most political career ends in tears--一个外行眼中的澳洲政坛故事

JuJu

Julia Gillard是澳洲历史上第一位女副总理, 作为一个女政治家, 她受到的批评也是多种多样的, 她的容貌, 发型, 衣着品味, 生活方式种种都曾经被一一批评过.

Julia 曾记得自己去一家购物中心买东西, 正好站在了商场的通告牌旁边, 而通告牌上正好有一张她的照片, 有一个澳洲老头从商场里面出来, 看了看她, 又看了看照片, 又看了看她, 然后开口说, "Taken on a good day, wasn't it, love?"

Julia 回答道, "And you'd be bloody Robert Redford, would you, mate?"

据说, 这样的事一般在英国和美国不太容易发生, 但是在澳洲, 选民对他们的领袖们的平等感要强得多, 据说还有总理被他的选民捏过屁股的,也算是澳洲风格吧.

2007年选举前, 她被自由党的议员Bill Heffernan 批评说, 因为她未婚, 没有孩子, 不适合当领袖.

那些时候, 她一般都得到了民众的支持, 她自己曾说, 曾在路上有后座上塞满了孩子的母亲开车在路上看到了她, 摇下车窗说, "If  you want any kids, love, you can have mine!"

JuJu

有人认为她的领导风格与Bob Hawke有相似之处, 两人都是绝顶聪明的人, 却能得到普通人的爱戴, 两人都很容易跟街上的一般人很快有共同语言, 友好, 容易接近, 两人都接受过法律的培训, 思路清晰, 能够把复杂的政策化做通俗易懂的语言, 还有一点, 两个人都有很强的澳洲口音.

澳洲的政界总的来说还是男人的俱乐部, 虽然这种情况正在慢慢改变. 前女议员Susan Ryan,曾在Hawke时代担任过教育部长,  认为Julia Gillard很幸运, 不需要象她那样背负70年代女性运动别人对她的巨大期望, 当然, 也有很多人不同意, 认为她能走到这一步, 是很多女人在前面做了很多艰苦的工作, 当然对她也抱着推进女性运动的期望. 在她当选后, 曾有很多不认识的女人寄花和卡片给她, 仅仅因为她们是如此地欣喜.

JuJu

Julia Gillard 的父亲John Oliver Gillard, 来自于南威尔斯的一个村庄, 是七个兄弟姐妹中的一个. 小学毕业时, 他是南威尔斯最优秀的三个学生之一, 获得了私校的奖学金, 但是二次大战逼他中断了学业, 和家里的其他人一样开始工作挣钱, 放弃学业显然对这个爱学习的男孩来说是一件残酷的事, Julia-这个长得很象她的父亲, 又和父亲亲近的女儿多次被告知这个故事, Gillard 也经常说, 她和她父母的主要区别, 并不是她比他们更聪明, 或者更努力, 只不过是她有受教育的机会而她的父母没有而已. 他们都是很聪明的人,但是贫穷和英国的等级制度让他们无法超越自己. 她一再说, 做为RUDD政府的教育部长, 她要保证在澳大利亚没有一个孩子需要承受这样的痛苦.

vvguru

Julia 长得更像 Tilda Swinton。 呵。



[ 本帖最后由 vvguru 于 2009-12-15 00:08 编辑 ]

JuJu

还真有几分像, 我觉得Julia 还算挺好看的,可以用D妈妈的话来说算进扩招美女里. 我对美女的容貌要求比较低

JuJu

那个时代, 澳洲有一个移民政策, 英国移民只要花10英镑一个人头就可以移民澳洲, 而把一个两个孩子的四口之家从大不列颠移到澳洲的实际费用要接近600英镑, 但是为了吸引英国人移民, 澳洲只收极为低廉的费用, Julia的父母, 在她的外婆去世后, 决定移民澳洲.他们一开始准备去墨尔本, 然后在船上遇到了另外一家准备去阿得莱德的英国移民, 为了有个伴, 就也跟着去了阿得莱德. 和这家人, Julia一家一直保持着友谊, 两家一直来往很勤. Julia的父亲一开始在工厂打工, 后来接受了三年的护士培训, 成了一家医院的护士,经常主动做夜班以便多赚点钱养家.

