Mexican soldiers patrol nearby the International Press Centre in Los Cabos on the eve of the G20 summit. Source: AFP

EXCLUSIVE: Poll finds Gillard a three-way failure

The Prime Minister is in Los Cabos, Mexico, for a meeting of the G20, where she will urge her world counterparts to take urgent action on the European economic crisis.

But already a letter written by the PM and Treasurer Wayne Swan warning G20 members to act against the risk of a new global economic crisis had become a “talking point”.

In the letter, which some have taken as Australia “lecturing” the world on economic management, the PM urged Europe to engage in the reforms that had served Australia well.

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Poll finds Gillard a three-way failure

LABOR’S experiment to elect Julia Gillard as PM has been a “spectacular failure” with two thirds of voters believing the government is now worse.

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When asked why she felt the need to write to world leaders ahead of the summit, the PM said she wanted Australia’s voice heard.

“We believed it was important to take all steps to make Australia’s views known,” the PM said.

“My understanding from the senior officials leader discussions, the letters have become a talking point.”

The opposition’s treasury spokesman Joe Hockey wasn’t impressed.

“It’s the height of arrogance for Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan to be lecturing the world on fiscal rectitude and Government competence,” Mr Hockey told The Daily Telegraph Online.

“Australia is in the position it is in thanks to the financial stability and reserves Labor inherited from the Howard Government, as well as the mining boom the government wants to cripple.

“Rather than telling the G 20 nations how they should run their economies, Ms Gillard should be explaining to Australians why they have to suffer under the world’s biggest carbon tax and the damage it is about to impose.”

The PM said she would be seeking commitments from other countries on action plans for jobs and growth around the world.

But specifically she would be speaking European leaders to urge action on greater banking and fiscal integration across the Euorozone, banking bail-outs to prevent Europe dragging the rest of the world into recession.

“What happens in Europe does matter to the economies of the world,” the PM said.

“Our major trading partners in our region export to Europe, so what matters in Europe matters to them and, therefore matters to Australians. Here at the G20 I will be urging my European counterparts to take urgent action on the issues in Europe.”

The PM wouldn’t comment on polls published in today’s News Limited newspapers that showed most voters believed her government was worse than that led by the man she deposed, Kevin Rudd.

Earlier her arrival into Los Cabos was delayed after a police bus careered off a highway leading to the summit, plunging into a ravine.

It is believed up to 30 Mexican police, assigned to secure the luxurious resort town for the meeting of world leaders, were aboard the bus when it crashed.

Authorities could not confirm if or how many had died or were injured.

The PM’s motorcade was delayed as traffic chaos blocked the heavily secured routes into the centre.