Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, you get elected to this position in order to take decisions, many of them very tough decisions—but they are decisions that need to be taken for the nation's future. You get elected to this position on the basis that you have got the preparedness to go and say things to people that they may not necessarily want to hear. You cannot, when you are elected to this position, just agree with someone on radio, then agree with someone walking down the street, agree with someone in a meeting and then agree with a journalist who rings you up for an interview and actually say different things to all of those people. What you have to do in this position is make the decisions necessary for the nation's future and have the determination to implement them and the courage to argue for them, and that is what I intend to do.

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