The election campaign took a turn for the personal yesterday as Julia Gillard fielded questions on whether she’d get married if she moved into the Lodge .
The Sydney Morning Herald reports Gillard responded to questions as clearly as possible. Gillard said “Number one, decisions about me getting married are not just made by me – if I could make that point,” she said. Number two, decisions in my personal life I’ll make for personal reasons."
Greens leader Bob Brown was one the of the first politicians to come to her defence “I’m frankly disgusted by it. She’s got her own partner and her relationship with that partner and that’s a great strength to any member of parliament, as my own partner is.” Even Tony Abbott remarked that he was disappointed that Ms Gillard’s private life was being questioned. Abbott commented “"Family status shouldn’t be at stake - gender shouldn’t be at stake. It’s simply the policies and the competence which are the issues in this campaign.”
But Gillard’s private life will be put under the microscope even further in an 8-page spread to appear in the Australian Women’s Weekly today. Also appearing in the magazine, according to news.com.au, will be Liberal frontbencher Joe Hockey with the “debut appearance” of his son Ignatius.