Julia Gillard: 'Murderous Rage' Over Sexism
Australia's former leader, Julia Gillard, speaks of her feelings towards the country's new PM and takes a swipe at her successor.
Monday 30 September 2013 14:12, UK
Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has spoken of the acute anger she felt over sexist comments made towards her during her time in office.
Asked how she felt seeing sexist cartoons and comments online and in the press, she said a "murderous rage" best described it.
"And so for my personal liberty, it's probably a good thing that I didn't focus on them," she said.
In her first major public appearance since losing power, the country's first female leader told an audience at Sydney Opera House that females had "a right to an environment that treats you with respect, treats you as an equal".
She added: "Raising your voice about that isn't starting a war, it isn't playing the victim, it's just asking for what simply is right."
Julia Gillard famously attacked the then-leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, for being a misogynist in a speech which got worldwide media attention.
She told the audience: "I thought: 'After everything I've had to see on the internet, after all the gendered abuse that I've seen in newspapers, that has been called at me across the dispatch box, now of all things I've got to listen to Tony Abbott lecture me about sexism'."
Julia Gillard also had a swipe at Kevin Rudd, who took over as leader of the Labor Party after ousting her last June.
She was asked if it was a simple reversal of what she did to him three years earlier.
"To do things continuously that undermine the Labor party and the Labor government, then of course that shouldn't be done by anyone," she said.
"The key difference is every day I was deputy PM I spent all of my time doing everything I could to have the Labor government prosper."
Ms Gillard said she intentionally stayed out of the media until recently to give Labor the "gift" of silence during the recent federal election.
She said a "perfect political storm" had formed following the 2010 election that ultimately led to her being dethroned by Mr Rudd.
This included being forced to hold together a minority government, the legitimacy of which was questioned daily by a hard hitting opposition.
"You had the wildcard of gender, being the first female PM, and then internal instability in the Labor party, so it all came together to create this very difficult environment," she said.