Australia Gets First Woman Prime Minister
Labor Party Elects Julia Gillard After Declaring Kevin Rudd’s Position Vacant
Australia's new Prime Minister is Julia Gillard.
Julia Gillard became Australia’s first female Prime Minister this week after the government’s ruling Labor Party removed former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Rudd exited, according to a Reuters article, just before the Labor Party voted him out in an internal ballot and less than three years after a stunning election victory in 2007.
The Rudd government’s slide in support this year sparked fears within the ruling party of an electoral defeat at a poll expected around October.
“I asked my colleagues to make a leadership change because I believed that a good government was losing its way,” Gillard told a news conference.
U.S. President Barack Obama offered congratulations to Gillard during a 20-minute phone conversation, according to The Australian.
In his statement, Mr Obama said: “The United States and Australia enjoy a special and productive relationship and alliance that will continue to prosper under her leadership.”
Welsh by birth, Gillard began her political career during her second year attending the University of Adelaide when she joined a Labor Club that campaigned to fight state education budget cuts.
She moved to Melbourne in 1983 and became the second woman to lead the Australian Union of Students, the precursor to the National Union of Australian University Students – as a representative body and lobby group for Australian University students.
In 1986 Gillard graduated from the University of Melbourne with bachelor of arts and bachelor of laws degrees. A long career in politics followed leading up to her swearing in as 2007 as the first female Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.
Gillard spoke in 2008 when she was Minister for Education about the “extraordinary contribution” international education makes to Australia’s educational system and national prosperity. She noted Australia’s position as the world’s fifth-largest provider of education to international students.
Here is an excerpt from that speech:
“Today international education is making a huge contribution to Australia’s education system, export earnings, trade development, skill needs and development assistance.
“It is rightly recognised as one of the big economic and cultural success stories of the past two decades, since we opened our economy to the world during the Hawke and Keating era.
“As our nation becomes even further enmeshed in our region and the global economy, international education will become even more important.
“But like all successful enterprises, it has to continually improve and innovate – and to improve it has to know what the future will look like in the next 5 to 10 years.
“As I look to the future for international education, I see four important impacts:
- education and training will become more globally connected;
- students will become increasingly sophisticated seeking a range of education products and services delivered in a variety of ways ;
- global demand for skilled labour will become more intense and more diverse – many of the jobs of 10 years time have not been invented today; and
- employers will become more demanding of the education and training industry.
“We must deliver world-leading education and training to make an effective contribution to boosting Australia’s productivity now and in the future.”
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