Julia Gillard

The Honourable Julia Gillard AC
Official portrait, 2010
27th Prime Minister of Australia
In office 24 June 2010 – 27 June 2013
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor General	Quentin Bryce
Deputy	Wayne Swan
Preceded by	Kevin Rudd
Succeeded by	Kevin Rudd
Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
In office 3 December 2007 – 24 June 2010
Prime Minister	Kevin Rudd
Preceded by	Mark Vaile
Succeeded by	Wayne Swan
Leader of the Labor Party
In office 24 June 2010 – 26 June 2013
Deputy	Wayne Swan
Preceded by	Kevin Rudd
Succeeded by	Kevin Rudd
Deputy Leader of the Labor Party
In office 4 December 2006 – 24 June 2010
Leader	Kevin Rudd
Preceded by	Jenny Macklin
Succeeded by	Wayne Swan
Cabinet Positions Minister for Education In office 3 December 2007 – 28 June 2010 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Preceded by Julie Bishop Succeeded by Simon Crean Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations In office 3 December 2007 – 28 June 2010 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Preceded by Joe Hockey Succeeded by Simon Crean Minister for Social Inclusion In office 3 December 2007 – 28 June 2010 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Preceded by Mike Rann Succeeded by Simon Crean Deputy Leader of the Opposition In office 4 December 2006 – 3 December 2007 Leader Kevin Rudd Preceded by Jenny Macklin Succeeded by Julie Bishop
Manager of Opposition Business
In office 8 December 2003 – 10 December 2006
Leader	Mark Latham Kim Beazley
Preceded by	Mark Latham
Succeeded by	Anthony Albanese
Member of the Australian Parliament for Lalor
In office 3 October 1998 – 5 August 2013
Preceded by	Barry Jones
Succeeded by	Joanne Ryan
Personal details
Born	Julia Eileen Gillard (1961-09-29) 29 September 1961 (age 62) Barry, Wales
Citizenship	Australia British (until 1998)
Political party	Labor
Domestic partner	Tim Mathieson (2006–2021)
Education	Mitcham School Unley High School
Alma mater	University of Adelaide University of Melbourne (BA, LLB)
Signature
Website	Personal website
Gillard's voice At a press conference with former president Barack Obama Recorded 16 November 2011

This article is part of a series about Julia Gillard
Early life and career Member for Lalor (1998–2013) 1998 federal election 2006 Labor Party spill Deputy Prime Minister of Australia 2007 federal election Fair Work Act Building the Education Revolution Digital Education Revolution NAPLAN ACARA My School Prime Minister of Australia First Ministry Second Ministry Election 2010 federal election Carbon pricing scheme Minerals Resource Rent Tax Gonski report Immigration policies National Broadband Network 2012 Labor Party spill National Disability Insurance Scheme Misogyny Speech AWU affair March 2013 and June 2013 Labor Party spills My Story
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Julia Eileen Gillard AC (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as the 13th deputy prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010, under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. She is the first and only woman to hold either office in Australian history.

Born in Barry, Wales, Gillard migrated with her family to Adelaide in South Australia in 1966. She attended Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. Gillard went on to study at the University of Adelaide, but switched to the University of Melbourne in 1982, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1986 and a Bachelor of Arts in 1989. During this time, she was president of the Australian Union of Students from 1983 to 1984. In 1987, Gillard joined the law firm Slater & Gordon, eventually becoming a partner in 1990, specialising in industrial law. In 1996, she became chief of staff to John Brumby, the Leader of the Opposition in Victoria.

Gillard was first elected to the House of Representatives at the 1998 election for the seat of Lalor. Following the 2001 election, she was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet. In December 2006, Gillard became the running mate of Kevin Rudd in a successful leadership challenge to Kim Beazley, becoming deputy leader of the opposition. After Labor's victory at the 2007 election, she was appointed as the deputy prime minister of Australia, and was also given the roles of Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and Minister for Social Inclusion.

On 24 June 2010, after Rudd lost internal support within the Labor Party and resigned as leader, Gillard was elected unopposed as his replacement in a leadership spill, and was sworn-in as prime minister. She led Labor through the 2010 election weeks later, which saw the first hung parliament since 1940. Gillard was able to form a minority government with the support of the Greens and three independents. During its term of office, the Gillard government introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the Gonski funding, oversaw the initial rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN), and controversially implemented a carbon pricing scheme, which was widely perceived as a breach of a pre-election commitment.

Gillard's premiership was often undermined by party instability and numerous scandals, including the AWU affair and the Health Services Union expenses affair. Gillard and Rudd became embroiled in a lengthy political rivalry, resulting in Gillard losing the leadership of the Labor Party back to him in a June 2013 leadership spill. Her resignation as prime minister took effect the next day, and she announced her retirement from politics.

In the years following her retirement, Gillard has been a visiting professor at the University of Adelaide, the Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Universal Education, and has been the chair of the Global Partnership for Education since 2014 and as the chair of Beyond Blue since 2017. She released her memoir, My Story, in September 2014. In April 2021, she became chair of the Wellcome Trust, succeeding Eliza Manningham-Buller.^[1] Although Gillard often ranked poorly in opinion polls as prime minister,^[2][3] her premiership has been more favourably received in retrospect.^[4] Political experts often place her in the middle-to-upper tier of Australian prime ministers.^[5]