Julia有一个比她大几岁的姐姐Alison, 和她的姐姐比起来, Julia从小喜欢读书, 她俩都上了阿得莱德的Mitcham Primary, 然后又上了Unley High.

Julia十六岁那年告诉她的母亲她不想生孩子, 她无法想象自己成为妻子和母亲的角色. 这么多年来, 她有过不少浪漫史, 但是却从来没有结过婚, 也没有过孩子.

Julia 的全家, 都是工党的粉丝, 她曾经解释说, "在我们的生活环境中, 我们几乎想都不必想就是挺工党的." 她的父亲挺工党, 母亲也挺工党, 只有她的姐姐Alison对政治没兴趣.

微风细雨

我很喜欢看

我们也几乎想都不必想就是挺工党的

JuJu

他们全家移民澳洲后就一直没有机会回过家乡, 直到Julia将要开始她在Uni. of Adelaide 的学习前, 他们终于存够了回乡的费用. 对于她的父母John 和 Moria来说, 这是一个他们已经规划了多年, 魂系梦牵的旅行. 他们为此存了很久的钱, 但是, 他们真正的威尔斯之行却充满着复杂的感觉, 甚至有点失望.

那个他们记忆中的威尔斯已冻结在时光的回忆中, 威尔斯在他们远赴澳大利亚的十三年中并没有在过去的那个日子等待他们, 现实中的威尔斯已经变了, 孩子们长大了, 有的还结了婚, 更多的人有了车, 也买得起电视机了, 从炎热干燥的南澳大利亚到潮湿寒冷的威尔斯的冬天, 那里的气候也让他们不再习惯, 终于, 抱着遗憾, 他们接受了这个事实, 那个十几年来他们梦中的南威尔斯,已不再是他们的家.

JuJu

Julia 在Uni. of Adelaide读的是Arts-Law课程, 在学生时代, 就参加过不少政治活动, 她曾加入过一个极左派的组织, 这个组织里因为也有一些共产主义分子, 她因此后来在竞选时被攻击与极左的共产主义有关系. 里面的细节太复杂, 暂且不表. 总而言之, 后来Julia 把此轻轻化解, 说自己在那个组织里只是承担打字等文员工作, 而澳大利亚老百姓对这个事件绝对不象桃色新闻那么有兴趣, 这件事就不了了之了.

astina

这个也是很多移民经历过的心路历程

JuJu

所以特地写出来, 我觉得其实移民的艰难大家都是相似的, 我们看着他们是英国移民觉得他们就会很适应很容易, 其实大家都是要有一个过程的.

微风细雨

原帖由 astina 于 2009-12-15 23:42 发表
这个也是很多移民经历过的心路历程

:)

vvguru

原帖由 JuJu 于 2009-12-15 23:40 发表
Julia 在Uni. of Adelaide读的是Arts-Law课程, 在学生时代, 就参加过不少政治活动, 她曾加入过一个极左派的组织, 这个组织里因为也有一些共产主义分子, 她因此后来在竞选时被攻击与极左的共产主义有关系. 里面的细节 ...

Julia在阿大也是最优学生第一名呢。

likespring

比较喜欢Julia，这期的澳大利亚妇女里面有张她的照片，照得不错。

相对于英语国家的移民来说，中国来的移民道路更为艰辛些。

JuJu

确实如此, 中国移民的路更为艰难, 要经过更多的努力.

不过这个国家是他们的, 同时也是我们的, 我喜欢Kevin Rudd 的女婿说过的那句话, ""As an  Young Asian, I don't need anyone's tolerance. I demand their acceptance. That is why I am involved with the whole political process."

JuJu

喜欢"demand their acceptance", 我们必须为自己在这个国家理直气壮地争取权利.

