WOMEN WHO DARED ... to be elected Presidents & Prime Ministers
Prime Minister Julia Gillard
"WOMAN OF AUSTRALIA" (2010 -
Introduction
At the age of Julia Gillard was sworn in as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia on 24 June 2010 and re-sworn in as Prime Minister on 14 September 2010 following the 2010 Federal Election.
She is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since 24 June 2010.
Gillard's partner since 2006[135] is Tim Mathieson.[136] She has had previous relationships with union officials Michael O'Connor and Bruce Wilson and fellow Federal Labor MP Craig Emerson.[137] She has never married and has no children.[138][139]
She owns a home in the south-western Melbourne suburb of Altona[140] which she occupied prior to The Lodge and is a public supporter of the Western Bulldogs AFL club.[141] As for the NRL, she is a supporter of the Melbourne Storm.[142]
Gillard was brought up in the Baptist tradition, but is not religious. In a 2010 interview when asked if she believed in God, Gillard stated: "No I don't ... I'm not a religious person ... [I'm] a great respecter of religious beliefs but they're not my beliefs."[143][144]
As well as being the first woman and the first who has never been married, Gillard is the first Prime Minister since Billy Hughes (1915–1923) to have been born overseas.[39]
In the aftermath of the leadership challenge, Bill Shorten, former trade union leader, and key Parliamentary member of the ALP Right Faction, nominated the government's handling of the insulation program; the sudden announcement of change of policy on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme; and the way in which they had "introduced the debate" about the Resource Super Profits Tax as the key considerations which had led to a shift in support from Kevin Rudd to Julia Gillard as leader of the party.[42]
Childhood
1961
The child Julia Eileen Gillard was born on 29 September 1961 in Barry, Wales in 1961.
Her parents were
She is the daughter of a
nurse and aged care worker. Her father worked as a
psychiatric nurse, while her mother worked at the local Salvation Army nursing home.[7] She and her sister attended Mitcham
Demonstration School, and Julia went on to attend Unley High School.[10]
1962
Early
life
Gillard was brought up in the Baptist tradition, but is not religious
After she suffered from bronchopneumonia
as a child, her parents were advised it would aid her recovery if they were to
live in a warmer climate.[7]
1963
1964
1965
1966
Her parents, John and Moira, live in
Pasadena, South Australia.[9]
She has a sister, Alison, who is three years older.[7]
Girlhood
1966 (5 years old)
Her family migrated to Australia in 1966 and she
grew up in Adelaide.
Unley High School in South Australia.
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1974 (11 years old)
Ms Gillard became an Australian citizen in 1974 along with
the rest of her family, and renounced her British citizenship before entering
Parliament.
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
She graduated from the University of Melbourne with Bachelor of
Arts
1983
Politics
Introduced to politics in her second
year at the University of Adelaide by the daughter of a State Labor Minister,
Gillard joined the Labor Club and became involved in a campaign to fight
federal education budget cuts.[7][8]
After moving to Melbourne, in 1983
Gillard became the second woman to lead the Australian
Union of Students. She was also formerly the
secretary of the left-wing organisation, Socialist Forum.[14]
1984
1985
1986
1983 (22 years old)
Later that year, she was elected President of the AUS.
Julia Gillard started her Arts and Law degrees at the University of Adelaide.
In 1983 she was elected national Education Vice-President of the Australian Union of Students (AUS) and moved to Melbourne to complete her degree at Melbourne University. Later that year, she was elected President of the AUS.
1990
After graduating Ms Gillard began work as a solicitor in Melbourne with the law firm Slater and Gordon and became a Partner in 1990.
Ms Gillard's work at the firm focused on employment law where she worked on securing fairer treatment for workers and fought for clothing trades outworkers who had been underpaid.
1996-1998
1998
1998 - 2001
From 1998 to 2001 Ms Gillard served on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations.
2001
2001
Following the 2001 federal election,
Gillard was elected to the shadow cabinet with the portfolios of Population and Immigration.
Shadow Minister for Population and Immigration: 2001–2003
After Labor's defeat at
the 2001 election, Gillard was elected to the shadow
cabinet, with the portfolio of
population and immigration. In February 2003, she was given the additional portfolios
of reconciliation and Indigenous affairs.[18]
In the wake of the Tampa and Children
Overboard affairs, which were
partly credited with Labor's 2001 election loss, Gillard developed a new
immigration policy for the Labor Party.[8]
2003
The Reconciliation and Indigenous Affairs and the Health portfolios were added in 2003.
Shadow Minister for Health: 2003–06
Gillard in 2005
Gillard was promoted to
the position of Shadow Health Minister in July 2003.[19] Shortly after this, the government moved
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott to the health portfolio.[20] The rivalry between Abbott and Gillard often
attracted attention from the media. She gained additional responsibility for
managing opposition business in the House of Representatives.[21]
2004
In the aftermath of the
Labor loss at the October 2004 election, it was speculated that Gillard might challenge Jenny Macklin for the deputy leadership, but she did not do so.[22]
Gillard had been spoken of
as a potential future leader of the party for some years but, until 2005, she
stayed out of leadership contests. After Mark Latham resigned as leader in January 2005, however, she
emerged as a possible successor along with Kim Beazley and Kevin Rudd.
