A sister institute has been launched at the Australian National University. Ms Gillard was born in Barry, Wales in She is the daughter of a nurse and aged care worker. Julia Gillard's government has always been in a precarious political position. As Deputy Prime Minister, she helped orchestrate a late-night coup to oust Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a scant two months before the federal election. That election was achingly close, resulting in Australia's first hung parliament since Gillard retained power only by aligning with the Green Party and picking up the support of a few independents.
Following her scathing take-down of Tony Abbott in parliament, Gillard zoomed to a point lead over Abbott in polls asking who would make the better prime minister.
Six months later, she lags four points behind him. Meanwhile her party is doing even worse : were the election held today, Abbott's Coalition would top Labor percent. The election, however, is not until September The question Australians are now asking: Will her government last that long? Former allies are not making it easy.
The Greens, who have governed with Labor since the elections, dissolved their alliance last week. While pledging to continue informal support to keep the government from collapsing before the election, Green leader Christine Milne declared , "Trust has gone. This statement launched a blistering minute speech , in which Gillard called out the sexism and hypocrisy of Abbott during Question Time in October It has become the definitive moment of her prime ministership and is often the only thing people overseas know about Australian politics.
Read more: Gillard's misogyny speech looks even better than it reads. Last month, a senior advisor to former-US President Barack Obama revealed they often watched the speech whenever they were frustrated with then-prime minister Abbott. The misogyny speech has even entered into the pop cultural canon, inspiring young women today to create memes and TikToks paying homage to those famous words.
Gillard lost the Labor leadership in , when Rudd got his revenge and his old job back. But she has left a lasting legacy as a role model for girls and young women. This stems not just from her political career, but for the way she has gracefully moved on. Core to my government were education reforms and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and whilst we got many other things done, we were always determined to see those things through. Apart from that ruthless prioritization, what kind of day-to-day manager are you?
I have a very loyal staff, and I always wanted them to feel bonded to the project. And even in the most difficult days we were a united, happy group. There was fun to be had.
What you look for in the public service or your political office would be different. I never wanted people who would just agree with me. I wanted people who would put a contest of ideas into the system. It was a very partisan era, and the opposition had decided that they wanted to tear the government down and be negative about everything.
But because we were a minority government, we reached out to minor party players and independents and took their views into account. Politicians spend a lot of time being the ones in the room who are talking. I spent time thinking about what was core for me and what I could negotiate but then also really listening to my counterparts and trying to identify what was core for them and what they could negotiate. We had outreach into the business community, the trade unions, the environmental movement, to also get their perspectives brought to the table.
You should neither overestimate nor underestimate personal relationships in foreign policy dialogue. How did you build personal support—allies not just for your party or platform but for you as a leader? People respond to ideas and vision, absolutely, but they also respond to being taken seriously and treated decently.
Then, even when you have intense engagements and end up agreeing to disagree, a human bond is formed. That sustained me in leadership for the period I was there. The days of command-and-control leadership, if they ever truly existed in politics, are long gone. The big boss telling people what to do is not the model that will hold people in for big change projects any longer. So I think that in politics, in business, in all walks of life, people will ultimately get through this phase of the strongman leader and be looking for enabling leaders who give them the opportunity to prosper, develop, live the lives they want.
You were attacked by the opposition, the media, even people in your own party.
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