JuJu

Julia 大学毕业后, 加入了墨尔本的Slater & Gordon 律师事务所, 短短三年后, 她成为那个律师事务所第一个女性合伙人, 可见她的聪明和能力. 她的同事回忆她说, Julia 从不显得焦虑, 很少表现怒气, 总是井井有条, 毫不慌张.

但是做律师从来都不是她的激情所在, 她所真正感兴趣的是政治, 为了参选, 本来没想买房的她特地在墨尔本的某个选区买了房子, 买房的时候她告诉别人, 别的要求不高, 最要紧要在那个选区, 虽然并没有要求候选人在选区拥有房产的要求, 但是她认为这个很重要.

astina

原帖由 JuJu 于 2009-12-16 14:12 发表
这个国家是他们的, 同时也是我们的.

喜欢这句，理直气壮，不卑不亢，即不妄自菲薄，也不敏感自卑，堂堂正正的做自己，做这个国家的一份子，我相信我们这一代移民做得到

JuJu

上几张照片吧.

astina

JuJu你考虑过从政没有？

JuJu

我哪有这个本事

qqyang

你参选，我们一坛子人提前保掉那个区的房子（不论租售），包你当选。

JuJu

看了这些人的传记,我现在觉得从政倒也不是那么难, 基本上如果人聪明, detabing skill 好, 从学生时代开始就开始加入一些学生政治组织, 以后做个minister 之类的还是很有可能的, 不过我们这代人来的晚了, 现在再开始就很难了

astina

看看这一代移民的气魄！

astina

也有移民从政的先例，如果时机合适，也未尝不可能

qqyang

你绝对比NSW州的任何一个部长强。

JuJu

Julia Gillard有过几段浪漫史, 在她的国会的首次演说中曾经提到她的大学时代的恋人Michael O'Connor,  其他被大众所知的还有骗子Bruce Wilson, 以及Craig Emerson, 和她目前的伴侣 Tim Mathieson, 这些男人有一些共同点, 全部来自工薪阶级家庭, 个子高高, 身材很棒.

我估计这个大家会兴趣比较高一些, 因此准备稍稍详细介绍下.

大学时代的恋人实在是没有多少好写, 两人分手后一直保持着互相支持的友好朋友关系,但是都不愿意透露以前交往的过多细节.

Bruce Wilson, Julia Gillard在31岁那年通过工作遇到这个男人, 他当时是工会的官员, 两人保持了数年的关系, 后来揭露出来此人诈骗了超过1M的工会基金, 而Julia Gillard虽然对此事毫不知情, 但是也因此受到过攻击. 起码在名誉上不算一件好听的事. 对此, 她说, 当时的她, 年轻天真, 人们往往发现原来一个和你很接近的人结果完全不是你所想象的那样, 她肯定不是第一个犯这样错误的人.

vvguru

原帖由 JuJu 于 2009-12-16 22:00 发表
看了这些人的传记,我现在觉得从政倒也不是那么难, 基本上如果人聪明, detabing skill 好, 从学生时代开始就开始加入一些学生政治组织, 以后做个minister 之类的还是很有可能的, 不过我们这代人来的晚了, 现在再开始就 ...

NSW的Kristina Keneally2000年的时候才正式永居澳洲，现在已经是女省长了。 背后有人撑腰，从政有捷径的呢。 不过她好像宗教背景也
挺重要的，中国人无神论者什么都不信的话， 跟选民沟通赢得信任都会有问题。

[ 本帖最后由 vvguru 于 2009-12-16 23:44 编辑 ]

vvguru

找到一个ABC的访谈“The Gillard Diaries”，很有意思。

http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2006/s1586140.htm

The Gillard Diaries - Transcript

PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT: Monday, 6 March , 2006

CAROLINE JONES: Hello, I'm Caroline Jones. Well, you don't have to be a devotee of politics to have an opinion about Julia Gillard. It seems everyone does. Even if it's just about her hair, her kitchen, or her views on having children. As Shadow Minister for Health, she's the latest woman to be eyed off as future prime ministerial material. We joined Julia Gillard at home and at work in the lead-up to a factional bloodbath that's put her out front and placed Kim Beazley under new pressure. Tonight, a sneak preview of the top secret 'Gillard Diaries'.

