Short answers, pulled from the story.
Julia Gillard was the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 2010 to 2013. She is the first and only woman to hold that office, as well as the first and only woman to serve as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, a role she held from 2007 to 2010.
Julia Gillard was born on the 29th of September 1961 in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Her family migrated to Adelaide, South Australia in 1966 after her parents were advised that a warmer climate would help her recover from bronchopneumonia.
Gillard replaced Kevin Rudd through a Labor Party leadership spill on the 24th of June 2010, after Rudd lost internal support over controversies including his government's insulation program, a proposed mining tax, and the failure of his carbon trading scheme. Rudd resigned before a vote was held, and Gillard was elected unopposed and sworn in by Governor-General Quentin Bryce.
On the 9th of October 2012, Gillard delivered a speech in the Australian House of Representatives opposing a motion to remove Peter Slipper as Speaker. She directed the speech at Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, accusing him of a pattern of sexist and misogynistic conduct. The speech was broadcast worldwide and was praised by leaders including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and French President François Hollande.
The Gillard government introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Gonski school funding reforms, and a carbon pricing scheme under the Clean Energy Act 2011. It also oversaw the early rollout of the National Broadband Network and delivered a national apology in 2013 to Australians affected by forced adoption practices from the late 1950s through the 1970s.
Gillard lost the Labor leadership on the 26th of June 2013 when Kevin Rudd defeated her in a party-room ballot by 57 votes to 45, after sustained leadership speculation and polling that suggested Labor faced near-certain defeat at the upcoming election under her leadership. She resigned the following day and announced she would not re-contest her seat of Lalor.
Since leaving parliament in 2013, Gillard has served as chairwoman of the Global Partnership for Education from 2014, chair of Beyond Blue from 2017 to 2023, and chair of the Wellcome Trust from April 2021. She published her memoir My Story in 2014 and was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2017.