It’s 10 years since I invited Julia Gillard’s parents to join me in the ABC radio studios to talk with their daughter on the day she was elevated to Labor’s shadow front bench.
The newly appointed health spokeswoman, a former Adelaide girl, had a good chat with John and Moira Gillard as the family shared with drive-time listeners the journey they had made from Wales to Adelaide 37 years prior.
It struck me at the time that this family was not one to gush with emotion, but understood the value of commitment.
There was a sense of austerity, borne out of their experiences in Wales.
John Gillard, who died last September, had firm political views and his daughter made no secret of his influence.
Emotion did play some part in her decision to get involved in the ALP – that choice had its roots on November 11, 1975, when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, was dismissed. The 14-year-old Julia was white hot with rage.
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Whitlam, that day, asked his supporters to ‘maintain the rage” and she has done so in spades.
John Gillard’s family came from the down-trodden coal mine working classes in the south Wales town of Barry.
John met and married Moira and they had two daughters, Alison, in 1958, and Julia, three years later.
In 1966 they migrated to Australia where Moira worked part-time and John, who was a white collar worker in Wales, started night school in Adelaide and qualified as a psychiatric nurse.
My notes from that interview show that the parent’s aim was to give their daughters every opportunity, and that they did.
Julia went to Unley High School, Adelaide University and followed her political passion in student politics through the Australian Union of Students.
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She joined the ALP Left faction and moved to Melbourne where she worked with the left-aligned plaintiff rights law firm Slater & Gordon.
I have watched her career closely since that first family interview 10 years ago.
Austerity and commitment were always present; warmth and compassion, however, remained mostly behind closed doors.
She gave a rare show of emotion in the recent Parliamentary debate introducing the National Disability Insurance Scheme, but, mostly, in her three years as PM, Julia Gillard never really connected with the people she was meant to lead.
The lack of popular support would see her most loyal backers flip to the comfort of self-interest; something that would have appalled her father.
Last night she listed her achievements; each was an issue that would have warmed her father’s heart – education, equality and opportunity.
The choice to retire at the age of 51 would be a frustration for her supporters and family.
Ten years after being elevated to the ALP front benches, Julia Gillard’s Canberra career is over.
Just as her parents had promised, she was given every opportunity.
