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Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard makes her solemn end of days proclamation.

via

Ms Gillard has recorded a short video for Triple J's breakfast show, as part of their "end of the world" celebrations. The world is supposed to end on December 21, according to interpretations of the Mayan calendar.

"My dear remaining fellow Australians," Ms Gillard begins in the clip. "The end of the world is coming. It wasn't Y2K, it wasn't even the carbon price."

The Prime Minister took time out from her preparations for Friday's COAG standoff to film the clip in Melbourne on Tuesday.

The jokes were a joint effort between the radio station and Ms Gillard, thus explaining the mix of pop culture references and political spin.

"Whether the final blow comes from flesh eating zombies, demonic hell beasts or from the total triumph of K-pop, if you know one thing about me it is this: I will always fight for you to the very end," Ms Gillard says in solemn tones.

Finishing the video, the Prime Minister observes: "At least this means I won't have to do Q&A again."

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Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Tuesday was forced to sit just feet away from Prime Minister Julia Gillard and endure a fearless scolding over his record of "misogynistic and sexist" attacks on her.

Following's Abbott's push to have House Speaker Peter Slipper removed for crude text messages about female genitalia, Gillard lashed out the opposition leader during question time, saying she would "not be lectured on sexism and misogyny by this man. ... Not now, not ever."

"If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror," the prime minister charged.

"I was offended too by the sexism, by the misogyny, of the leader of the opposition cat-calling across this table, at me as I sit here as prime minister, 'If the prime minister wants to, politically speaking, make an honest woman of herself.' Something that would never have been said to any man sitting in this chair," she explained.

"I was offended when the leader of the opposition went outside in the front of Parliament and stood in front of a sign that said 'ditch the witch'," Gillard continued. "I was offended when the leader of the opposition stood next to a sign that described me as a man's 'bitch'."

(h/t: The Political Notebook)

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The world's most wealthy woman is warning that firms are in danger of having to abandon iron-ore mining in Australia if wages are not cut, pointing out that African miners are "willing to work for less than $2 per day."

In a video recently posted on the Sydney Mining Club website, 58-year-old Gina Rinehart -- who has amassed a $18 billion fortune through iron-ore prospecting -- said that Australia could be more competitive by emulating Africa.

"We must be realistic, not just promote class warfare," the billionaire explained. "Indeed, if we competed at the Olympic games as sluggishly as we compete economically, there would be an outcry."

"The evidence is unarguable that Australia is indeed becoming too expensive and too uncompetitive to do export- orientated business," she insisted, adding that "Africans want to work. Its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day."

Under current exchange rates, $2 a day in Australia is worth about $2.04 in U.S. dollars.

"It's not the Australian way to toss people $2, to toss them a $2 gold coin and then ask them to work for a day," Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters on Wednesday. "We support proper Australian wages and decent working conditions for Australian people."

Rinehart came under fire last week after she wrote a column urging those "jealous" of the wealthy to "spend less time drinking or smoking and socializing, and more time working."

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Contrary to appearances, this is not a comedy skit but is real. The video was posted on YouTube from the Liberal Party, which in Australia is the conservatives because...everything up is down in Australia, I guess. Bill Shorten is a Minister in the Labor government.

What follows is a type of postmodernist response where the politician just abandons any of the pretenses and conventions we're used to hearing from them. No wonder the tv presenter was confused. Shorten's 'narky' response (irritated) has since gone viral worldwide.

via The Guardian

Pity our poor PM. David Cameron gets backbencher Nadine Dorries declaring that he and chancellor George Osborne are nothing but a couple of "posh boys who don't know the price of milk". Australia's Julia Gillard gets a minister happy to tell a TV interviewer that whatever his prime minister said, he agrees – even if he doesn't know what it was.

Bill Shorten, the Australian workplace relations minister, was asked by Sky News Australia whether he felt the parliamentary speaker, Peter Slipper, should be allowed to go back to his job after being accused of sexual harassment and misuse of funds.

Aware Gillard was abroad, but unaware of what she'd said on the matter, Shorten replied: "I haven't seen what she's said, but let me say I support what it is she said." Pressed by an astonished presenter to confirm he backed his boss even though he didn't know what she'd said, he nodded: "I support what she said ... My view is what the prime minister's view is." A new record in on-message obedience?