Yet has Gillard's performance measured by achievement (and longevity) paled against that of George Reid, the Free Trade prime minister whose 1904-05 government term was mostly spent in parliamentary recess; or Labor's James Scullin, a one-termer whose government disintegrated as it vainly struggled to craft a solution to the Depression crisis of the early 1930s; or William McMahon, the last and least distinguished of three Liberal heirs of Robert Menzies who spent a lacklustre 21 months in office before he was vanquished by Labor's Gough Whitlam at the December 1972 election? We could go on.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/the-loved-and-loathed-20130601-2niau.html#ixzz2V2CK1IRm