Julia Gillard took effect the following day, upon the swearing in of Rudd, and she made her final appearance in the House of Representatives shortly thereafter. Her parliamentary service ended at the dissolution of the Parliament on 5 August. By the conclusion of her tenure, Gillard overtook Gough Whitlam as the 14th longest–serving Prime Minister of Australia, having served in the position for three full years. She also became the longest–serving Prime Minister since John Howard's electoral loss in 2007; a record which has not been exceeded by successive Prime Ministers Rudd, Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, or , current Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Julia Gillard conclusion of a criminal investigation. After a week of controversy, Gillard announced that she was asking Slipper to delay his return to the Chair pending the conclusion of concurrent civil proceedings, in an effort to dispel what she described as a "dark cloud" over her government (a reference also to the ongoing Craig Thomson affair involving a Labor MP linked to corruption allegations). In the light of poor polling results for the Gillard Government, speculation that Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wished to challenge Gillard for the leadership culminated with Rudd resigning from the Cabinet on 22