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Well, it’s been four slightly battle-scarred months since The Making of Julia Gillard hit the bookshops, if that’s not too energetic a way of describing what has actually happened. Apart from the fact that someone who is currently writing a competing biography was asked, ridiculously, to review mine in The Monthly — what part of ‘conflict of interest’ did she not understand? — Continue reading The fortunes of the Making of Julia Gillard, so far Hobart Mercury, 3 October 2009 Red Julia takes job seriously but not herself For all Julia Gillard’s talents and ambition, it is her sense of humour and of the ridiculous that will see here through, writes WAYNE CRAWFORD JULIA Gillard pleaded with Mark Latham not to proceed with the contentious policy on Tasmanian forestry that is widely thought to have tipped the balance, and helped cost Labor the 2004 election. Ms Gillard – then a close ally of Mr Latham, for whom she had helped muster the support he needed to snatch the leadership from Kim Beazley – greeted Mr Latham’s pro-green forestry policy “with a sense of foreboding,” writes her biographer Jacqueline Kent. The Australian, October 2009 Gillard’s grasp on the political domain The Making Of Julia Gillard TRADITIONALLY, political biographies come at the end of a career, although there are always exceptions. Two biographies of then opposition leader Kevin Rudd appeared in the months before the 2007 election, as Australians rushed to find out about the man who might be PM. And now we have the first of two biographies of Julia Gillard – the other, by journalist Christine Wallace is due next year – a mid-career politician, whose greatest triumphs (and defeats) are likely yet to come. On the first page of The Making of Julia Gillard, Jacqueline Kent justifies her choice of subject, arguing that in a country where distrust of politicians is almost an article of faith, Gillard is a political celebrity. She is also Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Social Inclusion and an impressive parliamentary and media performer. Biography Footnotes, no 4, 2009 Book Review: Jacqueline Kent, The Making of Julia Gillard, Penguin/Viking, 2009, 328pp, $32.95. Many people want to know about Julia Gillard, undoubtedly the most powerful woman in Australian Federal politics today – what makes her tick and how she came to be such a star parliamentary performer. The Making of Julia Gillard, gives us an insight into what has made this formidable politician. But we get very little about her personal life, how she operates and keeps up with her personal workload of three key portfolios, Industrial Relations, Education and Social Inclusion. Gillard’s grasp on the political domain The Making Of Julia Gillard By Jacqueline Kent Viking, 320pp, $32.95 TRADITIONALLY, political biographies come at the end of a career, although there are always exceptions. Two biographies of then opposition leader Kevin Rudd appeared in the months before the 2007 election, as Australians rushed to find out about the man who might be PM. And now we have the first of two biographies of Julia Gillard – the other, by journalist Christine Wallace is due next year – a mid-career politician, whose greatest triumphs (and defeats) are likely yet to come. On the first page of The Making of Julia Gillard, Jacqueline Kent justifies her choice of subject, arguing that in a country where distrust of politicians is almost an article of faith, Gillard is a political celebrity. She is also Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Social Inclusion and an impressive parliamentary and media performer. |
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