JULIA GILLARD (OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT): Hello. Abbott's out there for a doorstop where he'll be complaining that everybody's being mean to him because he's a Catholic. It's just nonsense. So, I'm going to walk out and just say, "Tony, this isn't about you." Try and get him off talking about himself. Oh, come on, mate. We'll be lucky to make question time at this rate.

TONY ABBOTT (OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT): Sorry to hold you up, Julia.

JULIA GILLARD TO ABBOTT (OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT): How long does it take? How long does it take?

JULIA GILLARD (OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT): I suppose he's been out here telling you how it's all about him, and all about how people are being nasty to him. And all about how people are talking about whether he's a Catholic or not.

JULIA GILLARD: It is a gypsy lifestyle. Outside the Canberra time, my time is divided between being on the road pursuing the Shadow Health Minister job, and being in my local electorate doing all the stuff I do as the Member for Lalor. I think people are over really highly managed, suited you know, white-bread style politicians. I think people are looking for more than that, and different to that. And, you know, I think I am different to that.

ROBYN MCLEOD, FRIEND: What you see with Julia is what you get. A very open, honest woman who is not hiding anything. Who is very comfortable in herself. People are waiting to see if Julia is going to succeed or not. Not just because she's a politician, but because she's a woman. And that's still a pretty unusual beast in our country. Julia is an extraordinarily loyal person. And even if it puts herself at some risk, she will stand by her friends.

ALISON GILLARD, SISTER: It's always, sort of, slightly surreal still when you see your sister talking on the television, it's still exciting. And I still get a real buzz out of it. She comes across as being very feisty, pretty sharp and kind of nasty sometimes. She's not like that in her day-to-day life. So, obviously it's all part of the um, the show that they put on. It's all part of the game.

ALISON GILLARD, SISTER TO JULIA GILLARD: I've heard you've been voted the...is it Australia's sexiest female politician, or something? On that website?

JULIA GILLARD: Yeah. On Crikey. Kimberley from my office rings up, 'cause they told her under embargo, so she rings me up and says, "Oh you know, I don't think you're going to be very happy "because it's not your kind of thing," and all the rest of it. So she tells me about it and then she says, "But, anyway, I don't think it's that sexist because they obviously weren't judging on looks."

ALISON GILLARD, SISTER: That's nasty.

JULIA GILLARD: Who else was high on the list?

ALISON GILLARD, SISTER: Who is your competition, Julia?

JULIA GILLARD: I'm actually not sure. I know Amanda Vanstone got some votes in the sexiest female politician. It's politics, so it's, you know, concessional, like, not normal-looking people. Latham always used to wander around saying "Politics is Hollywood for ugly people." I think that's right.

JULIA GILLARD: Somewhat ironically for someone who's ended up in the position I am now, I am a shy person. I was a shy child. And I'm more shy in social circumstances than I am in the work that I do. I am, perhaps, more conservative than the public image would lead people to believe. I think it probably does take a bit of time to open up to people. Maybe politics puts an extra, layer of, you know, kind of armour on the outside because you know what it can be like.

JULIA GILLARD (AT OFFICE): Sean Parnell is writing a story on health reform? Oh, God, they're desperate for Christmas yarns, aren't they? We've been trying all year, trying to get 'The Australian' to write stories about health reform and then now, you know, bloody Christmas... He's decided he's writing a story on health reform. But he's got a leak that Abbott's commissioned some external modelling and research. But Abbott spent all year saying we don't need health reform, so, that's a significant shift. So, I'll just give him a ring back. Just, you wouldn't be able to get them to do that midyear, would you? No.

JULIA GILLARD: Personally what I think about Tony Abbott, in private, we've never had a cross word. At one level, I think he's a, you know, a sort of likeable knockabout Australian character. But he's a deeply eccentric human being.

REPORTERTO TONY ABBOTT: Do you like each other, do you think?

JULIA GILLARD: I think I'm a much more normal person than Tony Abbott.

