Australia votes in first female PM
Previously deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard became Australia’s first female prime minister after she challenged former prime minister Kevin Rudd to a leadership ballot.
As reported in The Independent, “I asked my colleagues to make a leadership change … because I believed that a good government was losing its way,” Ms Gillard told reporters.
“And because I believe fundamentally that the basic education and health services that Australians rely on and their decent treatment at work are at risk at the next election,” she said.
Ms Gillard’s Labor party has been in power since Mr Rudd brought them to power in 2007 after 11 years in opposition.
