Australia’s Gillard Dealt Blow as Lawmaker Joins Opposition

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Australia’s Gillard Dealt Blow as Lawmaker Joins Opposition

May 6th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, suffering from approval rating slumps, saw her grip on
parliament slip after a lawmaker joined the opposition just days
before her government delivers the federal budget on May 8.

Tony Crook, a National party member of parliament for
Western Australia who voted as an independent, will sit with
Tony Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition when parliament
reconvenes on May 8, Nationals Leader Warren Truss said in a
statement on his website.

Crook has voted with Labor more than 30 times since the
last federal election in 2010, according to the Australian
newspaper today. He has criticized Gillard’s Labor government
over its carbon and mining tax policies, the newspaper said.

His participation will boost the coalition’s seats to 72 in
the House of Representatives. Labor, which has 71 seats, remains
in control of the house through its deals with independents and
the Greens party. The switch came as support for Labor fell to a
near-record low in a Newspoll published in the Australian
newspaper on May 1 amid lawmaker scandals.

After fending off a leadership challenge by predecessor
Kevin Rudd in February, Gillard is concentrating on delivering
on her pledge to end four years of deficits in the next fiscal
year to win back support. She reiterated her promise today to
return the budget to surplus, telling reporters in Canberra that
her budget will create “a buffer” if the global economy
worsens in the future.

Best Interests

“Tony has made a decision that I am certain is in the best
interests of his electorate of O’Connor and the nation,” Truss
said in the statement published yesterday, referring to Crook,
who had been sitting on the crossbenches since the 2010
election.

Gillard’s control of the 150-seat lower house became more
tenuous when she told Labor lawmaker Craig Thomson a week ago to
quit her party. Thomson has denied claims he used a labor union
credit card to pay for prostitutes while working for the Health
Services Union before becoming a lawmaker in 2007. Thomson says
he will continue to vote with the government.

Parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper stepped aside in April
to deal with fraud and sexual harassment claims that he denies.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Soraya Permatasari in Melbourne at
[email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Paul Tighe at
[email protected]