TONY ABBOTT: On those rare occasions when she lets her hair down she can be a charming companion. And I've certainly enjoyed her company a couple of times in a social context, and I think it would be good to see more of that side of Julia.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR, TIMBER WORKERS' UNION: Like all frontbenchers, I think Julia lives a lot out of a suitcase. I think it puts a strain on their personal lives. It must be very difficult, I think. Julia lives on her own. Single, she doesn't have kids. I think it would be really hard to, you know, like have a family and spend six months in Canberra. I've seen a lot of males who haven't juggled it very well.

JULIA GILLARD: One of my first big relationships was with Michael O'Connor. Talking about relationships is always difficult, I guess. You know, you always feel like you're intruding on the privacy of others when you're in public life.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR, TIMBER WORKERS' UNION: I'm honestly not very comfortable talking about this, to be honest with you.

JULIA GILLARD: Michael and I were young, we were involved in student politics. You know, university, all of that sort of stuff, so I suspect as much as anything else it wasn't the right stage of life.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR, TIMBER WORKERS' UNION: Probably the first time I met Julia was in the early '80s when hundreds of students would come from around the country. She was representing Adelaide University Student Union. There's no doubt she was really articulate and had a very strong intellect about her, in arguing a case.

JULIA GILLARD – MAIDEN SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT – NOV. 1998: Those friends from university have remained my comrades since the early 1980s.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR, TIMBER WORKERS' UNION: You didn't really want to be arguing a point of view against her if you could avoid an argument with her. She was very serious about winning it.

JULIA GILLARD – MAIDEN SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT – NOV. 1998: Today I pay tribute to them and especially to the most committed of them all, Michael O'Connor, who has been my closest confidante since those heady days.

JULIA GILLARD: My relationship with Craig Emerson was a very important one to me. Being involved with a colleague has got its down side in the sense that drawing the line between what's work and what's not work becomes increasingly blurred. Craig and I were staying together at a hotel and I'd managed to forget to pack my contact lens holder. So I was just storing the contact lenses at the bottom of a glass, which wasn't exactly the smartest thing in the world to do. Er, so...in the bathroom, this glass with the contact lenses and a bit of solution in them. So, you know, during the course of the night, Craig gets up and thinking it's water, grabs the glass and drinks it. So I was wandering around National Conference blind for the next morning. I did have to give the Health Policy Report at the podium not basically able to see my notes or see the audience. Craig and I lived in different states in very demanding positions. And in the hurly-burly of the Labor world, ultimately it was just too difficult. I'm not involved in a relationship now, and you know, your, sort of, your life history rolls on.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR, TIMBER WORKERS' UNION: Julia's always been close to her family. Her father and mother are working class people. They are really a unique family. I think they're probably the one huge influence on Julia and very decent people. The values that Julia has about working people has, no doubt in my mind, come from both her mum and dad.

JOHN GILLARD, FATHER: We've very proud parents. When I'm with Julia, I walk six inches taller. I love Alison, of course, I love her. Alison's a loving, nurturing mother. Julia wants to change the world.

JULIA GILLARD: Both Mum and Dad were born in Wales. My sister Alison is three years older than me. She was seven when we migrated. I was four.

MOIRA GILLARD, MOTHER: Alison and Julia are completely opposite, which is, I think is one of the reasons they get on so well.

JULIA GILLARD: Alison's life has been very different to mine. I mean, I've been involved in student politics. I'd seen a lot of trade union politics as an industrial lawyer. Alison left university, she didn't complete her degree, met Paul, who is her lifetime partner, and had Jenna and Tom quite young.

ALISON GILLARD, SISTER: Motherhood's something I really, really enjoyed, and something that took up my life, I suppose. I guess it'd be nice to be an aunty myself. Julia's just chosen to dedicate herself to her career. It's not something I've ever really questioned.

vvguru

MOIRA GILLARD, MOTHER: I remember Julia, I think she was about 18, she said, "I don't want children. Mum, I never want children."

