Julia Gillard Biography | Inspirational Quotations | Quotes

Julia Gillard was the 27^th Prime Minister of Australia. She was born on September 29, 1961. Julia Gillard has the distinction of having been the first female Prime Minister of Australia. Equally interesting, she was the second person to become the Prime Minister who was not born in Australia, after Billy Hughes.

Julia Gillard first female Prime Minister of Australia:

Julia Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales in a family engaged in medical service. Her father was a psychiatric nurse and her mother rendered her services in a Salvation Nursing Home. Julia Gillard had suffered, as a child, from a nagging lung ailment called bronchopneumonia. Her parents felt the pressing necessity to shift to a warmer country and migrated to Australia to settle in Adelaide. Julia Gillard, at the age of 14, acquired Australian citizenship. Julia Gillard had her graduation from the University of Melbourne in Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws in 1986. After a brief stint in a law firm Slater and Gordon at Werribee, Melbourne for less than three years dealing in Industrial Law she rose to become one of the female partners of the firm.

Political Life:

Julia Gillard is more known for her offbeat personal ideology and agnostic views. During her academic career, at the University of Adelaide, she was vociferous in speaking vehemently against the curtailment of in the state budgetary allocation of funds. Subsequently, when she moved to Melbourne in 1983, she led the Australian Union of Students and later held the post of secretary of the Socialist Forum. Between 1996 and 1998, she was the Chief of Staff to John Brumby who was the 45^th Premier of Victoria. Julia Gillard was instrumental in re-writing the internal laws of the Labour Party in Victoria and enhancing the women quota for election to the parliament. In the capacity of Minister for Education, she signed the pact with her US counterpart Arne Duncan for enhanced cooperation in educational reforms in the two nations.

Julia Gillard became the first female Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, when the Labour Party emerged victorious in Federal Election in 2007. She was also the acting Prime Minister for 69 days, during the absence of Kevin Rudd. In the light of deteriorating confidence in Rudd’s competence among the members of the Labour Party, she got elected to the post of Prime Minister unanimously. Her more notable stance as Prime Minister was her strong support for women to have freedom to choose abortion or prevention of child birth, a policy known as “Pro-Choice”. Julia Gillard openly opposed the recommendations of the policy “Big Australia” which encouraged growth of population in Australia and she instead stood by the idea that emphasized the need for sustainability. She held the post of Prime Minister till 27.6.2013, when the helm was again occupied by her predecessor Kevin Rudd who won with a majority of 12 votes.

Her major policy decisions involved the Clean Energy Bill 2011, Mineral Resource Rent Tax, National Broadband Network, asylum seeker policy, Educational Reforms in the light of  Gonski  Report and National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Inspirational Quotations From Julia Gillard:

• “Through hard work and education, we can deliver a strong economy and opportunity for all.” “Our future growth relies on competitiveness and innovation, skills and productivity... and these in turn rely on the education of our people.”

• “I want you to know what I have told Australia's Parliament in Canberra - what I told General Petraeus in Kabul - what I told President Obama in the Oval Office this week. Australia will stand firm with our ally the United States.”

• “Those of you who have spent time with Australians know that we are not given to overstatement. By nature we are laconic speakers and by conviction we are realistic thinkers.”

• “There is a reason the world always looks to America.”

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• “My guiding principle is that prosperity can be shared. We can create wealth together. The global economy is not a zero-sum game.”

• “We encourage China to engage as a good global citizen and we are clear-eyed about where differences do lie.”

• “I know reform is never easy. But I know reform is right.”

• “I think you are entitled to still say something is not right about treatment of women [in Australia], even though it doesn't in any way equal the kind of evils we see overseas.”

• “The global economic outlook remains fragile and uncertain. Global economic imbalances persist and we must address them or risk future instability.”

• “I know people are looking at what's happening in Washington and then they also look at events in Europe, in Greece and Portugal and other places and worry about that.”

• “Here in Australia we do get impacted by global economic events. But we should have some confidence that our economy has got strong underlying fundamentals.”

• “I still, even with the benefit of hindsight, don't see an alternative to what I did that day ... I don't think I had a choice.”

• “If anything, the reputation I have from that night is one of political brutality. Actually, in the moment, I was hesitant. A conversation went too long, I certainly fed hope [to Kevin Rudd]. I shouldn't have done that. I really do here and more extensively in the book talk about my sense of self-recrimination over that.”