A New Doco Has Reminded Us Of How Horribly Julia Gillard Was Treated As PM And Folks Are Angry
"How did we let this happen?”
On Sunday night, SBS aired their Strong Female Lead documentary as part of its Australia Uncovered series.
Created purely from archival footage and audio, the program collated a timeline of Julia Gillard’s prime ministership from the leadership spill that crowned her PM to the unrelenting smear campaign that drove her out of office.
It’s a watch that fills the viewer with shame. And in light of Strong Female Lead’s brutally factual remembrance of Gillard’s reign, Twitter is teeming with commiserations and regretful reflections on how the media, the parliament and so much of the public.
Even beloved TV journalist Lisa Wilkinson joined in the reaction, tweeting, “Julia Gillard’s unerring strength, dignity, grace, humour & refusal to be thrown in the face of constant slurs, rumours & disgusting tactics of people like Alan Jones, Tony Abbott and so many others? Extraordinary.”
This doco and the way they’ve pieced together the systematic, brutalising, misogyny, day after day after day, designed to destroy Julia Gillard, is absolutely devastating viewing. How did we let this happen? Media, political class and public all culpable. #StrongFemaleLead
— Jill Stark (@jillastark) September 12, 2021
Author, Jill Stark also tweeted, “This doco and the way they’ve pieced together the systematic, brutalising, misogyny, day after day after day, designed to destroy Julia Gillard, is absolutely devastating viewing. How did we let this happen?”
Regret isn’t the only thing the tweets have in common, but also awe at the grace with which Gillard conducted herself through everything. Of course, no documentary on Gillard’s reign would be complete without her iconic misogyny speech. Though Strong Female Lead reminds the viewer that this too was barely picked up by the Australian press.
"What I am absolutely confident of is it will be easier for the next woman, and the woman after that, and the woman after that, and I'm proud of that." #strongfemalelead pic.twitter.com/orlARhNPIa
— Strong Female Lead (@sflfilm) September 12, 2021
Journalist Jess Hill tweeted, “I was in Beirut when Gillard gave the misogyny speech. It was huge for feminists everywhere — including the Middle East. I couldn’t understand why most of the Canberra press gallery weren’t seeing what a colossal cultural moment this was.”
Strong Female Lead is a difficult and downright shameful watch, but it’s also a respectful and hopeful one. While Australia has yet to see a woman follow in Julia Gillard’s footsteps, it is a small consolation to note that history has begun to remember her prime ministership with the respect she always deserved.
Oh my God – I’m getting so angry. Alan Jones, Larry Pickering, Tony Abbott……all such revolting shit magnets. What sort of upbringing must these men have had to become such awful human beings? Or are narcissistic psychopaths born that way? #StrongFemaleLead
— Bethany Williams (@BethanyinCBR) September 12, 2021
Strong Female Lead is streaming free on SBS On Demand.