Key to address Australian parliament as Gillard govt implodes

Prime Minister John Key will speak at Australia's House of Representatives in Canberra today, where he will become the first New Zealand Prime Minister to address Australia’s members of parliament.

His visit, which concludes with a fund-raising dinner for the Christchurch earthquake in Sydney tomorrow night, was arranged after his counterpart, Julia Gillard, became the first foreign leader to address the New Zealand parliament in February.

Mr Key opened his itinerary with a courtesy call to Australian Governor-General Ms Quentin Bryce before having the first of two scheduled meetings with Ms Gillard where they were expected to discuss a range of topics including their respective armed forces commitments to Afghanistan, the on-going political impasse with Fiji and strengthening trade ties.

Gillard government in turmoil
His arrival coincides with an interesting time in Ms Gillard’s reign as she approaches the first anniversary of predecessor Kevin Rudd’s ousting on June 24 last year.

A headline reading “Sack Rudd, PM told” on the front page of The Sun-Herald newspaper greeted Mr Key on arrival as Labor MPs loyal to Ms Gillard urge her to remove Mr Rudd from the Cabinet.

Labor MPs deny there is any direct plot to replace Ms Gillard and on Thursday Mr Rudd was forced to deny he was planning a leadership comeback as voter satisfaction with her performance erodes.

Support at historic low
According to a series of opinion polls published within the past week, Ms Gillard’s popularity has plummeted to such an extent that Mr Rudd, Australia’s Foreign Minister, now leads her as the preferred leader of the Labor party.

A Nielsen poll published in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday revealed support for Labor had collapsed to a historic low – a primary vote of 27 percent.

Mr Rudd was preferred as Labor leader by 60 percent of voters to Ms Gillard’s 31 percent.

Personal support for Australia’s first female prime minister is now similar to that of former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating before he lost the 1996 election and Liberal Prime Minister John Howard when he announced the introduction of GST two hours later.

Carbon tax backlash
The poll results are influenced by Ms Gillard’s attempt to promote her controversial carbon tax – which is introduced on July 1, 2012 -- and a plan to send asylum seekers to Malaysia.

She has also suffered a backlash from the agricultural community when the export of live cattle to Indonesia was banned earlier this month after evidence of animal cruelty once the shipments reached their destination was exposed.

A Newspoll survey conducted last weekend found support for Ms Gillard had dropped 20 percent since she announced the carbon tax in February. Asked who they would prefer as prime minister, 41 percent of respondents said Ms Gillard while 38 percent opted for the opposition leader Tony Abbott – the closest the Liberal leader has ever been to Ms Gillard.

Eighth to address
Mr Key also has talks with Mr Abbott early tomorrow morning before more discussions with Ms Gillard and members of her Cabinet before he makes his historic speech.

He will be the eighth foreign leader to address the Australia Parliament following American presidents George Bush (1992), Bill Clinton (1997), George W Bush (2003), China’s President Ju Hintao (2003), Great Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair (2006), the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper (2007) and most recently Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who made his speech last year.