behind Labor to give them enough seats to govern. Another independent, Bob Katter, sided with the Liberal / National Coalition, giving them a total of 74 seats.

It is a genuine Government, albeit a minority one, and many are arguing that it could be in the best interests of Australia. Certainly the people of the bush are feeling more acknowledged as Rob Oakeshott bargained on their behalf for more investment from the Gillard Government.

Helen Clark Photo: Wikimedia Commons

But in the eyes of history, perhaps it will be another woman who will go down in the record books as the first elected female Prime Minister. New Zealand knows all about that sort of situation, having Jenny Shipley as Prime Minister after knifing Jim Bolger in December 1997, before losing the next election in 1999 to the Helen Clark Labour Government.

As for Rob Oakeshott, I'd have to agree with Mark Davis of The Age, who said he held Australia hostage for 20 minutes before announcing who he was going to side with. Honestly, it was like watching an over-zealous school teacher adjudicating a debate: "It was a points decision", "Both sides did very well," "But in the end it came down to stability..."  - that was the essence of the speech, but with those quotes repeated several times and a whole lot more thrown in between. Not content with 15 minutes of fame, Rob went for 15 days of fame and then was not satisfied until he had all the cameras flashing and tapes rolling, with all politicians not even warned of his decision, so that he could have both Tony and Julia on tenterhooks. Now he has been offered a cabinet position with the Gillard government. Let's hope he lives up to his own Parliamentary reform and keeps his questions and answers to the time limit!