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Female Aussie PM good news for men's health?

Change at the top in Australia may be good for the country’s infant men’s health policy.

Julie Gillard replaced Kevin Rudd as leader of the Labor Party and thus as prime minister earlier this week. The party hopes that the the new incumbent will improve the party’s popularity ahead of October’s expected general election.

Rudd recently launched Australia men’s health policy and the change is not expected to lead to any dilution in this – perhaps the opposite.

It was announced a few weeks ago that a National Male Health Reference Group would be established soon with external men’s health experts. Australian men's health consultant Greg Millan said: ‘It is my hope that this group will include Prof John Macdonald who is president of the Australasian Men’s Health Forum.

‘‘The change is a shock but Julia Gillard is a great choice. We may in fact have a PM that is more in touch with men’s health issues than Kevin Rudd was.’

New 'first bloke'

The new ‘first bloke’, Julia Gillard’s partner Tim Mathieson has been described as ‘a beer-swilling hairdresser’.

‘He is a hairstylist by profession,’ reported Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, ‘loves a beer with the same mates he has had since he was 15 and specialises in baking Julia Gillard's favourite Friday night dinner, lamb roasts.’

Page created on June 25th, 2010

Page updated on July 2nd, 2010

Comments

Julia Gillard

Don't understand why MHF thinks Julia Gillard will be good for men's health in Australia. This woman is a sexist feminist who has given great support to the campaigns in Oz for "affirmative action" (the euphemism for discrimination) for women-only shortlists; in other words pushing men out in order to push women in, for no other reason than the assumption that men are the wrong sex and women are the right sex. Her whole political career has shown a decided "women first" ideological bias.

Hardly suggests to me that she will be actively promoting men's health; if she does, it will no doubt only be as a poor second to that of her favourite sex.

Paul Parmenter