JULIA GILLARD: If I look at my circle of friends, I think part of people picking their partners, is about those sorts of desires. I mean, it's not as mechanical as saying, you know, "I want to have a kid, I'd better find a bloke." I'm not sort of suggesting it's as mechanical as that. If I'd met a man that I was tremendously in love with and the one thing in life he wanted was to have kids, then obviously maybe I might've made a different set of decisions. I mean, you know, who knows with the 'what ifs'.

ROBYN MCLEOD, FRIEND: I've never seen her lonely and I've certainly never seen her disillusioned. She has an aim, and she works incredibly hard, and she's confident in her own abilities.

JULIA GILLARD: I suspect if I had made a different set of choices, I would have been a very conservative parent. I'm kind of full of admiration for women who can mix it together, working and having kids, but I'm not sure I could have. There's something in me that's focused and single-minded, and if I was going to do that, I'm not sure I could have done this.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, 'THE AUSTRALIAN' (AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB): There's not a shadow of doubt that she has the makings of a future leader, but she's a woman, she's unmarried, she doesn't have children, and for some reason that is an issue in Australian politics.

ANDREW FRASER, 'CANBERRA TIMES' (AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB): A supreme parliamentary performer, probably hampered by the fact of the faction she belongs to - the left - in the Labor party.

JOSH GORDON, 'THE AGE' (AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB): I think she's smart, sharp, articulate. She's got an extremely forensic sort of style in parliament.

ANDREW FRASER, 'CANBERRA TIMES' (AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB): Miss Gillard, Andrew Fraser, the 'Canberra Times'. I was wanting to ask for your feelings, particularly on the challenge to Simon Crean. Are you a subscriber to Kim Beazley's apparent complete indifference to his plight?

JULIA GILLARD (AT PRESS CLUB): Uh, I'm... I'm... I'm a subscriber to the Julia Gillard school of thought on pre-selections. I've got a unique doctrine, the Julia Gillard doctrine.

JULIA GILLARD: There's a lot about being involved in politics that does have the capacity to turn your stomach. There's just no doubt about it.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR, TIMBER WORKERS' UNION: I think parliament changes everybody who goes there. Julia's no exception to that.

JULIA GILLARD: I'm not Doris Day who's, you know, just somehow parachuted into Canberra. I had to...I had to fight hard to get pre-selected, I had to play a factional game to do that. I'd do all of that again tomorrow, but in that 2001-2004 period, the destabilisation of Simon Crean's leadership, I saw things happen that I hadn't seen happen before and I'm never going to forget that they did happen.

JULIA GILLARD: I thought for most of the 2004 election campaign that it was going to be very hard to win, but I thought it was going pretty well until that last week. I was devastated by the forest policy. I knew it was a huge mistake. I wasn't involved in the generation of the timber policy because I am so close to Michael O'Connor, who was the head of the Timber Workers' Union. People would have been concerned that I would have been leaking information to Michael.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR, TIMBER WORKERS' UNION: Julia would have told them that we were not going to roll over. It didn't matter if we were offered $800 million or $2 billion or how much they wanted to put pressure on us. The union was not going to sell out its members in Tasmania.

JULIA GILLARD: Dreadful policy, dreadful political result for Labor. The pressure and position it put Michael O'Connor in was shocking. It's like one of those worst nightmares you have where you know something dreadful's going to happen, but somehow you can't get there to stop it. I thought Mark had made a shocking, shocking error with the forest policy. But I didn't believe we would have gone substantially better in that campaign with Kim Beazley. One of the things that I least respect in politics is people who lack loyalty. It's not in me to be like that.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR, TIMBER WORKERS' UNION: I didn't think Mark Latham did Julia any favours by the praise he heaped upon her. I think that was a poison chalice, but it didn't surprise me that that was the way he acted. Loyalty was a one-way street with Mark Latham.

MATT PRICE, 'THE AUSTRALIAN': Internally Julia's an incredibly divisive person. So far she's stood for Simon Crean, Mark Latham and Medicare Gold, and I just think that's going to taint her for a long time. There are consequences of that, and that has caused her enormous damage in the Labor Party.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR, TIMBER WORKERS' UNION: When Latham resigned, clearly there were people talking about who should run for leader. There's no doubt that Julia was approached by a number of people to think about running.

