minority government and winning some key reforms such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme and schools funding following the Gonski Review on education.
Gillard was born on 29 September 1961 in Barry, Wales, and with her family emigrated to South Australia in 1966 where she attended Unley High School. Her father, John, who died while she was in office, was a psychiatric nurse and her mother Moira(née Mackenzie) worked at a Salvation Army nursing home. It was at Adelaide University that Gillard joined the Labor Club.
At the age of 21, Gillard moved to Melbourne where she became only the second woman to lead the Australian Union of Students. She graduated from Melbourne University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. A year later she joined Slater and Gordon, a law firm that specialised in industrial relations. Already Gillard was active in Labor politics and in May 1996 resigned from the law firm to work as chief-of-staff to the Victorian opposition leader, John Brumby. It was at this time she drafted Labor Party rules aimed at having 35 per cent of winnable seats contested by women.
Rising quickly, Gillard won the safe federal Labor seat of Lalor in Melbourne in 1998. Just three years later she was appointed to Laborâs shadow cabinet. During the next three years her roles expanded as Labor leaders Crean, Beazley and Latham tumbled in opposition against the seemingly unassailable John Howard. It was when the party elected Rudd as oppositon leader in 2006 that Gillard stood unopposed to became deputy leader.
When Labor won office in 2007, with Gillard now deputy prime minister, she was given an additional âsuper ministryâ of education, employment and workplace relations.Gillard achieved another first when she became the first female acting prime minister during an overseas absence of Rudd, steering the nation for 69 days. She had built a profile as a hardworking, capable minister and a good parliamentary performer. She was popular in the polls and Kevin Rudd was on the nose inside the party and falling in the polls. Debate continues as to how much Gillard knew in advance of the growing plot to remove Kevin Rudd. On taking office in 2010 she said publicly that Ruddâs work patterns had become difficult and chaotic, putting the government into a period of paralysis.
Gillard called the federal election for 21 August 2010 and the result was 72 seats each in the 150-seat House of Representatives, four short of a majority and the first hung parliament since 1940. Of the six independents, four gave support to Labor to form government. While her often-wooden style as prime minister was a factor in her falling popularity, it was her back-and-forth on asylum seekers that did much damage. Having opposed offshore processing, Gillard announced in 2012 that her government would nominate Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea to be re-opened. An effort to get Malaysia involved had been over-ruled in the High Court.
But of all the policy changes, it was her breaking of a promise not to introduce a carbon tax thatundermined her trustworthiness most. Further, she appointed a former Queensland opposition member, Peter Slipper, as speaker of the House and he was soon forced to stand aside while investigations of criminal wrongdoing ensued. In addition, Gillardâs government had to endure corruption allegations linked to a Labor MP, Craig Thompson. And behind the scenes there was Kevin Rudd, ready for revenge.
Rudd did challenge and lose in February 2012 but by June the next year the governmentâs fortunes were so low that Labor was ready to take back Rudd, the able campaigner, as leader.
Before that vote in June 2013, Gillard had already done herself further damage by announcing in January 2013 the precise date for the next federal election, some seven months away. As things kept getting worse, the party began moving against her and one previously staunch supporter, Bill Shorten,
Gillard was born on 29 September 1961 in Barry, Wales, and with her family emigrated to South Australia in 1966 where she attended Unley High School. Her father, John, who died while she was in office, was a psychiatric nurse and her mother Moira(née Mackenzie) worked at a Salvation Army nursing home. It was at Adelaide University that Gillard joined the Labor Club.
At the age of 21, Gillard moved to Melbourne where she became only the second woman to lead the Australian Union of Students. She graduated from Melbourne University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. A year later she joined Slater and Gordon, a law firm that specialised in industrial relations. Already Gillard was active in Labor politics and in May 1996 resigned from the law firm to work as chief-of-staff to the Victorian opposition leader, John Brumby. It was at this time she drafted Labor Party rules aimed at having 35 per cent of winnable seats contested by women.
Rising quickly, Gillard won the safe federal Labor seat of Lalor in Melbourne in 1998. Just three years later she was appointed to Laborâs shadow cabinet. During the next three years her roles expanded as Labor leaders Crean, Beazley and Latham tumbled in opposition against the seemingly unassailable John Howard. It was when the party elected Rudd as oppositon leader in 2006 that Gillard stood unopposed to became deputy leader.
When Labor won office in 2007, with Gillard now deputy prime minister, she was given an additional âsuper ministryâ of education, employment and workplace relations.Gillard achieved another first when she became the first female acting prime minister during an overseas absence of Rudd, steering the nation for 69 days. She had built a profile as a hardworking, capable minister and a good parliamentary performer. She was popular in the polls and Kevin Rudd was on the nose inside the party and falling in the polls. Debate continues as to how much Gillard knew in advance of the growing plot to remove Kevin Rudd. On taking office in 2010 she said publicly that Ruddâs work patterns had become difficult and chaotic, putting the government into a period of paralysis.
Gillard called the federal election for 21 August 2010 and the result was 72 seats each in the 150-seat House of Representatives, four short of a majority and the first hung parliament since 1940. Of the six independents, four gave support to Labor to form government. While her often-wooden style as prime minister was a factor in her falling popularity, it was her back-and-forth on asylum seekers that did much damage. Having opposed offshore processing, Gillard announced in 2012 that her government would nominate Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea to be re-opened. An effort to get Malaysia involved had been over-ruled in the High Court.
But of all the policy changes, it was her breaking of a promise not to introduce a carbon tax thatundermined her trustworthiness most. Further, she appointed a former Queensland opposition member, Peter Slipper, as speaker of the House and he was soon forced to stand aside while investigations of criminal wrongdoing ensued. In addition, Gillardâs government had to endure corruption allegations linked to a Labor MP, Craig Thompson. And behind the scenes there was Kevin Rudd, ready for revenge.
Rudd did challenge and lose in February 2012 but by June the next year the governmentâs fortunes were so low that Labor was ready to take back Rudd, the able campaigner, as leader.
Before that vote in June 2013, Gillard had already done herself further damage by announcing in January 2013 the precise date for the next federal election, some seven months away. As things kept getting worse, the party began moving against her and one previously staunch supporter, Bill Shorten,
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