Julia Gillard has become Australia’s first female Prime Minister after a surprise change of leadership of the ruling Labor party.
Julia Gillard
Kevin Rudd, the former Prime Minister of Australia stepped down from his position to avoid an embarrassing defeat at a surprise leadership ballot.
Kevin Rudd who had been sworn into office in 2007 was facing difficult times of late after losing leadership according to polls in early May which rang alarm bells at the Party.
The unusual day in Australian politics unraveled with Julia Gillard, being the next leader of the ruling Labor Party making her the current Australian Prime Minister.
Ms Gillard said that she will not be moving in to the Prime Ministers Canberra residence and continue staying at her home in North Melbourne until she is elected by the Australian voters rather than being the Prime Minister of Australia due to a change of leadership.
Ms Gillard said “I’m very happy in my home in Altona (in Melbourne’s north) … very happy in my flat in Canberra,”
“Indeed, I believe it is appropriate for me to stay there until we have an election and I have fulsomely earned the trust of Australian people to be prime minister.”
The new Australian Prime Minister also spoke of how “honoured” she was to have become the Prime Minister of Australia.
The 48-year-old, first female Prime Minister of Australia spoke of how her being appointed the top job in the Labor Party was also a milestone for Australian women.
Gillard was widely criticized when she entered the Australian parliament in 1998 because she was single and did not have any children.
Gillard told reporters after her landmark win that “I think if there’s one girl who looks at the TV screen over the next few days and says Gee, I might like to do that in the future, well that’s a good thing,”.
Rudd’s Labor Government had been going through a steep decent of support after several key election promises not being fulfilled.
Rudd had also come under attack after controversial decisions regarding a turnaround on a carbon trading scheme and a so called mining tax of up to 40% which did not go down well with recourse firms and shareholders.
Rudd has now become the first Labor Prime Minister not to have completed a term in office but vowed to stay at the Labor Party to win his support back.
The former Prime Minister was once regarded as Australia’s most popular Premier and was called “Mr 60 Percent”, because of his high approval ratings.
Tim Mathieson, Gillard’s partner who spoke to reporters said “I am so proud to be her partner and to be able to support her today.”
Write your thoughts and comments bellow: do you think what happened to Kevin Rudd was unfair