JULIA GILLARD: The next few days were just this collage of media calls, media turning up, telephone calls. There was this sense of, you know, shell shock amongst the whole group about what had happened to Mark, and with that sort of shell shock, you know, Kim was seen to represent stability.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR, TIMBER WORKERS' UNION: We certainly didn't want to see a rerun of some of the leadership struggles that had happened under Simon's leadership. It was probably better that she didn't run and that the party was able to take a breather, and we consolidated around Kim and we moved on. And I was pretty happy with Julia when she made an announcement saying that, you know, that Kim you know, was a man with a big heart for a big country, and I thought the way she handled herself was good.

JULIA GILLARD: You know, I'm clear in my own mind now I did make the right decision, but you always do have that little bit of "what if" in you. The thing I regret from that period is, it's not whether or not Mark Latham should have been leader, it's where Labor could have been if we hadn't had the culture of destabilisation and if Simon had been allowed to have his best go. I wouldn't describe the world in which I work now with Kim as leader as a world in which you've got to get up and grit your teeth to get on with it. If every morning now you're getting and saying, "Who do I hate today? Who's on the list to pay back today?", I couldn't live like that - I couldn't do it.

KIM BEAZLEY: Julia's a very good parliamentarian. She's a natural. In many ways she's a little bit of a throwback. So often her speeches, which are superb, sound like an old-fashioned tradition of parliamentary oratory. This is a capacity she ought to cultivate.

JULIA GILLARD: The first parliamentary week with the Wheat Board scandal, I mean, it has been a very frustrating week. I think an error was made by Kim promising this would be the most hard-hitting parliamentary attack. I think, you know, you don't need the sort of high jump bar to be taken up against you. I genuinely think Kim is trying. There are things, though, where clearly I've disagreed with him and I think he's made errors in terms of being as inclusive as I would have liked to have seen. For me the standout there is, you know, the attitude to Simon.

JULIA GILLARD (AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB): Simon is now one of the important custodians of our collective and corporate memory. He is entitled to the party's respect, and that respect should be shown by having Simon re-pre-selected and returned to the parliament at the next election.

SIMON CREAN, SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: What Julia said publicly about me is what Kim Beazley said to me privately. What I respect about Julia is her preparedness not just to say it privately, but when it matters, to come out publicly and make that endorsement. That's courage. That's leadership.

ALISON GILLARD, SISTER: I always, I get upset when I read criticism about Julia, and it is about quite superficial things. I suppose being a woman in politics, too, you're more in the firing line for comments on your hair or your clothes or the fact that you're single or whatever. And if I talk to Julia about it, she just goes, "Yeah, whatever," you know. She...she doesn't pay any attention to it at all, but my mother and I sit around and go, "How dare they talk about her hair. What's wrong with her hair?"

MOIRA GILLARD, MOTHER: I remember when she first started in politics I said that I wanted to live at Kirribilli House, and she said to me, "You'll be lucky, Mum." And I said, "Oh, but I'd like to." I said, "I'm going sit there in my wheelchair," I said, "waving a glass of gin and tonic." And she looked at me and she said, "Why gin and tonic?" I said, "Well, I can't very well wave a bottle of beer, can I?"

MONTAGE OF VOX POP WITH POLITICIANS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT

JULIA GILLARD: I always joke I didn't spend my days in kindy trying to, you know, work out how I could be Prime Minister, and I suspect there's a range of people who probably did, Peter Costello being one of them, and he still hasn't worked out how to do it yet, so I don't have that sense in me, and I don't have the sense in me that if I went throughout my political life and left my political life without ending up leading the Labor Party, that somehow that would be a track record of failure. I don't have that sense about it. If the position were open at some point, I would make a decision then. That's the absolute honest answer.

TONY ABBOTT (UNDER CLOSING CREDITS): I think she's made a big impact on the parliament in the comparatively short time she's been there. I think she obviously is one of those people who could well lead the Labor Party one day.