Although she had significant cross-factional support, she announced on 25 January 2005 that she would not contest the leadership, allowing Beazley to be elected unopposed.[25]
2006
In December
2006, Kevin Rudd was elected Labor leader and Leader
of the Opposition, with Gillard as d Deputy Leader of the Opposition
On 1 December 2006, in a
cross-factional political partnership with Kevin Rudd, Gillard launched a
challenge for the deputy leadership of the ALP.[26] Once Rudd was elected as leader, the incumbent
deputy leader and Kim Beazley's deputy, Jenny Macklin, chose not to contest the position and on 4
December 2006 she was elected unopposed.[27] In the frontbench reshuffle following the
leadership change, Gillard was allocated the Employment, Workplace Relations
and Social Inclusion portfolios.[28]
eputy leader.[2]
After appearing on the ABC's Australian Story program in March 2006,[7][23] an Ipsos Mackay poll in April 2006, conducted for
Network Ten's Meet the Press program, found that respondents would prefer Gillard to be Labor
leader. She polled 32% compared with Beazley's 25% and Kevin Rudd's 18%.[24]
2007
Gillard became the Deputy Prime Minister upon Labor's victory in the 2007 federal election, also serving as Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
2008-2009
2010
On 24 June 2010, after Rudd lost the support of his party and stood aside, Gillard became federal leader of the Australian Labor Party and thus the Prime Minister, the first female holder of the office.[4]
The 2010 federal election saw the first hung parliament since the 1940 federal election.
The incumbent Gillard Labor government was able to form a minority government with the support of an Australian Greens Member of Parliament (MP) and three independent MPs on a 76–74 margin, defeating the Liberal/National Coalition opposition led by Tony Abbott.
Labor received 50.12 percent of the two-party-preferred vote.[5][6]
Shortly afterward, Gillard was sworn in as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia by the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, and Wayne Swan was sworn in as her deputy. The other members of Kevin Rudd's ministry, except Rudd himself, became the remaining members of the First Gillard Ministry.
Later that day, in her first press conference as Prime Minister, she said that at times the Rudd Government "went off the tracks", and "I came to the view that a good Government was losing its way".[40] She also said that she wouldn't move into The Lodge unless she was elected Prime Minister in her own right, preferring to divide her time between a flat in Canberra and her home in Altona, a western suburb of Melbourne.[41]
She eventually moved into The Lodge on 26 September 2010.[1]
2003 - 2006
2006
2007
Following the Australian Labor Party's victory at the 2007 Federal Election, Ms Gillard was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Social Inclusion.
2006
In December
2006, Kevin Rudd was elected Labor leader and Leader
of the Opposition, with Gillard as d Deputy Leader of the Opposition
On 1 December 2006, in a
cross-factional political partnership with Kevin Rudd, Gillard launched a
challenge for the deputy leadership of the ALP.[26] Once Rudd was elected as leader, the incumbent
deputy leader and Kim Beazley's deputy, Jenny Macklin, chose not to contest the position and on 4
December 2006 she was elected unopposed.[27] In the frontbench reshuffle following the
leadership change, Gillard was allocated the Employment, Workplace Relations
and Social Inclusion portfolios.[28]
eputy leader.[2]
After appearing on the ABC's Australian Story program in March 2006,[7][23] an Ipsos Mackay poll in April 2006, conducted for
Network Ten's Meet the Press program, found that respondents would prefer Gillard to be Labor
leader. She polled 32% compared with Beazley's 25% and Kevin Rudd's 18%.[24]
2007
Gillard became the Deputy Prime Minister upon Labor's victory in the 2007 federal election, also serving as Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
2008-2009
Deputy Prime Minister:
2007–10
The Labor Party won the 2007 federal election and, on 3 December 2007, Gillard was sworn in as the first female Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.[29]
In addition to the deputy prime ministership, Gillard was given responsibility for a so-called "super ministry", the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. She had three distinct portfolios: Minister for Education; Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations; and Minister for Social Inclusion. In her role as Minister for Education, Gillard travelled to Washington, DC, where she signed a deal with the US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, to encourage improved policy collaboration in education reform between both countries.[30]
On 11 December 2007, she became the first woman in Australia's history to be in the prime ministerial role, by assuming the role of acting prime minister while Kevin Rudd attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali.[31] In the first year of government, she served as acting prime minister for 69 days during Rudd's overseas travel engagements.[32]
Gillard is a highly regarded debater, and her performances during parliamentary question time have prompted Peter van Onselen to call her "the best parliamentary performer on the Labor side".[33]
Minister for Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations
Gillard removed the WorkChoices industrial relations regime introduced by the Howard government, and replaced it with the Fair Work Bill.[34] This established a single industrial relations bureaucracy called Fair Work Australia.[35]
2009
In 2009 Gillard oversaw the government's "Building the Education Revolution" program, which allocated $16 billion to build new school accommodation including classrooms, libraries and assembly halls.[36][37]
In a 2008 speech in Washington, Gillard endorsed the ANZUS Aliance and described the United States as a civilising global influence.[69] Her former colleague and leader Mark Latham wrote in a 2009 article for the Australian Financial Review that these comments were "hypocritical", given past private communications Gillard had exchanged with him which apparently mocked elements of American foreign policy:
"One of them concerned her study tour of the US, sponsored by the American Government in 2006—or to use her moniker—'a CIA re-education course'. She asked me to 'stand by for emails explaining George Bush is a great statesman, torture is justified in many circumstances and those Iraqi insurgents should just get over it'."[70]
23 June 2010
23 June 2010
2010
Prime Minister
Main article: Gillard Government
