Julia Gillard PM

Julia Gillard is currently the 27th Prime Minister of Australia. Being a woman and a Prime Minister has always raised eyebrows, even in the modern world we live in today. But Gillard is different in the sense that she has had a sizeable list of achievements to herself, during and before her term.

In 2006, she was the deputy leader for the opposition at Australia. In 2007, when the Labor Party won, Gillard became the deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. During the June 2010 elections, Kevin Rudd, the former leader of the Labor Party and the then Prime Minister, stepped aside giving way for Gillard to become the Prime Minister. She is the first woman in Australia to have ever occupied that seat.

Even though she belonged to a humble family background, where both her parents were involved in the nursing profession, she was a bright student graduating at the University of Melbourne in 1986 with a Bachelors’ in Law and Arts degree.

In 1983, at her university, she became the second woman to head the Australian Union of Students. By the year 1996, she was a successful policy maker, who worked with John Brumby as Chief Staff. It was here that she drafted the affirmative action rule in the Labor Party that instructed it to select 35% seats for women. This was a political benchmark for her and the Labor party in general. In her quest to see Australian woman empowered, she played a major role in founding the EMILY’s List, which was a fundraiser for women in the Labor Party.

As a Shadow Minister for Population and Immigration, she developed a new immigration policy. This was done so to help matters during the Tampa and Children Overboard affairs.  Here, she declared that it was important for Australia to “chose its emigrants”, and that consolidating borders was not in any way an act of racism. In 2006, due to her policies and popularity, an Ipsos Mackay poll was conducted 32% in which respondents claimed that they would want her to be the next Labor leader.

In 2010, when she finally became Prime Minister, health remained a priority in her list. In her agenda, she had announced that she would pay attention to emergency doctors and nurses, and will offer nursing scholarships. She also showed concern on mental health, and announced a suicide prevention package to assist high-risk groups.

In Brisbane, she uncovered her plans of establishing a 150-member citizen committee to work for climate change. In order limit emissions, she also announced a $2000 subsidy for cashing old cars. The business community of Australia applauded her for announcing the billion-dollar investment in electricity grids, which would generate greener power.

So strong was her commitment to vanquish terrorism, that on her first day as Prime Minister, she agreed to support America’s “war on terror” in Afghanistan. And with this, the bi-lateral relationship between the two countries was further cemented.

During her term, she has made it clear that she will work to make Australia as a republic.