http://www.smh.com.au/The speed with which ''former prime minister Kevin Rudd'' became ''Prime Minister Kevin Rudd'' has a brutal symmetry with the transition of Julia Gillard from Prime Minister to former prime minister.
There was barely time on Wednesday night to register, let alone properly analyse, the results of the caucus votes that reshaped the ALP's senior parliamentary line-up. Now Parliament has ended, the trajectory towards the election (whenever that may be) is the Rudd government's most important concern.
Today, though, is a time to look back at the prime ministership of Julia Gillard. Another symmetry - Ms Gillard was defeated by the man she defeated almost exactly three years before, thereby making Mr Rudd both her predecessor and successor as PM - does not imply that Ms Gillard's time in office was similarly neat and functional. On the contrary, as we have often remarked, the Gillard government was often dysfunctional - flawed by a succession of poor judgments, broken commitments and internal warfare over the leadership. It was all very well for Mr Rudd to say in the House on Thursday, after paying tribute to Ms Gillard, ''let us try to be a little kinder and gentler with each other in the future deliberations of this Parliament'', but it is not easy to forget how he constantly worked to undermine her.
From its beginnings, the Gillard era was marked by contradiction and confusion that all too often obscured the government's sense of purpose and achievement. There were certainly some landmark policies that will, in time, stand as pillars of national pride. Chief among them were the long-overdue national disability insurance scheme - Ms Gillard's equivalent of Gough Whitlam's Medibank national health system - and the establishment of the royal commission into child sex abuse. The Gonski school reform package, passed by Parliament this week, will benefit generations of Australian children, especially from poorer families. This was a difficult policy to achieve in terms of persuading the states to come on board (the Napthine government is still negotiating), but Ms Gillard's foresight and tenacity, as well as her passion for education, has made it a workable reality. It should also be remembered that Ms Gillard, as education minister in Mr Rudd's first government, succeeded in the face of union and opposition protests in publishing national literary and numeracy test results on the My School website.
Regrettably, however, key policies under Ms Gillard's watch were frustratingly short-sighted, partly effective and politically expedient. For example, during the 2010 election campaign she promised there would be no carbon tax - an assurance abandoned when she sought to appease the Greens to gain support for her minority government. Then came the watered-down mining-tax debacle. The tax, while still appropriate in principle, has yielded relatively little income.
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The government's economic record during the Rudd and Gillard governments has been sound. Inflation has been kept under control, and Australia avoided plunging into recession during the global financial crisis. But, in another contradiction, the Gillard government overreached itself - and masked its economic successes - by promising a surplus: ''No ifs, no buts,'' Ms Gillard said repeatedly - an unrealisable and unnecessary assurance that inevitably had to be rescinded.
For a prime minister who once said foreign policy wasn't her thing, Ms Gillard notched up some notable achievements, including a greater strategic and economic relationship with China while nurturing Australia's alliance with the United States. But on the complex conundrum of asylum seekers, the Gillard government record was entirely unsatisfactory. It could not forge an effective regional strategy and, shamefully, failed to demonstrate compassion for those legally seeking refuge. As well, the government's haphazard policy is little defence against Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's populist ''stop the boats'' catchcry. That policy challenge now rests with Mr Rudd.
History will forever remember Ms Gillard as Australia's first female prime minister. She may have been a flawed politician, but she was certainly a trailblazer. What now needs to be the subject of sophisticated national discussion is the extent to which her gender was a factor in her failing to attract the sort of respect that should be accorded a prime minister. As she rightly said on Wednesday of her gender, ''It doesn't explain everything, it doesn't explain nothing, it explains some things.'' Ms Gillard is only 51. We hope she will have a significant role to play in national life beyond parliamentary politics.
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