Julia Gillard become chief of staff to John Brumby, the leader of the Labor Party in Victoria. This preceded her own entry into federal politics. Gillard was first elected to the House of Representatives at the 1998 federal election for the seat of Lalor. Following the 2001 election, she was elected to Shadow Cabinet. When Kevin Rudd was elected as party leader and Leader of the Opposition in December 2006, Gillard was elected unopposed as his deputy. Upon Labor's victory at the 2007 election, she became the first female Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, and was made Minister for Education, Minister for
Julia Gillard Minister since Billy Hughes to have been born overseas. The leadership question remained a feature of the Gillard Government's terms in office, and amidst ongoing leadership speculation following an ABC TV "Four Corners" examination of the events leading up to Rudd's replacement which cast doubt on Gillard's insistence that she did not actively campaign for the Prime Ministership, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon spoke of Rudd's record in the following terms: "I don't think we should whitewash history – while there are a lot of very good things our government did with Kevin as prime minister, there were also a lot of