SYDNEY // After a political ambush, Australia has a female prime minister for the first time.
Welsh-born Julia Gillard has replaced the fallen leader Kevin Rudd, who has been punished by his colleagues for a sharp fall in public support with a general election just a few months away.
Ms Gillard, 48, was Rudd's deputy in the left-of-centre government until he was ousted by party heavyweights who saw him as an electoral liability because of indecision over climate change and the mishandling of a controversial mining tax.
The new prime minister, an uncompromising lawyer and feminist trailblazer, has fought her way through the male-dominated ranks of the governing Labor Party and defended her decision to take on the top job because she felt "a good government was losing its way".
"I did also form the view that the best way of making sure that this government was back on track, providing to the Australian people the leadership they deserved ... was to take the course that I took last night and this morning," Ms Gillard said.
"I love this country and I was not going to sit idly by and watch an incoming opposition cut education, cut health and smash rights at work. My values and my beliefs have driven me to step forward to take this position as prime minister," she added during a televised address.
Ms Gillard inherits an administration that has been spooked by a resurgence in the conservative opposition, led by Tony Abbott, a committed Catholic and monarchist, who has flagged a return to more hard-line policies on immigration, including sending asylum seekers to camps in neighbouring countries, should his right-wing coalition win power.
Ms Gillard's task is to reassure a jittery party that a fall in public confidence can be quickly reversed.
Support for her predecessor began to wane when Mr Rudd scrapped the centrepiece of his environmental policy, an emissions trading system, earlier this year. The decision led to accusations of political weakness and many voters started to wonder exactly what Mr Rudd stood for, while plans for a contentious resources levy heaped further pressure on his government.
Despite mounting problems, Mr Rudd's demise was swift and unexpected.
Rodney Smith, a political scientist at the University of Sydney, said: "I don't think there has been anything like this in Australian politics for many decades.
"This has been a huge gamble to install a new leader so close to an election. I'm not sure that there was any need for such desperation. The polls weren't so terrible. Labor was in with a very good chance of winning the next election, so it is a slightly puzzling move," Mr Smith said.
With time so short before the nation goes to the polls, the new Gillard administration is not expected to introduce widespread policy shifts, although some analysts believe she might push for an early exit for Australia's 1,550 troops fighting in Afghanistan.
Prof John Wanna from the Australian National University, said: "She may want to signal that Australia withdraws from Afghanistan because Labor's been beset by a drift of votes to the left. Prof Wanna said Ms Gillard would be "less obsessed" with foreign policy than Mr Rudd.
The defence minister, John Faulkner, said earlier this week that Canberra could start bringing the troops home within "a two to four-year timeframe" if their mission to train local soldiers continued as planned, while public support in Australia for a distant and increasingly bloody conflict in Afghanistan appears to be waning. Last weekend three Australian commandos were killed in a helicopter crash, bringing the nation's number of fatalities in the Afghan campaign to 16 - the most casualties suffered by the country since the Vietnam war.
Anti-war campaigners have delivered a blunt message to the new prime minister. Ewen Saunders, a Socialist Alliance candidate for the federal seat of Brisbane in Queensland, said: "This is an unwinnable war and it is an absolute quagmire that the US and Australia can have no hope of getting out of other than withdrawing troops.
"There are shades of Vietnam here. There is still a whole generation or two in this country who remember Vietnam and how long it took for our leaders to figure out what a futile and unjust war it was. There is talk on the streets that Afghanistan could be the next Vietnam."
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
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LIVING IN...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Trolls World Tour
Directed by: Walt Dohrn, David Smith
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake
Rating: 4 stars
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
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The specs: 2019 Audi A7 Sportback
Price, base: Dh315,000
Engine: 3.0-litre V6
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 335hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 1,370rpm
Fuel economy 5.9L / 100km
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Angela Bassett, Tina Fey
Directed by: Pete Doctor
Rating: 4 stars
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
The specs: 2017 Lotus Evora Sport 410
Price, base / as tested Dh395,000 / Dh420,000
Engine 3.5L V6
Transmission Six-speed manual
Power 410hp @ 7,000rpm
Torque 420Nm @ 3,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.7L / 100km
More coverage from the Future Forum
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
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What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
