Gillard Government also polarised: approval ratings of Gillard and Abbott both improved following the speech. Julia Gillard mounted a leadership challenge against Kevin Rudd as leader of the Australian Labor Party and Prime Minister of Australia in June 2010. Rudd remained within the government, initially as a backbencher. Following the 2010 election, Gillard appointed Rudd as Foreign Minister in her minority government. The unusual circumstances of Rudd's replacement by his own party prior to completion of his first term in office, the subsequent circumstances of Labor operating without an outright Parliamentary majority, persistent two-party-preferred polling results favouring the Liberal-National opposition, and some
Julia Gillard On 15 February 2011, Gillard made her first trip to New Zealand, during which she met with Key and held a luncheon with business leaders in Auckland. It marked the first New Zealand visit of a prime minister since Howard visited in 2007. To conclude her two-day visit to New Zealand, Gillard travelled to Wellington on 16 February, where she became the first foreign dignitary to address the New Zealand Parliament in its history. In her speech, Gillard reflected on the countries' close ties to one another, their shared defence history, and efforts to increase economic cooperation. Her second visit