Gillard dinner deadline passes
A deadline set by the national press gallery for a dinner with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, auctioned as part of its annual charity ball, has passed.
Australian Marriage Equality (AME) and progressive lobby group GetUp! are continuing to liaise with Gillard’s office to find an acceptable date after putting up a winning bid of $31,000.
The press gallery set a deadline of between 11 and 16 days for this year’s auction after Opposition leader Tony Abbott waited 323 days to deliver on his offer of a surfing lesson at last year’s auction after it was won by an Afghan refugee.
However, AME and GetUp! remain hopeful that Gillard will fulfil her end of the deal.
“GetUp! and AME are working with the prime minister’s office to find a time that suits everyone well,” AME national convenor Alex Greenwich told the Star Observer.
“The initial deadline has lapsed but we want to make sure there will be a dinner with the prime minister before the [ALP] national conference. I am very confident the dinner will take place and hope it will happen sooner rather than later.”
In the meantime, AME has organised an event where marriage equality supporters can say what they think the same-sex couples who dine with Gillard should say to her.
At the ‘What would you tell Julia?’ forum on July 23, people will get a chance to meet Sandy and Louise, one of the couples who will dine with Gillard, as well as key campaigners in the push for marriage equality including Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays national spokeswoman Shelley Argent and Tasmanian activist Rodney Croome.
Greenwich said the forum was designed to give marriage equality supporters the opportunity to pass on messages to Gillard.
“Sandy and Louise, who are going to the dinner thanks to GetUp!, will be there to tell everybody what they plan to say to the prime minister and to ask people what they would like her to be told.
“This is a unique opportunity for people to essentially be one degree of separation from [Gillard] and it’s a great opportunity for our community to brainstorm on what messages we want to deliver at that dinner.”
INFO: ‘What would you tell Julia’ forum, 3-5pm, Saturday July 23, upstairs, Bank Hotel, 324 King St, Newtown
AME and Get Up stated: “we are working with the prime minister’s office to find a time that suits everyone”
Any sensible person can see the carbon tax is dominating Gillard’s time. It’s a beat up worthy of the Daily Telegraph,accompanied by hysterical Joan Crawford-style bloggers.
It is OK folks – just take a deep breath and do as I do….
Even though I don’t really mind the carbon tax, I still stir up all my straight friends and neighbors about her lying about having a carbon tax, how it will raise their bills TREMENDOUSLY, how unfair it is for Australia to pay for carbon when China doesn’t….Once this gets rid of Julia, I can go back to being the nice Greeny I have recently become, hopefully a married one, because Julia’s replacement has to be more supportive of Gay Marriage than she is. ;-)
god dammit! she’s such a scummy pile of s**t!!!
Dear Julia,
I forgive you for breaking the election promise and implementing a new tax.
I ask that you do it again and implement same sex marriage.
I mean, you’ve already proven you are a hypocrite…now let’s go jump in the deep end and get it done ;-)
I would tell her to come out of the closet already.
Disgusting…. majority of Australia is in favor of same sex marriage. Instead of keeping your own interests at heart, how about you take Australia’s interests at heart? Oh that’s right she was too busy kissing hiney in the USA while her own country was going through the floods and had to get Anna to handle it, because clearly she couldn’t. GOOD RIDDENS JULIA!! You will be voted out as quickly as you were voted in.
Yes, it’s unfortunate that the deadline has passed, but let’s just acknowledge that she’s currently a bit under the pump with the carbon tax campaign.
I just hope she fits us in before the national conference.
write to your local elected and let them know you are not happy.
It is easy to do, takes about as much time as posting here, and perhaps they will pressure her to shut the f%^$ up and let gay marriage pass.
We need her to shut up and for Alabanese, Wong, etc. to not shut up any more and speak out. She will get the message, or they can simply dump her – they real the polls, too.
If Julia Gillard did not intend to honour the deadline for the charity auction, she should never have participated in it.
Julia Gillard has met with tiny cult, the Australian Christian Lobby, for free, many times.
i dont understan why she has such a closed mind is NYC has past the equality bill why cant gillard??? she shuld be ashamed of herself as a leader shes not very good how can someone so single minded like her run a country where LGTB live how can she get the respect and trust of one community and not lead us well????
why did julia gillard visited the latrobe valley unanounced and the she refused to allow the TV cameras in?, we all know why ,
[BOY SOME COURAGE THIS PRIME MINISTER HAS]
she’ll do a no-show… everyone knows that!