Man I feel sorry for Julia Gillard. How would I explain to the country that, even though it looks like I have caved in to special interest, I actually haven't, but even though I haven't, the special interest wielding the power has decided to back me anyway, based on an agreement that only looks like I have bought him off. Still, guts for trying... I would have gone straight to the "well, Tony would have cost us more on this one" argument.
Better still, a principled politician would have said something like "taking resources from people and channeling them to special interests, to buy myself a letterhead that says Prime Minister, is a game I'm not willing to play.
Even better would be a system that does not allow people to take money from people across the country and channel it to special, very local interests, to buy things that the original owners of the money had no reason or duty to pay for. Such activity is usually called theft. It has the same economic impact as theft. Yet in this case we call it politics!
