Drowning Globe

Brisbane, Australia

The news wires were full of reports over the last two weeks of horrendous flooding across Sri Lanka, Brazil and Australia. All three nations have suffered greatly at the hands of our increasingly tumultuous weather conditions.

The Australian treasurer has stated the the floods in his country will be the biggest National Disaster in the State's history, in economic terms. The waters inundated the country's third largest city Brisbane and 45 other townships across four states have been effected. So far the death toll has reached 22, however, this has expected to rise in heavily battered Queensland. The floods are expected to cut 1% off of the rate of economic growth equal to $6bn according to the central bank. The Greens, the smaller partner in Julia Gillard's minority Government have agreed somewht controversially that it should be the oil companies who should pay for the costs, as they have been blamed for causing the global warming which the Australian Government states has directly caused the floods.

Australia and the Commonwealth of Nations

Current Australian PM Julia Gillard has stated that it is her belief that the time for Australia to leave the Commonwealth of Nations. While Ms Gillard has always had these beliefs it is the first time she has chosen to express them on the campaign trail. With a knife edge general election in the nation just days away it raises the contentious issue of Australian republicanism for the first time.

Gillards centre-left Labor Party has advocated a republic for a long time however the opposition National/Liberal Coalition chief Tony Abott is a staunch pro-monarchist who doesn't believe there will be any significant change in the country's political make-up in his life-time. Indeed the Australian people have refused the chance to establish a monarchy in 1999 in a national referendum. The issue remains a divisive one.

Women in Politics

One of the major current international stories is the resignation of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The resignation seemed to come as a shock to all. Indeed, anyone in a failing European economy is likely to be aware of the mass emigration to the supposed greener pastures of Australia. And while the country has of course not been immune from the recession the economy is unlikely to continue to suffer for as long as its European counterparts.

But the fact remains, after a number of notable U-turns particularly on climate change, Welsh born Julia Gillard has emerged as the Labor Party's new leader after the party voted to oust their Prime Minister of 3 years. It appears to have been a good decision. Gillard is clear favourite in the polls to keep her position at the time of the country's next general election. It would make her one of the few female leaders of Goverment in our world. So I thought for today's post Id take a look at the role of women in politics worldwide and why so few of them rise to the highest echelon in their chosen careers.