Top 35 Julia Gillard Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Try harder every day to be better than the day before.”

— Julia Gillard

2. “One of my prized possessions is still the prefect’s tie that I got in this school. I keep it with me. It was the first leadership position I ever had.”

— Julia Gillard

3. “My guiding principle is that prosperity can be shared. We can create wealth together. The global economy is not a zero-sum game.”

— Julia Gillard

4. “At the end of the day government is about teamwork and partnership and we will be proving that by working together.”

— Julia Gillard

5. “Through hard work and education, we can deliver a strong economy and opportunity for all.”

— Julia Gillard

Featured in: Strong Quotes

6. “I know reform is never easy. But I know reform is right.”

— Julia Gillard

7. “In my view, the ideal prime minister is patient, hard-working, compassionate and has a clear vision, driven by the fair go.”

— Julia Gillard

8. “If we change the way the electricity sector operates, we can bring down our levels of carbon pollution, and continue the crucial task of tackling climate change. Putting a price on carbon would do this.”

— Julia Gillard

9. “In the quest for comparative advantage, investment will flow towards those countries that can offer more output for fewer emissions. Inaction will cost jobs. Action will support jobs.”

— Julia Gillard

10. “The great thing about music is that whatever you’re into, you see new possibilities.”

— Julia Gillard

11. “He will always know as we know now that in the heat of battle he did not fail when mateship and duty called.”

— Julia Gillard

12. “There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.”

— Julia Gillard

13. “Indigenous children, children from the poorest of homes, can succeed to the highest of standards if we, the adults, are prepared to do everything necessary to get them a great education.”

— Julia Gillard

14. “Nurture your sense of self, who you are in your own eyes, not as seen through the eyes of others.”

— Julia Gillard

15. “Any sort of political correctness needs to be swept out of the way.”

— Julia Gillard

16. “The global economic outlook remains fragile and uncertain. Global economic imbalances persist and we must address them or risk future instability.”

— Julia Gillard

17. “Australians can trust me to get the job done. They can have the confidence that in the heart of the circumstances I will win through in their interests no matter how relentlessly negative the leader of the opposition is.”

— Julia Gillard

18. “In politics there’s never a magic wand.”

— Julia Gillard

19. “There’s not a sense that the person who is waiting on the table is somehow a lesser person that the person who is eating in the restaurant.”

— Julia Gillard

20. “There are some things that can’t be measured.”

— Julia Gillard

21. “Those of you who have spent time with Australians know that we are not given to overstatement. By nature we are laconic speakers and by conviction we are realistic thinkers.”

— Julia Gillard

22. “The caricature of my own face always makes me laugh.”

— Julia Gillard

23. “The first film I remember seeing was Bambi. It has stayed with me because it was so sad.”

— Julia Gillard

24. “So in many ways for me, having lived through what I’ve lived through, and endured what I’ve endured, I’ve got more confidence that I can do the next bit – and there’s something sustaining about that.”

— Julia Gillard

25. “We encourage China to engage as a good global citizen and we are clear-eyed about where differences do lie.”

— Julia Gillard

26. “I’m on the record as saying things like I think it’s important for people to understand their Bible stories, not because I’m an advocate of religion – clearly, I’m not – but once again, what comes from the Bible has formed such an important part of our culture.”

— Julia Gillard

27. “Afghanistan must never again be a safe haven for terrorism.”

— Julia Gillard

28. “Here in Australia we do get impacted by global economic events. But we should have some confidence that our economy has got strong underlying fundamentals.”

— Julia Gillard

Featured in: Strong Quotes

29. “I was not going to stand before the nation as prime minister and cry for myself. I was not going to let anyone conclude that a woman could not take it. I was not going to give any bastard the satisfaction. I was going to be resilient one more time.”

— Julia Gillard

30. “Long gone were the days when, for an individual, a second-class education was a ticket to a secure, full-time menial job. In the 21st-century economy, with its new technology, many of those jobs had been destroyed. That second-class education was more likely to precede a marginalised life with no continuing work.”

— Julia Gillard

31. “I found Chancellor Merkel’s frankness admirable. When I met with her at this G20 meeting, with deep cynicism she described how for photos Germans no longer said ‘cheese’. Instead they would grit their teeth and say ‘Greeeece’.”

— Julia Gillard

32. “Our nation is well equipped to make the transition. We have an abundance of natural resources like wind, natural gas, solar and geothermal.”

— Julia Gillard

33. “I know people are looking at whats happening in Washington and then they also look at events in Europe, in Greece and Portugal and other places and worry about that.”

— Julia Gillard

34. “The cartoon absolutely captures something that acres and acres of copy can’t. And even photographs can’t.”

— Julia Gillard

35. “I’m angry and I understand why Australians paying mortgages are angry.”

— Julia Gillard

36. “In Australia, average temperatures have risen almost one degree since 1910, and each decade since the 1940s has been warmer than the one before. That warming is real. Its consequences are real. And it will change our lives in real and practical ways.”

— Julia Gillard

37. “The Prime Minister seems now to be basing his re-election campaign on this plot line. He is saying to the Australian people, look out, the baddies behind you – hiss, boo and whatever you do, don’t vote Labor. This political parody of pantomime is looking and sounding desperate.”

— Julia Gillard