Julia Gillard "7.30 Report": When Gillard replaced Rudd in 2010, Stephen Smith retained the portfolio of Foreign Affairs up until the 2010 election, when he was moved to Defence. Following her 2010 election victory, Gillard selected her former leader Kevin Rudd (a career diplomat) as Foreign Minister. After Rudd's unsuccessful leadership challenge in February 2012, Gillard appointed Bob Carr to succeed Rudd as Foreign Affairs Minister. When Gillard was not present in the Australia due to international commitments, or in other circumstances, Wayne Swan assumed the title of acting prime minister; when neither leader nor deputy were present in Australia, Leader of
Julia Gillard Governor-General Quentin Bryce, with Swan being sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister. The members of the Rudd Ministry, with the exception of Rudd himself who returned to the backbenches, subsequently became the members of the First Gillard Ministry. Later that day, in her first press conference as Prime Minister, Gillard said that at times the Rudd Government "went off the tracks", and "[I] came to the view that a good Government was losing its way". Gillard offered wider explanation of her motivations for replacing Rudd during the 2012 Labor leadership spill in which Rudd challenged Gillard to regain the Labor