Julia Gillard of Parliament House, was well–received by the 800 attendees, most of whom were victims or shared a connection to these practices. Gillard opened her speech by announcing that the Parliament would take responsibility for the practice of forced adoptions: In the speech, Gillard committed to $5 million worth of specialist support and records tracing for victims of forced adoptions, and an additional $1.5 million towards the National Archives of Australia "to record the experiences of those affected by forced adoption through a special exhibition." During her first major international tour as prime minister in late 2010, Gillard told ABC TV's
Julia Gillard speech, as did the Prime Minister of Denmark, and some other leaders, just casually as I've moved around, have also mentioned it to me." US president Barack Obama reportedly "complimented" Gillard on the speech in a private conversation following his re-election, and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the speech as "very striking" with Gillard going "chapter and verse". Labor had secured the defection of Slipper from the Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) to sit in the Speaker's chair a year earlier, but he was forced to stand aside from his main duties in April 2012 pending the