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PM Julia Gillard Cries Must See
- Published_at:2012-09-19
- Category:Entertainment
- Channel:lolumadbro100
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- description: Prime Minister Julia Gillard has broken down in parliament giving an emotional speech praising her father, who died earlier this month. In her first appearance since John Gillard, 83, died, the Prime Minister said she would not have entered parliament and won the top job if it was not for him. Ms Gillard struggled to fight back tears while quoting her father's John Gillard's favourite poet Dylan Thomas, who wrote "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" about his own father's death. "The last thing my father taught me, was in the life of a man, there is a moment to go gentle into that good night, and so it was," Ms Gillard said as her voice broke up. Some of Ms Gillard's fellow ministers were seen fighting back tears alongside her as she recalled her father's words. The Prime Minister said her father followed her political career with keen interest and felt some of the personal attacks against her more deeply than she did. "He felt more deeply than me, in many ways, some of the personal attacks, that we face in the business of politics, but I was always able to reassure him that he had raised a daughter with sufficient strength not to let that get her down." Ms Gillard said she and her family had been "overwhelmed by people's kindness" since her father's passing, noting that he had led a very full and happy life. She talked of his humble beginnings in Wales, where he grew up in a coal mining village "in a state of hardship". While he was forced to leave school at 14, Mr Gillard later obtained his A and O levels at night school, then became a police officer, where he met Ms Gillard's mother Moira, a policewoman, in the town of Barry. "He confessed to my partner Tim, that the initial point of attraction was her black stockings," Ms Gillard said. It was the start of what would have been 55 years of marriage this December, Ms Gillard said. The family migrated to Adelaide, where they found "a life of huge opportunity". "My father got the opportunity to study again and to pursue for more than two decades what became the most important part of his working life, as a psychiatric nurse," Ms Gillard said. "He very much enjoyed, indeed loved, that sense of care and compassion that he got to give people with mental illness in our society." Ms Gillard said she would not have become prime minister, had her father not instilled her with Labor values, and a belief in the value of education. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott welcomed Ms Gillard back to parliament on behalf of the coalition and all members of parliament. "This is a tragic time for her and we all feel for her at this very difficult and sad time," he told parliament. Mr Gillard had done Australia proud in producing a remarkable daughter, Mr Abbott said. "It is a remarkable parent who produces a prime minister of this country." The opposition leader said he was familiar with the journey of Mr Gillard from the valleys of Wales to Australia. It was the same one his maternal grandmother had undertaken from a mining town on the south coast of Wales. For Mr Gillard and his grandmother Australia had been a land of opportunity, Mr Abbott said. "Although the same journey provided a different sort of political destination," he said. Mr Abbott said everyone knew the place good parents had in the hearts of their children. He also acknowledged the sad task both leaders had in attending the deaths of three Australian soldiers in the last week. Ms Gillard's first duty after returning from bereavement leave last Thursday was to attend a military funeral
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| 2013-05-16 | 13,054 | 23 | 84 |
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