The woman who has become Australia's first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, is a Welsh-born lawyer known as a straight talker.

As deputy to Kevin Rudd, whom she replaced without a ballot, she was seen as one of the government's top performers in parliament and the media after the Labor Party's landslide win in 2007.
First elected to parliament in 1998, Gillard is considered on the left of the party and is expected to continue many of Rudd's policies ahead of the 2010 federal elections.
Correspondents say she needs the support of the more conservative factions of her party and therefore is unlikely to attempt to bring the party further towards the left.
Rudd ally
Born in the Welsh town of Barry in 1961, Gillard migrated to Australia with her parents when she was four.
A lawyer with a broad Australian accent, she worked for a firm specializing in class actions and industrial relations after graduating from university.
Moving into politics, she became the chief of staff to Victoria state opposition leader, John Brumby, and then won a seat in parliament in 1998.
Rudd entered parliament at the same time as Gillard and they formed an alliance in 2006.
While in the Rudd government, she held several portfolios, including minister for employment and workplace relations, minister for education, and minister for social inclusion - as well as her deputy prime minister post.
The 48-year-old remained loyal to Rudd, even in recent months as he began to lose support.
Her popularity fared better than his and her supporters highlighted her association with education reform and fair pay for workers.
She has been described as a good negotiator and a consensus politician - a sharp contrast with Rudd, who was criticized by some for his top-down style of leadership.
'Sit idly by'
Speaking shortly after assuming the leadership, Gillard said she had acted because Rudd's government was losing its way.
“I believe fundamentally that the basic education and health services that Australians rely on, and their decent treatment at work, is at risk at the next election,” she said.
“I love this country, and I was not going to sit idly by and watch an incoming opposition cut education, cut health, and smash rights at work.”
And she played down her achievement of rising to the top in the male-dominated world of Australia politics.
“I'm aware I'm the first woman to sit in this role but I didn't set out to crash my head against any glass ceilings,” she said.
(Source: BBC)