1. Gillard says losing Labor leadership was “a pain that hits you like a fist”
A newly published interview with Julia Gillard about her final days as the Prime Minister of Australia has been released, in the new book Gravity — Inside the Prime Minister’s office during her final year and last days by author Mary Delahunty.
According to Delahunty, Gillard said on the morning she was removed from the role of Prime Minister, “This has been contentless, it’s been all about ego and personalities.”
News.com.au has reported that Gillard also spoke candidly about the personal toll that the fight for the Labor leadership had on her, and about the pain that she felt afterwards.
“I know, too, that you can feel you are fine but suddenly someone’s words of comfort, or finding a memento in the back of a cupboard as you pack up, or even cracking jokes about old times, can bring forth a pain that hits you like a fist, a pain so strong you can feel it in your nerve endings,” Gillard said in the interview.
“I know that late at night or at quiet moments of the day feelings of regret, memories that make you shine with pride, a sense of being unfulfilled can overwhelm you.”
2. 8-year-old girl beaten to death fell “through the cracks”
An eight-year-old girl was bludgeoned to death by her mother, using a vacuum pipe, and “left to die alone and in pain”. The girl was allegedly a victim of ongoing abuse, and the coroner found multiple scars, welts, broken bones and cigarette burns on her body.