The Labor leadership crisis awards

Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd

During the 2010 election, the leader’s debate was rescheduled to avoid a clash with reality TV’s night of nights, the MasterChef final. It was a win for those with balanced political and pop-cultural tastes.

But today, no such courtesy was given by the Labor party who held their leadership ballot at the same time as the Academy Awards, sending remote controls around the nation into overdrive flicking between the two and flooding social media feeds with #Respill and #Oscars posts.

Though the glamour-factor was in great contrast, the two events did have a few things in common. On the red carpet in LA and in the halls of Parliament House in Canberra, journalists and photographers scrambled to grab quotes from the main players, asking who they were tipping. And in each event, the public was denied a voice; the deciding panels were made up mostly of middle-aged men in suits.

That doesn’t mean we can’t have a say. But rather than sending ourselves cross-eyed trying to keep up with both events, we thought it best to roll them into one.

Here are our official nominations for The Australian Women’s Weekly Spill Awards:

Best actor in a leading role:

Julia Gillard, for slipping between ‘real’ and ‘less-real’ Julia so convincingly, the public still doesn’t know which is which.
Kevin Rudd, for managing to answer days of questions about how much his party hates him without losing his temper.
Anna Bligh, for appearing calm while her slim hope of holding onto government in Queensland grew slimmer, thanks to the antics of her federal colleagues.Costume design:Carla Zampatti, the woman behind many of those white jackets.
Tim Matheison, prime ministerial hair stylist.
Kevin Rudd, for a snazzy set of ties.

Costume design: