A look back at Julia Gillard’s legacy
Elected unopposed as Labor party leader after Kevin Rudd’s resignation, Julia Gillard was sworn in as the 27th prime minister of Australia on 24 June 2010. In doing so she became Australia’s first female prime minister, and her impact as leader endures today.
The most famous moment of Gillard’s prime ministership occurred on 9 October 2012 when she delivered her powerful ‘misogyny speech’ in Parliament. Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, had accused her of hypocrisy and sexism as she defended house speaker, Peter Slipper – himself implicated in a misogynistic text scandal – during a motion for his removal. Gillard addressed the topic head-on. “I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not,” she began, later stating, “If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn’t need a motion in the House of Representatives. He needs a mirror.”
But to focus only on the speech is to ignore her many achievements in office. So too does focusing on what was, at the time, her most controversial policy: a carbon pricing scheme, often referred to as the ‘carbon tax’, which led to accusations of broken pre-election commitments and earned her the derisive nickname ‘Juliar’ throughout her leadership. The tax was repealed by the subsequent government.
Indeed, Gillard achieved major social reforms. The establishment of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) stands as one of her most enduring legacies and today supports some 690,000 Australians with disabilities. She oversaw the implementation of paid parental leave, which came into effect on 1 January 2011. She initiated the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which earned her significant praise when its findings later proved to be so damning.
In 2013, in a full-circle moment, she was ousted for Kevin Rudd. In her farewell speech, Gillard called for Australians to reflect on the role gender had played on her time in office. “It doesn’t explain everything. It doesn’t explain nothing. It explains some things,” she said. “And it is for the nation to think – in a sophisticated way – about those shades of grey.”
