In 2007, a week or so after Kevin Rudd became PM, I took a look at a bunch of online reference works, some free, some corporate, to see how many had updated their articles on Australia.
The score was 2/5 getting it right, with Wikipedia and Britannica having been updated, and Citizendium, Encyclopedia.com and CIA World Fact Book having not been.
It’s been a week since Julia Gillard became PM. How do they stack up this time?
- CIA World Factbook — head of government: Prime Minister Kevin RUDD (since 3 December 2007); Deputy Prime Minister Julia GILLARD (since 3 December 2007)
- Citizendium — Australiaโs head of government is Prime Minister Julia Gillard of the Australian Labor Party (ALP).
- Wikipedia — Following a partyroom leadership challenge, Julia Gillard became the first female Prime Minister in June 2010.
- Britannica — You have to scroll down a long way to find the Prime Ministers list, but: Julia Gillard 2010-
- Encyclopedia.com — The default result is from the Columbia Encyclopedia, 2008, and it’s not clear if it’s been edited since then. Parliamentary elections in Nov., 2007, brought the Labor party into office; party leader Kevin Rudd , a former diplomat, became prime minister.
So a better result this time around, with 3/5 correct, and Britannica Citizendium coming into the fold of having updated their information relatively quickly.
And as always, rather than relying solely on any of these, one should always seek a secondary source for important information.
7 replies on “Reference works part 2”
Wikipedia had Julia GIllard as PM at the bottom of the table within about 20 minutes of the news officially breaking online – I checked how quickly this article would be updated …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Australia
I think Rudd’s picture stayed a little longer but not by much!!
When ever I read a “breaking news” story on a news website, such as a major airline crash, Wiki has the event written up already. Bloody quick!
Interesting! I went to Wiki to read up about Julia, not knowing anything about her. It’s great that you’ve got your first female PM. Bravo to her, and hope she wins the next election. And kicks Stephen Conroy off the Cabinet while she’s at it :P
Citation Needed! http://xkcd.com/285/
“Wikipedia and Britannica having been updated”, “Britannica coming into the fold of having updated their information relatively quickly.” – this doesn’t add up. At the top, you’ve said Citizendium didn’t update the first time, further down you imply they did.
end of proofreading.
Whoops, thanks Jay; you’re right, it’s Citizendium that improved.
Maybe those sources have been slow to update their info on Jooooooowya because of the way those backstabbing faction bosses and union leaders schemed to get her into office, just because Little Kev got on the nose, and maybe don’t consider her legit? Sure, ours is a Westminster system, and whoever leads the governing party is PM, but doesn’t ANYONE have a problem with how it all transpired? Think about it- the “Left”and “Right” factions, along with the unions, were the biggest supporters of “Kevin 07”, up until early May!! Prior to that, they supported every disastrous scheme:
Emissions Trading Scheme (would’ve destroyed our economy with NO CHANGE in climate)
Insulation Scheme (Burning houses and electrified roofs are economic stimulus?)
Building the Education Revolution Scheme (Approximately $5billion rorted in in either useless or overpriced buildings, under the dutiful supervision of MS Joowya)
National Broadband Network ($42 billion white elephant that’ll be redundant when completed, and take years to break even)
Internet Filter (Forget Steven Conroy, that’s a LABOR policy all the way- have any of them spoken out against it?)
$22 billion in Cash handouts (Yeah, ’cause I need $900, you patronising fool, cut our taxes instead!!)
And so on!, And before anyone says that Kevin 747 saved us from the GFC (no, not KFC, Brumby wants to save us from that!), I could create jobs by smashing everyone’s windows, many glaziers would be happy! But what have we actually gained? The main reason we’ve fared better than almost every other country was because we had something those countries didn’t have- no national debt! Due to the great financial management of Peter Costello, and the great leadership of Joannes Magnus (John the Great), our country was in better shape to weather the storm! As a result of Labor policies, we’ve racked up over $81 billion in debt, with very little of use to boot! Even Chairman Gough couldn’t have dreamed of pissing away all that money on his best day!!
So, everyone in Labor was behind KRudd on all those things, why the Night of the Long Knives now?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives
In early May, Kevin 24/7 came out with his mininng tax, which within days of its announcement wiped billions of dollars of value off mining stocks, stocks which superannuation funds invested in, thus causing our stock market to fall, and along with that our dollar! In the following weeks, mining companies announed the postponement of projects, putting our mining sector (probably our strongest sector) at a disadvantage compared to other mining countries. This was becoming a huge problem for him, one which saw him potentially losing many seats in WA, SA, and QLD.
So, not out of any duty to save the country, but rather to save their own political behinds and get re-elected, they schemed and plotted behind closed doors in the dead of night to ensure the future UN Secretary-General would have plenty of time to prepare himself for that job! The underhandedness, and the meddling by the unions, made this a very messy and ugly affair! To put this in perspective, how would you have felt if we swap Rudd with Howard, Gillard with Costello, and the unions with mining companies, how would you have felt about it? You would have said the mining companies chose our PM, and rightfully so! How come no mention of that now? Is it because this was the first PM to possess different genitalia? That sounds crass, I admit, but it really comes down to that! I get the historic significance of it, but that doesn’t mean a thing if they’re bad in that role, just like the first black President, who has shown with his handling of the oil spill that he is a total incompetent fool!
The point is, we’ve seen one of the most hideous political machinations in our country’s history, and we’ve overlooked it because of the feel-good “first female PM” moment, which has been mentioned ad nauseum! Our country is at a turning point, and if you’ve got to base your electoral decisions on stupid things such as red hair, single unmarried childless, shacked-up atheist feminist, female, when indeed she has presided over the biggest waste of taxpayer money, you’ve got no hope at all! Oh, by the way, in all those fluff pieces, how come little mention has ever been made of her previous membership in the Socialist Forum, and her present membership of the Fabian Society:
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2010/06/red-julia-new-aussie-pms-socialist.html
Wonderful bunch!!
All they’ve done is change the salesman, they’re still selling the same defective product!!