Julia Gillard was sworn in as Australia's prime minister Tuesday, faced with leading a fragile coalition government after scraping back into power in the wake of a cliff-hanger election. Gillard, Australia's first woman prime minister, formally returned to office nearly a week after cobbling together a wafer-thin majority with the backing of Greens and independent MPs.
"I, Julia Eileen Gillard, do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will loyally serve the Commonwealth of Australia in the office of prime minister," she told Governor-General Quentin Bryce. The ceremony caps weeks of drama after Gillard deposed ex-leader Kevin Rudd in a party revolt and called elections that produced the first hung parliament in decades, leaving her relying on Greens and independent MPs for support.
The unmarried former "Ten Pound Pom", who arrived from Wales as a child in 1966, was flanked by ex-hairdresser partner Tim Mathieson and her deputy, Treasurer Wayne Swan, as she took the oath. Gillard's first cabinet as an elected leader, which was due to be sworn in later, contains potential divisions with Rudd sitting alongside party powerbrokers credited with orchestrating his sudden and surprising demise.
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