Currently in Australia there is mounting speculation that the Prime Minister, the first female Prime Minister of this country, is under imminent threat of a leadership challenge, which most pundits believe she is certain to lose.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard ironically became the Prime Minister herself by challenging the previous Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, in a leadership challenge over a year ago.

Most Australians view that challenge of a first term Prime Minister who was still popular with the Australian electorate as an ugly episode in Australian politics, and in many peoples eyes Julia Gillard still has blood on her hands.

But since assuming the top job, Gillard’s performance has gone from bad to worse, with what is a growing list of broken promises to both the electorate and to independent members of Parliament whose support was vital in her winning the last election, if only just by one member’s vote.

In a very short time, Gillard has left a litany of disastrous policy decisions in her wake, ranging from her inept handling of the refugee ‘boat people’ arrivals which now occur almost on a weekly basis, to her unacceptable and unnecessary dilution of the proposed mining tax, in effect giving away billions of hard-needed dollars to the wealthy mining companies, to her remarkable back-flip on her guarantee just prior to the last election not to introduce a carbon tax, to her most recent betrayal of a fundamental agreement to bring in meaningful poker machine reform.

With her at the helm, her government has become the least popular Australian government of all time, and were an election held today, the Australian Labor party is certain to be routed, and perhaps be reduced down to a third of the numbers that they currently hold.

But to the average man in the street, what sticks most in their mind is the Prime Minister’s passage through the dead of night of a bill that has undone the most significant family law reforms in 30 years, passed only a few years back in 2006. (Australia’s Shared Parenting laws)

Based on little else but speculation and conjecture from feminist lobby groups, who argued that fathers pose an inherent risk to their children if allowed to have meaningful contact post-divorce, Gillard has installed the most regressive, punitive measures in a  bill called the Family Violence bill, which Gillard surreptitiously claimed was intended to protect children from violent fathers, but in fact simply guarantee’s that mother’s will again get sole custody in almost all family law proceedings.

This new law presumes a breathtaking bias against fathers, effectively labelling all men in family law proceedings as violent and potential child murderers.

This change in law has been passed through Parliament with only a one vote majority, despite being unsupported by the majority of Australians, and in complete ignorance of ongoing Australian Crime statistics which consistently show that the overwhelming majority of child abuse occurs in single mother households.

Ironically, there are still no documented reports of child abuse from any Court mandated Shared Parenting arrangements that have occurred during the window period of 2009 to 2011.

Some may argue that given the ineptitude of this government, these new family laws are temporary bumps in the road, which should be eradicated once a more representative government is voted back into office.

But at this stage, and despite her unpopularity, Julia Gillard remains in the top job, and may continue to stay in the top job, because many Australians believe that the opposition leader, Mr Tony Abbott, is in fact worse than Gillard.

Tony Abbott, conveniently referred to as “Mr No” by many in the Labor party given that he opposes every measure that the government proposes, has an even lower popularity rating than Gillard, hard as that may be to believe.

And despite his reputation as a “conviction politician”, he has been remarkably quiet on the front of family law reform, to a point where some legal experts suspect  that he has no intention of reversing the current family law amendments, despite the fact that these new laws now legalised false allegations and parental alienation, and have removed the associated penalties for perjury and alienation abuse, no matter how much damage has been done to the children.

It is in the spirit of the possible leadership change that may occur within the government ranks, that this writer suggests that perhaps change should occur on both sides of politics, for the benefit of re-establishing a government and alternative government for the people in the country, rather than a government serving the interests of lobby groups, to the very disadvantage of the majority of Australians.

It is on this basis that I would suggest that the opposition seriously consider dumping Tony Abbott, as soon as Julia Gillard has been dumped.

These change in opposition leadership may not be as problematic as once thought.

The obvious candidate to reclaim the leadership of the Opposition is Malcolm Turnbull, who demonstrated in his first go as Opposition Leader to be a leader who could work with the government where required, rather than oppose it in every instance.

And let us remember that Malcolm Turnbull lost the leadership one one vote alone, and over a very contentious issue, the Carbon Tax, which has now been effectively settled. Given that removing the Carbon Tax will very likely do more harm than the tax itself, it makes sense to leave it in place, much like Labor did with the GST.

Now, given Malcolm Turnbull’s is a fiscal conservative, but a social liberal, and by liberal I mean all inclusive of men as well, then men can hope to again see equity and fairness embedded back into the Family Law legislation in this country.

One needs to only look back into Malcolm Turnbull’s maiden speech in Parliament to see  the importance he attaches to the rights of children, and to Shared Parenting.

And given that Malcolm himself was raised by his father, a single father, underscores the credibility of this man, who has experienced the significance of having a meaningful relationship with his father, and due to his misfortune, also understands  the equal importance for a child of having a meaningful relationship with their mother.

Let’s hope the planets align and that this country gets a fresh start with two new leaders who may provide laws for all Australian’s, especially to the victims of family breakdown.