AUSTRALIA’S first female prime minister Julia Gillard gave lunch guests at The Grand View Hotel an insight into some of her intimate relations during her three years and three days in the top job.
And they rewarded her with two standing ovations.
Ms Gillard, 53, spoke frankly about her dealings with Kevin Rudd, who preceded and succeeded her as prime minister.
In the 500-page tome, she tells of the turmoil within the Labor Party when, on Wednesday, June 23, 2010, she asked the then prime minister Kevin Rudd for a leadership ballot.
The next day, she became Australia's 27th prime minister, and the country’s first female leader.
After taking on the role, she detailed how she had patch up relationships in China.
“I had work to do with China to rebuild that relationship after their adverse reactions to Kevin’s presumption of a special bond with them and his expletive-laden insults following the Copenhagen climate change summit. No one takes well to being accused of ratxxxx."
The book gives a warts and all view into how Gillard managed a hung parliament while there was government in-fighting and hostile media.
She praises her former treasurer Wayne Swan and his role in building a diverse and robust economy and her education minister Chris Evans and Peter Garratt.
It also touches on her achievement in getting the NDIS off the ground and her hard work getting a price on carbon.
The book documents her early campus days with the Australian Union of Students, to a career in the law, to her rise through the ranks of the Australian Labor Party.
