Gravity: Inside the PM’s Office during Her Last Year and Final Days

by Mary Delahunty

In this exclusive insider account Mary Delahunty takes us behind closed doors to tease out the personal from the political and reveals the human cost of brutal modern politics. In Gravity we are eyewitnesses to history. Our first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard came to power suddenly after the night of the long knives in a coup that perplexed the nation. She hurried to an election and was chained to a hung parliament. She out negotiated Tony Abbott and formed a minority government but the deepest threat was from within. The man she beat for the top job was to relentlessly undermine her for three tortuous years.
In gathering material for the book, journalist and politician, Mary Delahunty had rare and unparalleled access to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, following her for her last 6 months. She was present at public speeches, party events and community cabinet. Mary was in her private office and the PM’s wider office during parliamentary sitting weeks, particularly witnessing from the inside the compelling dramas of the no-show coup in March and the defeat in June. Mary was the only journalist/writer to
speak with the PM on June 26 ( the spill and caucus vote was that evening) and she has the exclusive conversation with the vanquished PM in her private office the Morning After.
The book uses Gillard’s own words to reveal the personal behind the political, the colour of contest, the cost of defeat, the drama from within the PMO bunker and just how fast power drains away. It explores resilience in public life and the disposability of modern leaders.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Biography

300 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2014

Reviews

[Sharon Hollis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book reminded me what I loved about Julie Gillard and why anyone that cares about leadership and democracy should be angry about the way she was treated. Mary Delahunty's book reflects on the final year of Gillard's prime ministership from the vantage point of a former politician with generous access to Gillard and her staff over the year she followed her around the country. She clearly admires Gillard but also point out her flaws, particularly her failure to sell her political achievements. Gillard is a lawyer who sells her achievements forensically rather than making myth and telling stories. Delahunty reminds us of how good Gillard was at managing politics and of seeking to govern with purpose, especially in regard to education and he NDIS and achieving that purpose in legislation passed in a hung parliament. This book also documents the enormous pressures the PM faced and how much of the opposition was focused on her gender and the sort primal fear this provoked in so many. It also draws attention to the constant undermining of Gillard at the hands of Rudd. This undermining was based in policy or ideas but Rudd's ego and it combined with a negative opposition and a press that never really allowed her to grow into leadership undermined her despite all that she achieved. Let hope Gillard is right that her term as PM has made it easier for the next women, because it's a hard road.

This book is well written and astutely observed. In telling Gillard's story it is a call to arms for anyone who wants to see women exercise leadership without the vitriol and high personal cost.

[Sare W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Journalist (and former politician) Mary Delahunty spent a year observing in the Prime Minister's office during the final year of Julia Gillard's leadership. Gillard was PM of Australia for 3 years and 3 days. The first female Prime Minister, leading a minority government, corroded from the inside by a jilted former leader and factions of shifting alliances. The author calls this "defying political gravity", hence the title.

The book covers policy, politics and the personal, analyses women and power in Australia, and observes Gillard's resilience. She writes of community and staff meetings, and shares snippets of conversations with the PM over peppermint tea, including her reflection that when a man takes the top job the question asked is "what type of leader will he be?" versus the question when she took it being "can she lead?".

Gillard's legislative achievements were formidable - more than 600 Bills passed through her Parliament. Her flagship accomplishments, discussed extensively, are the Gonski based education reforms, the national disability insurance scheme, establishing a royal commission into institutional child abuse and the introduction of a carbon price. These set the background for the author's main focus: Gillard's resilience. How she could get up each day and keep going despite the abuse and sexism. She writes that Gillard guarded herself personally but the consequence of that was coming across as lawyerly clinical, undermining her connection with the public. The few genuine and warm public moments - including the cover photo moment - garnered a lot of positive public attention.

She paints a picture of a brilliant, hard working woman, who could calmly argue a case for change but not necessarily paint a picture with her words, who had a grip on the out-of-sight necessary politics (never losing a floor vote) but less so on the shiny surface level. The conclusion: she focused on purpose and policy, less so on PR. Perhaps to her downfall.

[AngelaC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would not have chosen this book but it was our book group's selection of the month so I had to read it.
It turned out to be more interesting than I feared it would and it's always good to look back at a period in history once it has ended, to see what it led to. In Australia's case, Julia Gillard's demise led to two of the nastiest prime ministers imaginable - Kevin Rudd, the ultimate chaotic, rude narcissist, and Tony Abbott, an equally narcissistic, smug, political thug.
Julia Gillard was the prime minister who was never really given a chance and the author puts this down to her gender. However, the situation was much the same for Malcolm Turnbull several years later. Like her, he was ousted before he'd had time to warm his slippers at The Lodge.
That said, she did suffer the most outrageous, cruel, sexist slurs and it took a very strong woman to withstand the pressure. She also pushed some major legislation through a hung parliament, again no mean feat.
This book gives detailed insight into a woman who was both strong and empathetic. Her "fault" was her inability to show this softer, empathetic side to the nation and produce speeches that spoke to hearts as well as minds. She is, though, an admirable person who deserved much better treatment than she received.
My criticism of the book is that the author tends to ramble at times, possibly making the narrative rather confused and confusing, hence the three stars.

[Warren Gossett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a clear and honest look by a woman journalist and former politician who was granted access by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to carefully observe and interview her frequently during the year before the 2013 election, the year that turned out to be Gillard's final year as Australia's first female prime minister. I was fortunate enough to meet the author Mary Delahunty at the Perth Writers Festival last month. I must confess my biases. I did not like at all the sexism lurking in many of the attacks on Gillard. I wish for more female political leaders in Australia and around the world. It should be 50 per cent or more women at the top to make up for past wrongs and omissions. On the other hand I didn't support the Labor party. I rejected Prime Minister Keating's tilt in the 1990's to orient Australia as a Asian region country. This view caused me to go straight to the Liberals and the Greens. It made no sense to see anything but one world, Asian or American or European all connected by internet, by air and by sea. And I was happy as a former American to have Australia continue a pro western posture. What about domestic policy? I could see Gillard tried hard but felt that throwing money at schools does not produce smarter students. We all have to do the hard work of learning by doing, innovating, adopting a physical culture of exercise and healthy diet (note: I'm a vegan) and using the internet instead of just building more bricks and mortar schools. I would also argue that it was an error to propose financing Gonski reforms for primary and secondary schools by taking some money from the university sector. It is the university, vocational and lifelong adult education sectors that should be modernised and expanded. Thus I supported Gillard's right to lead with full honour till the next election but disagreed with most of her policies. I was against the mining tax. Were we going pounce on any industry as soon as it was temporarily making profits? I was against the carbon tax. Alternative energy will replace fossil fuels because it will become cheaper because of technology long before sea level rise, etc., will kill us. Provided of course that we limit total population to a reasonable and harmonious number. And I wanted to stop the boats. Uncontrolled immigration should stop. Australia has to regulate its population. So does the whole planet. Look at the pitiful situation in Europe of refugee boats crossing into Italy. These are some of the issues at the centre of contemporary politics. This book shows Julia Gillard would be a most interesting person to talk to about all these issues with great finesse and intelligence.

[Oanh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and engaging, but a very depressing read. I don't think Delahunty gave me any insights I wasn't already aware of, but she drew everything together very well and clearly articulated the issues. It felt breathless and incomplete, much like Gillard's prime ministership.

[Morgyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book just reinforced to me how much I don't enjoy Australian politics.

[Barbara Lynch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting detail.